In the Spirit of Ramadan, I will address charity a little more in this space. Monsoon rains in Pakistan caused perhaps the greatest natural disaster of our lifetimes. Yet a statement like that does not mean much merely in the abstract. For those of us with weak ties to Pakistan, who do not know the [...]
Many things that we regard as charitable come with no sacrifice. For example, a smile. Some provide no sacrifice but do provide a tax deduction. Others provide no sacrifice or tax deduction. Fire departments like to burn down homes for training purposes. People donate their homes to provide real world training experience to firefighters. The case [...]
Any family considering a “private foundation” should do so only after significant thought has been given to the charitable goals the foundation is supposed to undertake as well as a the level of commitment the family willing to bring to the table. It’s a lot of Money Many well-informed practitioners have recommended to their clients [...]
A Tax Court case (PDF) tells the story of a woman who was a young girl in her home country saw atrocities committed against Catholics and saw a Catholic Church destroyed. After living in the United States she started making donations to her home country's Catholic Church. The donations were not made directly, but through a relative [...]
An interesting argument by William Drennan in the Alabama Law Review, proposing a limit by with the name of a charity can be modified. It starts and makes reference to one of my favortte examples of testamentary excess, Leona Helmsley's gift to the dog world. People put their names on all kinds of things, [...]
The Financial Times notes a new book out by Ray D. Madoff called “Immortality and the Law” which is about the ever-increasing rates of dead people to control the rights of the living. Of course, people cannot take their property with them. However, it does seem nonsensical that individuals have a wide range of obligations to [...]
A recent report from Barclay's Wealth (PDF) addresses the concerns of wealthy philanthropists, and why they may be less so. There is a study on why it is those that donate do so. The top reason, "I can afford to." Religious beliefs came in at number 10 (though it came in on top as an "internal motivator." The [...]
I recently spoke in Chicago on building endowments for Islamic Schools. Its not an easy subject and in fact, many schools would not be able to set up an endowment as they are too new or too small or do not have enough of a donor base. Before delving into the issue, you want to [...]