Foundations
Deliver on Your Mission
Disruption across the economic landscape brings both challenges and opportunities for foundations.
Foundations must strategically stay ahead of change. Fluctuating markets can impact your ability to manage payout requirements and endowment spending obligations, complex investment portfolios and unique noncash gifts are on the rise and require significant attention, and hybrid workforces bring evolving operational requirements.
Discover how our industry-focused services can help your foundation maintain focus on what matters most: delivering on your mission.
Overcome Industry Challenges
From strengthening your internal operations to leveraging technology for support, our business solutions can help you plan for what’s next.
Strategic Tax, Accounting, and Investment Solutions
Navigate the complex financial and tax challenges foundations face with guidance from our professionals.
Community Foundations
Maintain focus on the communities you serve by:
- Navigating the landscape as a sponsoring organization managing donor-advised funds
- Supporting organizations as related organizations
- Accepting and managing complex investment portfolios and noncash gifts
Private Foundations – Corporate and Family
Develop comprehensive charitable planning to reach your desired outcomes if your corporation or family considers philanthropy as part of a liquidity event or long-term strategy.
Plan asset types that could be contributed to a private foundation, donor-advised fund, or other unique structuring planning, as well as exemption applications for private foundations or other charitable organizations types.
Plan for your minimum distribution requirements (MDR) with a private foundation analysis that provides up to 20 years of foresight to help:
- Gain insight on necessary steps, based on your foundation’s goals, to meet payout requirements and comply with applicable regulations
- Run MDR estimates based on varying selection criteria, such as investment return rates or large contributions to the foundation
- Estimate and use excess distribution carryover, especially amid volatile markets
This analysis can help provide comprehensive reviews of your foundation’s MDR environment to effectively manage requirements as your investment and donor mix evolves.
Additional tax compliance, planning, and consulting services can include the following.
Self-Dealing:
- Excess business holdings
- Taxable expenditures and board education
- Unrelated business income tax analysis and reporting
- Foreign reporting
- Board education
Grantmaking and Charitable Spending:
- Advance approval of scholarship procedures
- Program-related investments
- Private operating foundations
- Giving programs
Complex Investment Portfolios:
- Alternative investments
- Allocation of overhead expenses
- Investment income
- Excise, income, and state and foreign tax reporting exposure
Hospital, University, and Other Public Charity Foundations
The public charity status provides a more favorable charitable classification for individual donor deductibility limitation purpose, but relying on a small pool of large donors and investment income can potentially jeopardize public support status—which must be managed by a complex mechanical calculation.
Confidently maintain your status and relieve foundation staff or volunteers from misinterpreting mechanics with our guidance.
Community Foundations
Maintain focus on the communities you serve by:
- Navigating the landscape as a sponsoring organization managing donor-advised funds
- Supporting organizations as related organizations
- Accepting and managing complex investment portfolios and noncash gifts
Private Foundations – Corporate and Family
Develop comprehensive charitable planning to reach your desired outcomes if your corporation or family considers philanthropy as part of a liquidity event or long-term strategy.
Plan asset types that could be contributed to a private foundation, donor-advised fund, or other unique structuring planning, as well as exemption applications for private foundations or other charitable organizations types.
Plan for your minimum distribution requirements (MDR) with a private foundation analysis that provides up to 20 years of foresight to help:
- Gain insight on necessary steps, based on your foundation’s goals, to meet payout requirements and comply with applicable regulations
- Run MDR estimates based on varying selection criteria, such as investment return rates or large contributions to the foundation
- Estimate and use excess distribution carryover, especially amid volatile markets
This analysis can help provide comprehensive reviews of your foundation’s MDR environment to effectively manage requirements as your investment and donor mix evolves.
Additional tax compliance, planning, and consulting services can include the following.
Self-Dealing:
- Excess business holdings
- Taxable expenditures and board education
- Unrelated business income tax analysis and reporting
- Foreign reporting
- Board education
Grantmaking and Charitable Spending:
- Advance approval of scholarship procedures
- Program-related investments
- Private operating foundations
- Giving programs
Complex Investment Portfolios:
- Alternative investments
- Allocation of overhead expenses
- Investment income
- Excise, income, and state and foreign tax reporting exposure
Hospital, University, and Other Public Charity Foundations
The public charity status provides a more favorable charitable classification for individual donor deductibility limitation purpose, but relying on a small pool of large donors and investment income can potentially jeopardize public support status—which must be managed by a complex mechanical calculation.
Confidently maintain your status and relieve foundation staff or volunteers from misinterpreting mechanics with our guidance.
Customized Solutions by Foundation Structure
Address the unique tax needs that may face your organization by foundation type.
Manage Alternative Investments
As private foundations turn to alternative investments to diversify portfolios and potentially increase their value, leaders must address their tax, fiduciary, and regulatory implications.
Define value, develop benchmarks, assess related fees, and more for investments such as:
- Private equity
- Hedge funds
- Real estate
- Venture capital
- Private debt
- Commodities
Outsource Key Accounting Functions
Drive accuracy, efficiency, and secure data retention with financial services for your back-office.
Save time and resources by outsourcing the complex accounting functions—from financial tracking, reporting, analysis, and compliance needs—to our professionals.
Develop Strategic Tax Planning
Foundations face challenges many other organizations—even other not-for-profits—don’t need to consider. These can drain precious time and resources without guidance from tax professionals versed in their nuances.
Confidently meet your tax and regulatory obligations with our State & Local Tax, Cost Segregation, Estate Tax Planning Services, and more.
Manage Alternative Investments
As private foundations turn to alternative investments to diversify portfolios and potentially increase their value, leaders must address their tax, fiduciary, and regulatory implications.
Define value, develop benchmarks, assess related fees, and more for investments such as:
- Private equity
- Hedge funds
- Real estate
- Venture capital
- Private debt
- Commodities
Outsource Key Accounting Functions
Drive accuracy, efficiency, and secure data retention with financial services for your back-office.
Save time and resources by outsourcing the complex accounting functions—from financial tracking, reporting, analysis, and compliance needs—to our professionals.
Develop Strategic Tax Planning
Foundations face challenges many other organizations—even other not-for-profits—don’t need to consider. These can drain precious time and resources without guidance from tax professionals versed in their nuances.
Confidently meet your tax and regulatory obligations with our State & Local Tax, Cost Segregation, Estate Tax Planning Services, and more.
Explore Featured Resources
Make stronger business decisions and stay informed on the industry trends and developments.
We’re All In
Foundations in a range of industries and fields look to our professionals for support, including:
- Community foundations
- Corporate foundations
- Higher education foundations
- Hospital foundations
- Private foundations
Expansive Foundation Expertise
Deeply immersed within the not-for-profit sector, our professionals understand the nuanced business needs of foundations. Our collaborative approach takes the time to understand the specifics of your foundation and strategically develop unique solutions contextualized among greater economic trends and activity.
Our clients aren’t the only foundation leaders who look to us for guidance. We’re members of and frequently collaborate with influential foundation organizations including the Council on Foundations, Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties, Grantmakers of Oregon & Southwest Washington, Northern California Grantmakers, Philanthropy Northwest, and Southern California Grantmakers.
Empowering Opportunity: The Moss Adams Foundation
Social responsibility, environmental stewardship, inclusion and diversity, and other initiatives are core to Moss Adams values and business practices—and drive how we engage our clients, people, and the communities in which we live and work.
We support and value the work of foundations because we experience their philanthropic impact and accomplishments first-hand. Founded in 2000, The Moss Adams Foundation supports charities, disaster relief, and universities and education initiatives—with our GiveBack matching donations program providing our people opportunity to support the causes they care about.
Watch Webcasts Related to Foundations
Dive deeper into industry hot topics to help your business stay ahead of change and plan for what’s next with our complimentary webcasts, available to view on demand. Explore upcoming events and watch the latest series.
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