Sean Stannard-Stockton, CEO of Tactical Philanthropy Advisors, a philanthropy advisory firm that serves individual and family philanthropists, raises a number of questions that seem to lead toward an entirely new way of practicing philanthropy. And when you first read his questions, you may think he is off his rocker. But read on, and I think you’ll discover, as he suggests, that the new way of giving “is likely to be a lot more effective” and “a lot more fun” than methods currently followed by too many foundations. Read the rest of this entry »

This issue came up a couple of weeks ago when Greg, our company’s controller, and I were trying to set up a wire transfer. Greg raised some questions about security and who ought to have rights to initiate wire transfers and who should have the power to authorize them. As we agreed that our controls should be tightened, a new set of questions arose: “What happens,” he asked, “if you and Sarita–the company’s only officers–are both gone for a lengthy period of time? Maybe you are on an international trip and something happens to you, so you are unable to return in a timely manner. Of course we don’t want to think about it, but what happens if both of you are killed in a car crash . . . ?”

Good questions! Read the rest of this entry »

Just saw this from the Fourth Quarter 2009 issue of the ECFA Focus on Accountability newsletter:

The majority of foundations defrauded by [Bernie] Madoff had four or fewer trustees. More than 80% of foundations that lost between 30 to 100% of their assets to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme had Read the rest of this entry »