Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

Crain’s Chicago Business News
Samantha Stainburn

Starting a private charitable foundation when you inherit a small fortune, sell a business or take your company public is one way to minimize taxes while doing good. Although the recession has made such windfalls less common, entrepreneurs are still finding reasons to get into the giving game.

Attorney Denis Pierce, 65, an owner of Pierce & Associates P.C. in Chicago, planned to start a family foundation two years ago with money from the sale of his interest in the law firm. When the sale fell through, he launched the foundation anyway, but with less funding.

The Pierce Family Charitable Foundation, which helps non-profits working on housing issues, started in December 2007 with $1 million. Thanks to Mr. Pierce, it now has about $3 million in assets and provides technological, fundraising and bookkeeping assistance to 10 organizations and gives operating funds to 10 more. “I’m moving into semi-retirement mode, and it gives me a whole other area to think about,” he says.

Interested in hanging out your own foundation shingle? Proceed cautiously. “A common misconception is that a family foundation is just like a checkbook,” says Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in New York, a non-profit that advises private clients and foundations. “In actuality, you’ve started a non-profit company, and you have to file a tax return and make sure your financials are in order.”

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 10:26 am.