[MassHistPres] receiving funds at Historical Commission

[William and Sheila King]

Yes, but be careful and negotiate hard, for at least 2 reasons: (1) the
local community foundation probably was organized for, and is currently
trusteed and staffed by good-willed persons focused on, social service needs
of the community, with minimal if any preservation experience; and (2) its
administrative fee structure, established over the years to handle
investments, administration and distributions for other special-purpose
segregated accounts, may be prohibitive.  These are a couple of reasons why
a small (five-figure) 501(c)(3) trust established many years ago for
preservation in Cambridge (which under IRS rules must distribute at least 5%
of its assets each year), of which I am currently a trustee, stopped
considering our local community foundation as a vehicle to more efficiently
administer the trust.

William B. King
Cambridge


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis De Witt" <djdewitt at rcn.com>
To: "MHC listserve" <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 10:42 PM
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] receiving funds at Historical Commission


>I would suggest that in such a case you consider working with a
> Community Foundation.  Some towns, like Boston and Brookline, have
> them.  Others are regional.  I think there is one for all of Cape Cod.
>
> I believe, any Community Foundation should be able to act as a fiscal
> agent for an Historical Commission or a Friends group and can
> administer a segregated fund.
>
> Dennis De Witt
>
>
> On Mar 8, 2007, at 9:52 PM, bgreg at comcast.net wrote:
>
>> While many 501(c) 3's assist neighboring organizations and causes
>> by accepting funds on their behalf, they may be doing so at some
>> risk.  Our historical society was recently asked to serve in such a
>> capacity and our Treasurer (a volunteer position increasingly more
>> difficult to fill) said he wasn't comfortable in doing it for a
>> variety of possible accounting, liability, and taxation reasons -
>> unless we received a "coast is clear" legal opinion.  Turns out his
>> suspicions were correct.  After a ten minute preliminary discusion
>> with a tax attorney there were enough potential pitfalls identified
>> to cause any society board member to run for the hills.
>>
>> After hearing the potential problems, the requesting organization
>> understood our decision to decline them assistance.  We told them
>> we'd rather make a donation to them for a portion of the legal
>> expense it would have cost us to accept donations on their behalf!
>>
>> Brian Gregory
>> Boxford Historical Society
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