[MassHistPres] receiving funds at Historical Commission

[Dennis De Witt]

I can't speak for your experience in Cambridge -- and if you mean  
"small five figures" that's not much base on which to apply overhead  
-- but my wife ran such a community foundation for years and they  
would have taken a small "donor advised fund" for 2% or less on a  
decreasing scale as he size of the fund went up.  Not a bad price for  
taking on all of the perceived risks and concerns previously alluded  
to plus access to portfolio management expertise.  After all, lots of  
mutual funds charge in that range.

Dennis De Witt


On Mar 9, 2007, at 12:21 AM, William and Sheila King wrote:

> 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
>>> ******************************
>>> For administrative questions regarding this list, please contact
>>> Christopher.Skelly at state.ma.us directly.  PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY" TO
>>> THE WHOLE LIST.
>>> MassHistPres mailing list
>>> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
>>> http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/listinfo/masshistpres
>>> ********************************
>> ******************************
>> For administrative questions regarding this list, please contact
>> Christopher.Skelly at state.ma.us directly.  PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY" TO  
>> THE
>> WHOLE LIST.
>> MassHistPres mailing list
>> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
>> http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/listinfo/masshistpres
>> ********************************