Public charities and private foundations are both classified as 501(c)(3)s by the IRS. However, the different nonprofit operating structures come with different benefits, requirements, and challenges that can make navigating compliance difficult. I’ve written previously on aspects of private foundations including prohibited grants, payout requirements, and avoiding self-dealing. The best way to deal with many of the ins and outs of learning about private foundations is to deal with each individually; today let’s focus on jeopardizing investments.

Don’t Jeopardize the Foundation

Failing to exercise prudence and investing in ways that threaten the foundation’s ability to carry out its exempt purposes—called jeopardizing investment—and can result in a stiff penalty.

Many factors can contribute when determining whether or not an investment can be considered jeopardizing. At the least, a private foundation’s managers must exercise reasonable, ordinary business judgment and prudence in investing a foundation’s assets. Investments should also be made with the short and longterm financial needs of the entity in mind. This is part of baseline fiduciary duty board members must act with by closely overseeing the nonprofit’s finances.

Penalty Payment

In cases of jeopardizing investments, an excise tax of 10% is imposed on the foundation for the IRS-defined taxable period. Foundation managers can also be held personally liable and taxed up to a max of $10,000 (or 10% of the jeopardizing investment) if the “knowing, willfully, and without reasonable cause” participated in the making of the investment.

Furthermore, if the foundation does not take steps to remove an investment, an additional tax can be imposed on both the foundation and the responsible foundation managers.

High-Risk Activities: Proceed with Caution

While no category of investment is outright prohibited, a private foundation’s managers must pay close attention to high-risk activities, such as trading securities on margin, trading in commodities futures, and short selling, among others.

Get the Right Advice

All of this said, this is general advice and each charitable organization is unique. I highly recommend seeking out an attorney well-versed in nonprofit law to assist with multiple aspects of the charitable organization life cycle from the formation through employee hiring through board development.

Questions? Want to make sure your private foundation is taking the right steps to avoid adverse consequences like audits and taxes on top of everything else there is to keep track of? Don’t hesitate to contact me.