We wanted to advise you of a few important deadlines:

Grant Recommendations & Distributions: December 15, 2023.  This is the deadline for this year’s grant recommendations!  We know that many of your favorite charities plan big year-end campaigns.  Please help us make these critical resources count for your nonprofit partner’s fiscal year by making your recommendations before this deadline.  

Please note that grant recommendations made after December 15 (5PM Eastern Standard Time) may be approved and processed early in 2024. 

Contributions: December 31, 2023.  For your giving to FJC to qualify for a 2023 tax deduction, we must receive your contributions by December 31. Please note that December 31 falls on a Sunday this year, so in some cases we will need to modify our standard practices.

• Electronic transfer recommended.  We recommend that cash contributions are sent by credit card, ACH, or wire transfer and received by FJC by December 31. (Please note that ACH transfers can take up to 5 business days to settle, so please plan accordingly). Using electronic payments ensures the most efficient crediting of your account. Please contact FJC for instructions. 
• Contributions by check.  If you make contributions to your account by check, please note that checks that are sent via U.S. mail must be postmarked by December 31 to qualify as a 2023 tax deduction. Please note that due to the 31^st falling on a Sunday, deliveries by other means (such as FedEx, DHL or others) must be received by Friday, December 29. 
• Does your financial institution issue checks in bulk? Please note that if you are using your financial institution’s online bill-pay module, certain financial institutions that rely on bulk check processing will arrive at FJC without a postmark.  We recommend executing these payments ASAP, because checks without a postmark must be received by Friday, December 29 to count to qualify as a 2023 tax deduction.

Please make note of our office address:

• Contributions of securities and mutual fund shares. These should be made as soon as possible and received by FJC by Friday, December 29. (Please note that the 31^st is a Sunday, and markets will be closed over the weekend). Please notify us in advance of the transfer so we can promptly credit your fund. 
• Contributions of other assets.  Real estate, restricted securities or privately held stock can be made, but require long lead times, so let us know ASAP.

Questions?  Contact as at fjc@fjc.org. 

Earlier in November, FJC’s CEO Sam Marks was a guest on Get Connected with Nina Del Rio, New York City’s 106.7 Lite FM’s weekly talk show featuring NYC’s influencers, experts, and vibrant non-profits.

Del Rio interviewed Marks about his background and the world of Donor Advised Funds, as well as the creative ways that FJC puts philanthropic resources to work. 

He spoke about FJC’s Agency Loan Fund, an impact investment vehicle that allows donors to invest some or all of their accounts in a pool of loans to nonprofits, so that funds are actively supporting nonprofits even before they are disbursed as grants. He cited capital grants and contract receivables as payments FJC’s loans typically bridge. “We do a lot financial intermediation, during these timing gaps for nonprofits,” said Marks.

He also spoke about innovative transactions with nonprofits like The Fortune Society and the Tenement Museum. 

From the interview:

People typically think, my philanthropy is to make grants to help an organization hit their goals to operate in the black for the year. But you could also use philanthropic dollars to help organizations be more entrepreneurial and take on more exciting projects that will help them grow and expand their services.

The nonprofits we work with understand the challenges that their businesses face, whether it’s cash flow issues because of late payments or a dearth of capital to take on new, exciting projects.  The nonprofits really know where their gaps are.  The challenge for us is finding donors with the imagination to put their philanthropic dollars to work to fill those gaps. If we could get more of our donors to think about, while the dollars are with us, how they could be invested for the benefit of nonprofits, we could really help nonprofits worry less about where their next dollars are coming from. We could go to the heart of what makes these nonprofit businesses challenging.

You can listen to the whole interview at this link.

A reflection by our outgoing Chief Legal Officer, Mark Cohen.

At the end of this year, I will retire from my role as FJC’s Chief Legal Officer, a position that has been the defining role of my 47-year legal career.  I am well aware it’s no longer quite in fashion to spend one’s career at one company or organization.  Young people in particular move around a lot.  I may have stayed in one place, but because the job has been so interesting, varied, and challenging, I’ve never stood still.

I never expected to be the chief lawyer of a nonprofit, much less a foundation of donor advised funds.  In 1977, shortly after I graduated from law school and had spent a year in a judicial clerkship, I landed a somewhat conventional corporate legal job at a company providing back-office services to Wall Street securities firms and government agencies. By 1984, that company started to have problems and eventually folded, and by happenstance I mentioned my plan to start looking for a new job with an old law school friend whose family became one of the founding donors that started FJC.  Those founders offered me a job as an attorney in their commercial business in 1985.  After FJC was formed in 1995, they began to invite me to FJC Board Meetings on a purely volunteer basis, where I dutifully took minutes and prepared resolutions.  As my role with FJC evolved and deepened, one of the Board Members, a lawyer, noticed how much work I was doing and said, “You know, we should probably put Mark on the payroll, so the organization’s books reflect his time and effort.”  And so in 2000, my formal role with FJC began.

From these modest and rather accidental beginnings, I could not have imagined how creative and all-encompassing my work with FJC would become, enough to fill a career. 

From its early days, FJC was focused on innovative uses of philanthropic dollars, particularly investing donor funds in loans to nonprofits.  Early on we provided bridge loans to nonprofits that were building group homes for adults with development disabilities.  Following the expose by Geraldo Rivera about the notorious Willowbrook facility on Staten Island, New York State began shutting down large warehouse institutions with the intention of opening up smaller and more humane group homes that were better integrated into their communities.  The challenge for our nonprofit partners was that capital funding from the state agency was only available on a reimbursement basis.  The nonprofits essentially had to spend the money before they had it.  These were some of the first bridge loans we made from our Agency Loan Fund, and we were able to facilitate dozens of new group homes.

I remember when FJC started the Agency Loan Fund, we required our donors to invest 10% of their account holdings in the loan pool. After all, we had no track record, and we weren’t sure they would invest their funds willingly.  But after we began to have solid performance on our loan portfolio and the benefits to the nonprofit community became evident, it became a popular and unique offering, something that set us apart from some of the “plain vanilla” although sometimes larger DAF sponsors. I believed that those other DAF sponsors were more often interested in keeping their clients’ money captive than in benefiting the nonprofit community, which was one of FJC’s major reasons for existence. 

In many respects working on the loan program was like working for a bank lending department.  I had never done that.  I began to feel like I was in a batter’s box with a pitching machine.  The balls kept coming.  We made loans to nonprofit theaters, museums, social service agencies, charter schools, and a lot of public television and radio stations. At last count, we have made over 350 loans  of more than $370,000,000 to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations in furtherance of their missions. Donors began coming to us with their own ideas about nonprofits they wanted to finance with their DAF accounts, whether it was for bail funds, clean energy, or—just recently—refinancing the bonds used to finance the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. When some donors wanted us to make loans to organizations that couldn’t meet our credit standards, we came up with the customized loan program to allow donors to recommend the terms of the loans and treat them as investments in their DAFs. 

Our fiscal sponsorship program has also really been a model of innovation. I can’t count the number of organizations that we fostered that went on to become nonprofits in their own right. Hopefully that spirit of innovation and expectation of trying to help the nonprofit community will continue.

Working in the nonprofit sector, I’ve always been somewhat amazed and enamored of the fact that there are so many people who are truly devoted to enriching the lives of the underprivileged and underserved.  Most people I work with have worked so hard and so long.  Like me, many have been in their positions for decades.  I’m fairly certain they could have made a lot more money in the private sector, but they are truly committed to their organizations and the communities they serve.  Because of that, it’s always been a pleasure to see if we could help them along with their missions.

After so many years at FJC it’s hard to imagine being out of the day-to-day decision-making of the organization.  It’s a tough personal choice to retire, but my wife and I want to devote more time to our grandchildren, and we want to travel more. But I’d love to stay involved.  Otherwise, I’ll miss the thought-provoking part of the job I love the most: trying to come up with new solutions to new problems, to help nonprofit practitioners get the work done.  That has always been a great pleasure, and the highlight of my career.

Join FJC in congratulating CEO Sam Marks for his inclusion in City & State New York’s 2023 Nonprofit Power 100 list.   The list, a collaboration between City & State and NYN Media, recognizes the most notable nonprofit leaders who are strengthening the safety net and serving the most vulnerable individuals in New York.

Marks “has established himself as a leader in the world of donor-advised funds,” according to the article, which also singled out the Fortune Society fund and the Boss Up initiative as specific examples of innovative programming.

View the entire 2023 Nonprofit 100 Power List here.

FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds (FJC), a boutique sponsor of Donor Advised Funds and other philanthropic accounts, announced today that it has named Hillary S. Zilz as Chief Legal Officer.  Ms. Zilz becomes the second person to hold that role in the organization’s nearly thirty-year history, succeeding longtime Chief Legal Officer Mark Cohen, who will remain in a senior advisory role at FJC through the end of 2023 to assist with the transition.

Ms. Zilz brings over 25 years of accomplished legal experience to the role, with a particular focus advising nonprofits of all sizes on transactional, governance, and strategic matters. Most recently Ms. Zilz was a Partner at the firm Schlam Stone & Dolan, where her clients included not-for-profit enterprises focused on housing, social services, arts, and education, as well as entrepreneurs, and family offices.  Prior to her tenure at Schlam, she acted as General Counsel for private companies and a litigator at the firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Ms. Zilz earned her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree at McGill University and her J.D. at Harvard Law School. She is a member of the Non-Profit Organizations Committee of the New York City Bar and on the Economic Justice Committee of the National Council of Jewish Women.

In her new role, Ms. Zilz will serve as a member of FJC’s senior leadership team and participate in strategic, management and policy decisions affecting the company’s operations and development.  Among her responsibilities, Ms. Zilz will provide credit review and prepare loan documentation for loans originated through FJC’s Agency Loan Fund, an impact investing vehicle that invests DAF account holdings in bridge loans to nonprofits.

“FJC takes a business-minded and entrepreneurial approach to making social impact,” says Ms. Zilz. “The breadth of activities that go on here is so impressive—from grantmaking, to impact investing, fiscal sponsorship of new nonprofit initiatives. I’m excited to work with the team to continue the organization’s growth and evolution.”

“A creative organizational culture like FJC’s requires a keen legal mind, and we’ve found that in Hillary,” says Sam Marks, FJC’s Chief Executive Officer. “Her experience as outside general counsel for a wide range of nonprofits will be critical as we take on partnerships of increasing scope and complexity.”

Reflecting on best practices by FJC and its imaginative donors, FJC Chief Executive Officer Sam Marks wrote “Donor Advised Funds and Impact Investing: A Practitioner’s View”, which was accepted for publication by The Foundation Review in their December, 2022 issue focusing on impact investing.  The journal is the first peer-reviewed journal of philanthropy, written by and for foundation staff and boards. 

The article provides a brief overview of FJC’s origin story and the establishment of its Agency Loan Fund as a bespoke impact investing vehicle, which allows participating donors to invest in a pool of loans to nonprofit borrowers that help them bridge cash flow and achieve their missions.

Marks also highlights some of the innovative transactions FJC has executed with its donors, including a 0% interest revolving line of credit for Brighter Tomorrows, the refinancing of the Tenement Museum’s mortgage, accounts that allow foundations to participate in crowd-sourced small business loans, and the recently closed revolving fund for the Fortune Society.    

“In the end,” Marks writes, “the potential for DAF sponsors to accelerate impact investments may also come from their ability to aggregate not just dollars but inspiration.”

Read the full article here.

Allison van Hee has joined the staff of FJC as Senior Manager for Lending & Fiscal Sponsorship, a new position.  In her role, Ms. van Hee will grow FJC’s portfolio of borrowers and organizations seeking fiscal sponsorship by cultivating and maintaining strong relationships with industry partners.

A longtime nonprofit practitioner, Ms. van Hee comes to FJC from the Joint Ownership Entity NYC, a nonprofit asset management company that pooled the real estate portfolio of a dozen community development corporations, helping them achieve scale and efficiency.  She held previous positions at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB).  She was also a co-founding partner of 3b Bed and Breakfast, a cooperatively owned boutique hotel and intentional community space in Brooklyn, NY.

FJC –A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds (FJC) is a boutique public charity that offers a diverse menu of philanthropic services to a range of stakeholders. With over $380 million under management, FJC applies its financial and operational expertise to support Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), fiscally sponsored organizations, and many other philanthropic vehicles that enable nonprofit organizations and their supporters to achieve their missions. Its Fiscal Sponsorship Program incubates nonprofit organizations and projects under its 501(c)(3) umbrella, collecting tax-deductible contributions and disbursing grants and vendor payments as needed.  The program has disbursed over $80 million to over 400 organizations since inception. 

A longtime innovator in impact investing, FJC allows donors the opportunity to invest a portion of their DAF accounts in loans to a diversified pool of nonprofit organizations.  Since its inception in 1995, FJC has deployed over $364 million in loans to charities around the globe.  Loans from FJC help nonprofits acquire properties, bridge public sector contract receivables, and launch new initiatives.  In her role, Ms. van Hee will engage with prospective borrowers through all stages of the loan origination process, from preliminary conversation through closing.

“We are thrilled to welcome Allison to FJC,” said Sam Marks, Chief Executive Officer of FJC. “As an entrepreneur and nonprofit practitioner herself, Allison will build the trusted relationships in the field that will help us grow and diversify our nonprofit partners and maximize our impact.”

Interested in connecting with Allison? Reach out at vanhee@fjc.org

FJC  is pleased to announce the appointment of Brinda Ganguly to its Board of Directors. With over 20 years of experience in the investment space, particularly in impact investing, Brinda will bring her deep expertise and commitment to social change to help guide FJC’s growth and strategic direction.

Brinda serves as Executive Vice President for the Strategic Investments Group at New York City Economic Development Corporation. She has held key positions at Elevar Equity, The Rockefeller Foundation, Living Cities, Open Society Foundation, Citigroup, and Charles River Associates. Brinda holds a BA in economics and Spanish from Bryn Mawr College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

“We are thrilled to add Brinda, a longtime, committed impact investing professional, to FJC’s Board of Directors,” said Sam Marks, Chief Executive Officer of FJC. “As a practitioner, Brinda has helped the field accelerate and evolve, and we’re excited that she will now guide FJC’s continued evolution.”

Brinda Ganguly said: “It’s clear that a platform like FJC has enormous potential to make a difference when it can harness the right partners and resources. I look forward to working with Sam, the FJC board, and the team to see what’s possible.”

FJC –  A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds (FJC) is a boutique public charity offering donor-advised funds, nonprofit lending, and fiscal sponsorship services. FJC has a long-standing reputation as a catalyst for impact, providing flexible and efficient fiscal sponsorship services and uniquely customizable donor-advised funds to its stakeholders. Donor-advised funds (DAFs) allow individuals and organizations to make tax-deductible contributions to FJC, which are then distributed to charities the donor recommends. Fiscal sponsorship enables new and innovative charitable projects to receive donations and grants under FJC’s legal and financial umbrella, allowing them to focus on their mission and impact. The organization has been a pioneer in bringing impact investing to the DAF industry, deploying funds in its donors’ accounts as bridge loans, revolving funds, and recoverable grants.

Brinda’s appointment to the FJC Board of Directors reinforces the organization’s commitment to leveraging finance as a tool for social change and expanding its impact.

Grant Recommendations & Distributions: December 16, 2022.  This is the deadline for this year’s grant recommendations!  We know that many of your favorite charities plan big year-end campaigns.  Please help us make these critical resources count for your nonprofit partner’s fiscal year by making your recommendations before this deadline.  

Please note that grant recommendations made after December 16 (5PM Eastern Standard Time) may be approved and processed early in 2023. 

Contributions: December 31, 2022.  For your giving to FJC to qualify for a 2022 tax deduction, we must receive your contributions by December 31. Please note that December 31 falls on a Saturday this year, so in some cases we will need to modify our standard practices.

• Electronic transfer recommended.  We recommend that cash contributions are sent by credit card, ACH, or wire transfer and received by FJC by December 31. (Please note that ACH transfers can take up to 5 business days to settle, so please plan accordingly). Using electronic payments ensures the most efficient crediting of your account. Please contact FJC for instructions. 
• Contributions by check.  If you make contributions to your account by check, please note that checks that are sent via U.S. mail must be postmarked by December 31  to qualify as a 2022 tax deduction. Please note that due to the 31^st falling on a Saturday, deliveries by other means (such as FedEx, DHL or others) must be received by Friday, December 30. 

Please make note of our NEW PERMANENT office address:

FJC – A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds

225 West 39^th Street, 12^th Floor

New York, NY 10018

(212) 714-0001

• Contributions of securities and mutual fund shares. These should be made as soon as possible and received by FJC by Friday, December 30. (Please note that the 31^st is a Saturday, and markets will be closed). Please notify us in advance of the transfer so we can promptly credit your fund. 
• Contributions of other assets.  Real estate, restricted securities or privately held stock can be made, but require long lead times, so let us know ASAP.

Questions?  Contact us at fjc@fjc.org. 

As the end of the year approaches, FJC CEO Sam Marks interviewed FJC Board Member, Neal Myerberg, Principal at Myerberg Philanthropic Advisors, who consults with charitable organizations, foundations and philanthropists.  A transcript of the conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.

Please note that FJC does not offer tax advice; any prospective donor should seek the advice of a qualified estate and/or tax professional to determine the consequence of his/her gift.

It’s a time of real uncertainty in the markets, with equity markets down for the year, plus rising inflation putting downward pressure on bond prices.  At a time when many donors are seeing their portfolios decline, how should donors think about year-end giving?

There’s no question that investors may not be feeling as flush as they did in prior years.  That said, long-term investors may still have capital gains from securities they bought many years ago.  It’s worth asking the question to their tax attorneys or planning professionals.

It’s also good to remember that cash and appreciated stock aren’t the only assets that can be donated.  FJC has accepted real estate, cryptocurrency, illiquid or lightly traded stock in advance of an IPO.  These items can take a bit more lead time for be approved by FJC’s board committees, so I’d definitely encourage reaching out to Sam or Regina soon if people are looking to make these donations before the end of the year.

Are there any tried-and-true rules of thumb that philanthropically minded families should keep in mind, even in a down market?

Regardless of what the market is doing, it’s always a good time to plan.  You might review your account documents and make sure that you have Successor Recommenders identified. And maybe it’s a good time to involve those successors—family members, the next generation—in your giving.  Some donors engage in a family-wide “strategic plan” for their philanthropy. FJC encourages this and can even allow some or all of the costs of strategic consultants to be paid with funds in a donor’s DAF account.

For so many donors we work with, philanthropy is part of their legacy.  Whether they are identifying beloved organizations for final distributions, or setting up a Board-designated fund to live on in perpetuity, FJC is really committed to meeting its donors where they are and creating a customized solution for them. 

Could you offer one or two planning techniques that could be highly impactful for increasing our donors’ philanthropic capacity? Any little-known tactics that you wish more DAF account holders would consider?

FJC’s donors probably know that the Treasury Department has reinstated annual required minimum distributions for people who have inherited Individual Retirement Accounts. This is basically a reinterpretation of 2019’s Secure Act, which eliminated the “ten-year stretch”.  In plain language, this means that under this change someone inheriting an IRA who does not fall into the category of exceptions has to take all Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)–and pay taxes on them—within 10 years, instead of over their whole lifetime. 

IRA owners that want their beneficiaries to receive benefits for life are interested in considering other alternatives.  One solution may be to direct distribution of all or a portion of the IRA to a charitable remainder trust (CRT) after the lifetime of the IRA owner.  The trust would be constructed to make fixed rate payments to one or more beneficiaries for life. Thus, the beneficiaries of the IRA owner would not be limited, as direct heirs of the IRA, to a ten-year payout. At the end of the term of the CRT when all beneficiaries have passed away, the remaining assets may be distributed to a family DAF for recommendations by the next family generation; e.g. the children or heirs of the lifetime beneficiaries of the CRT.

Anything you’d like to highlight about our ever-changing tax code?

While the estate and gift tax unified credit continues to increase year-by-year, the provisions governing annual increases will sunset at the end of 2025.  Beginning in 2026, the unified credit will drop to approximately $6.2-6.5 million ($5 million base in 2010 indexed for inflation through 2025) or such amount as shall be enacted before then to govern estate and gift taxes from and after January 1, 2026.  In addition, the maximum federal gift and/or estate tax rate may increase from 40% to 45%., Taking advantage of the current unified credit amounts ought to be considered in estate planning by the end of 2022 and over the following three years.