Terminally ill “Simpsons” co-creator to leave entire fortune to charity

[HiPointDem]

104. that doesn't speak to the issue of retention of the principal. i said nothing about salaries for

trustees (who actually often don't get salaries) or for foundation staff (who do). another issue entirely.

http://www.gmafoundations.com/?p=1472

"as a 15 year tax CPA, you don't know what you are talking about"

lol. check your grammar.

i've been in or around the foundation world for decades. i stand by my claim.

but if you've been a cpa so long & know so much about foundations, why did you think trustees get salaries as a routine matter?

in fact, they don't: "Approximately one-quarter of U.S. foundations compensate their trustees in one form or another." = 3/4 DON'T.

If you're a CPA, why are you so willfully blind to what I'm talking about?

With a record of giving that extends in the hundreds of millions and throughout New York's cultural institutions, Mr. Cullman, who is 91, is alarmed by how the money donated to charity by the very wealthy usually ends up. Locked, he tells me, in private grant-making foundations that may only release a trickle of the billions of dollars squirreled away inside.

Mr. Cullman's argument gets to the heart of the different ways Americans donate to charity. Most of us write donation checks directly to needy causes. Those with greater means set up private grant-making foundations, which hold nearly tax-free assets in endowments—and often give away as little as the government allows.

Under current tax law, private foundations are only required to spend 5% of their endowment per year. Twenty percent of that may go to operating expenses. Since endowment investments historically earn more than what they must give out, foundations may never need to dip into their principal assets, yet are able to feed their own administrative bloat in perpetuity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704554104575435481403466748.html

PS: Since 20% of the 5% can be spent on overhead/administration rather than charity, that means you really only have to give away 4% of the foundation assets every year, and can spend 1% on your kid's salaries, for example.

Foundations are about big pools of tax-free dark money that can be used to manipulate politics, economics, and society. Via investment & other shadowy uses of the foundation's principal.

And since blocs of foundations are also aligned, huge pools of capital can act in concert -- for example, to boost or take down a stock, fund a particular line of business (genetic engineering, anyone?), etc.