Foundations

Complement your offerings with our extensive global scope.

Global giving is a rewarding way to meet your foundation’s philanthropic goals, but it can also be confusing, time-consuming, and costly. If your foundation is interested in cross-border giving but lacks the capacity to do so (or simply doesn’t know how), CAF America has a few options that will serve your needs, give you peace of mind, and eliminate the administrative burden.

We offer tailored solutions to meet the diverse needs of:

What might work for your foundation?

The best way to get started is with a conversation.

Do you want to expand the breadth of your foundation simply and cost-effectively? Are your donors inquiring about the option to give internationally? Do you want to expand your offerings to include international grants? We encourage you to contact us at any time to discuss the various services we can offer you.

Set up a Donor Advised Fund

Establishing a Donor Advised Fund is a convenient and simple way for you to support and manage global philanthropic initiatives.

A Fund is designed to support ongoing giving which requires fund management services, including activity statements and online account access. Establishing a Fund also makes it easy to pool gifts from multiple donors to support a common cause.

CAF America also offers donors the option to set up an Invested Donor Advised Fund. With an Invested Fund, you may recommend investment allocations based on your grantmaking time horizon.

For more information, download the Donor Advised Funds fact page.

Learn more about our Grants Management Services.

To get started, contact our office.

Give a Donor Advised Gift

Single gifts allow you to advise a smaller number of grants, on a schedule or as desired. You can recommend that a gift go to a specific foreign charitable organization, cause, country, or region. CAF America can also provide giving guidance in accordance with your interests and goals.

For more information, download the Donor Advised Gifts fact page.

Equivalency Determination (ED) Services

Equivalency Determination (ED) is the method by which we collect detailed information on a foreign charitable organization in order to make a “good faith determination” as to whether or not it is the equivalent of a United States public charity described in sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”). IRS Revenue Procedure 92-94 provides a specific procedure for making this determination, including a list detailing information that must be obtained from the foreign charitable organizations.

CAF America has 25 years of experience and expertise in making grants to foreign charitable organizations utilizing our Expenditure Responsibility (ER) program. In certain situations, however, ED may be a more appropriate method of making a grant to a foreign charitable organization. There is not one right way to make grants to foreign charitable organizations, and CAF America’s expertise is here to help you in determining which of several available tools is most appropriate for your situation.

CAF America is committed to working with you to ensure that your needs are being met and your philanthropic goals are being realized. CAF America offers two options for its ED services:

You may work with one of our trusted team members to explore if ED is the best choice for you or if there’s a better suited option for your global giving.

For more information, please visit NGOAmerica.org (a project of CAF America) or download the Equivalency Determination Services fact page.

To get started, contact our office.

Equivalency Determination

When giving abroad, it is important to remember that an ED (Equivalency Determination) Certificate is NOT a license to grant internationally and that there are other considerations to take into account.

There are many regulations and best practices in addition to obtaining an ED Certificate or exercising ER that should be followed by private foundations or donor-advised funds making grants to foreign charities such as:

1) Mitigating the risk of money laundering and financing of terrorism, per the requirements of the PATRIOT Act, certain Executive Orders and other federal anti-money laundering rules and regulations;
2) Preventing bribery, per the requirements of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA);
3) Monitoring sanctions programs and licensing requirements set by the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and ensuring compliance;
4) Knowledge and consideration of in-country laws regarding a local grantee's ability to accept foreign funding or other applicable local laws.

Expanding your philanthropy internationally requires compliance in all of these areas, and a grantee's ability to satisfy the ED or ER requirements does not completely address these other regulatory and risk issues.

Find out more here.

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