Private foundations

A Found Operations in the England and or a private foundation in the United States is a legal entity set up by an individual, a family or a group of individuals, for a purpose such as philanthropy or an object legal in the economic operation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the U.S. with over $38 billion in assets. However, most private foundations are much smaller. Approximately two-thirds of the more than 84,000 foundations which file with the IRS, in 2008, have less than $1 million in assets, and 93% have less than $10 million in assets. In aggregate, private foundations in the U.S. control over $628 billion in assets and made more than $44 billion in charitable contributions in 2007.

Unlike a charitable foundation, a private foundation does not generally solicit funds from the public. And a private foundation does not have the legal requirements and reporting responsibilities of a registered, non-profit or charitable foundation.

Not all foundations engage in philanthropy: some private foundations are used for estate planning purposes.

One of the characteristics of the legal entities existing under the status of "Foundations" is a wide diversity of structures and purposes. Nevertheless, there are some common structural elements that are the first observed under legal scrutiny or classification.

Some of the above must be, in most jurisdictions, expressed in the document of establishment. Others may be provided by the supervising authority at each particular jurisdiction.

The following foundations are set up under common law legal systems:

Foundations were first introduced in The Bahamas in December 2004 following the Foundations Act. [1]

A private foundation, in the United States, is a charitable organization described in the Internal Revenue Code by section 509. A private foundation is necessarily a 501(c)(3) exempt organization (or a former such entity). It is defined by a negative definition: by what it is not. A private foundation is not a public charity, as described in section 170(b)(1)(A) (i) through (vi). Neither is it a section 509(a)(2) organization, nor a supporting organization. Private foundations are subject to 2% excise taxes found in section 4940 through 4945 of the internal revenue code. Once a charity becomes a private foundation, it retains that status unless it follows the difficult termination rules of section 507.

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