PRIVATE AND PUBLIC FOUNDATIONS

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC FOUNDATIONS

Private foundation

Children’s investment fund foundation

It is a philanthropic organization that was formed in 2002 by Sir Chris Horn and his wife Jamie Cooper-Hohn as an arm of Horn’s hedge fund. The foundation is a registered charity in England and wales. It has offices in London, Georgia, Beijing, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, and New Delhi. It focuses mostly on child and mothers’ health and nutrition, education, and climate change (Wodon et al. 2017). The approach of CIFF emphasizes on high appetite for risk to invest in transformation ideas and also the scalable solution and reliance on high quality data evidence. The charity uses different tools of financing and catalytic funding mechanisms for them to become leaders in venture philanthropy for the development of the whole world. The organization, therefore, gets a portion of profits from the TCL fund management, which facilitates its activities.

The main focus of CIFF is to transform the lives of children in developing countries who are poor and vulnerable. They empower boys and girls in controlling their sexual and reproductive health. Wodon et al. (2017) also note that they help them to avoid HIV AIDS infections and unwanted pregnancies. Besides that, they work towards the improvement of mothers’ and children’s health and nutrition and the prevention of babies with low birth weight. In addition to that, the work of CIFF in child protection focuses on ending sexual exploitation and child labor by creating an environment that encourages children protection and minimizes community vulnerability. The objective of this foundation is driven by its vision of a climate-safe, future the children of today, and the generation of future that also has energy security, sustainable jobs, and cleaner air benefits.

Public charity organization

Feeding America

Feeding America is a US-based charitable organization that is a countrywide association of above 200 food stores. It endeavors in feeding more than 47 million individuals through food pantries, shelters, and several community-based groups. According to McReynolds (2016), Feeding America is among the top ten largest charitable organizations in terms of revenue within the US. For more than 30 years, Feeding America has acted to hunger predicament in the US by offering food to persons in need via a countrywide system of food stores. John Van Hengel founded the Feeding America organization in 1979 with its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Firstly, John founded St.Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix. He could actively mobilize unwanted foods from the grocery stores, nearby produce farms, and local kitchens. St.Mary’s was the country’s first food bank (McReynolds, 2016). In 1979, John founded the National Food Bank Network. Afterward, the network modified its identity to Feeding America to better reveal the vision and mission of the charity.

These days, Feeding America is the country’s most prominent native hunger-relief charitable organization in the US.IT is a powerful and effective system of 200 food stockpiles across America. As the food insecurity crisis continues to escalate in the country, Feeding America system of food stocks has come out strongly to feed hungry people. Considering McReynolds (2016), the charity navigator gives a four-star rating for overall finance, transparency, and accountability to Feeding America Organization. Therefore, this helps in advancing the trust of the public and the government. Eventually, they will add up their efforts in contributing funds to the organization.

Similarities between these organizations

Firstly, according to Anna (2018), both Feeding America and the Children Investment fund foundation are categorized as tax-exempt,501 (c)(3) organization by the IRS. Therefore, this implies that both of the charitable organizations do not pay tax to the federal government as other for-profit organizations. They do not pay federal income taxes since their goals are not profit-oriented. Also, they are of great benefit to the community in a manner the private sector might not, hence classified as tax-exempt. Despite the tax-free, the private foundations are subjected to some income tax filings every year. Secondly, both of these organizations assist in serving community needs. Feeding America endeavors in providing food to hungry people across America to save them from the wrath of hunger, mostly during hunger crisis seasons. On the same note, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation engages itself in transforming the lives of children through its initiatives of ending sexual exploitation and child labor, among others.

Additionally, both Feeding America and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation endeavor to promote the social and economic well being of a nation. While Feeding America involves itself in offering food to hungry people in America, it plays a role in boosting their social living with reduced life challenges. On the same note, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation focuses on changing the lives of impoverished children who are vulnerable to diseases and sexual harassment. Eventually, this assists in reducing sexual related cases and mitigating diseases amongst children, thus saving a country some cash which it could have used in treating diseases amongst children and women. The other similarity between these foundations is that both of them rely on donations and contributions to run their initiatives. However, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation depends on donations by a smaller percentage since most of its funds come from related individuals and families. Further, while establishing both of these foundations, it requires a substantial upfront commitment of cash. The money serves the role of setting the foundation and paying for legal charges (Anna,2018).

Differences

The Children Investment Fund foundation receives its incomes from a few sources and also relies on investment earnings from TCL. These are their primary sources which they use in carrying out their activities in different countries.Conversely, Feeding America organization gets most of its substantial financial support from other smaller charities, government agencies, and the general public. Also, the CIFF is subject to federal government laws. It is required to adhere to the laid down policies and regulations of the federal government (Afik, 2018). Any form of violation results in severe fines and penalties. In some instances, it can be stopped and expelled entirely from carrying out its operations. Equally, federal restrictions on Feeding America are less strict. Besides that, the Feeding America foundation has a diverse management board which represents the different interest of the public. Its board has more than 50% who are unrelated by blood, marriage, or outside business co-ownership. They are not entitled to any compensation as employees of the foundation. Whereas, the board of management composition is different in CIFF since it’s comprises of related people.

Also, by the fact that  Feeding American organization is a public foundation, it is entitled to public accountability. It should conduct its operations in a transparency manner since their large percentage of contributions comes from the general public. The case is different with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which is not scrutinized by the public since it rarely contributes to their incomes. Therefore, it is not accountable and answerable to the general public. Moreover, CIFF typically makes grants to public charities; for example, it gave $500 million during a climate action summit to combat climate change (Afik, 2018). They also conduct their charitable operations. On the other hand, the Feeding America organization can make grants, but more so, they provide services and carry out philanthropic activities.

Further, the CIIF being self-funded is not subjected to IRS tests. However, it is not prohibited to do so since it does not engage in fundraising. The subjection is varied with the Feeding America foundation that is required by the IRS to maintain its tax status to verify that it gets much support from the general public. While the Children’s Investment Fund organization is a tax-exempt foundation, it should remit an exercise tax to the federal government. Considering Afik (2018), the exercise tax acts as the costs of regulating its activities, and this is contrary to the Feeding America organization, which is not required to remit any kind of charge.

My contribution to the public foundation, Feeding America

If I had an unlimited amount of cash, I could prefer contributing to the Feeding America foundation over the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. One of the reasons that would prompt my choice is that Feeding America organization is entitled to public accountability. Therefore, once I make my donation, it is easy to know its utilization since the financial reports and records are available to the public every year. Also, Feeding America has a diversified board of directors (McReynolds2016). Therefore, with this diverse group of administrators, I believe in the careful management of donated funds. Consequently, this will go a long way towards helping the organization in archiving its mission of providing food to hungry people in America during the food shortage period. Further, I would prefer contribution to the public foundation, Feeding America over the Children’s Investment Fund due to the higher levels of transparency available in such a foundation.

References

Afik, Z., Levy, A., & Katz, H. (2018). Philanthropic foundations payout and multiyear grants: Between giving today and giving tomorrow. The Journal of Wealth Management, 20(4), 33-45.Retrieved from: https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/fom/Documents/ResearchAbstracts/ResearchAbsts/Hagai_Katz_Afik_Reconsidering_the_philanthropic_foundation_minimum.pdf

Anna, Z., & Anastasia, K. (2018). Analysis of mechanisms of state assistance provided to the public, non-profit organizations. Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy Research Paper Series, (176P), 1-84.Retrieved from: https://ideas.repec.org/a/gai/rpaper/rpaper-2018-176p-931.html

Wodon, Q., Tavares, P., Fiala, O., Le Nestour, A., & Wise, L. (2017). Ending child marriage: Child marriage laws and their limitations. The World Bank, Save the Children, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Global Partnerships for Education. Retrieved from: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/334131513322505611/text/122074-BRI-2017-10-ending-child-marriage.txt

McReynolds, A. (2016). Feeding America. Retrieved from:https://www.feedingamerica.org/