Connect the Dots

Concept

Private foundation

A charity funded by one donor or family, which must pay out a share of its assets each year.

2 links, 2 backed by primary records

Play the story Explore connections

In U.S. tax law a private foundation must spend at least about 5 percent of its assets a year or pay a tax on the shortfall, pays a small tax on its investment income, and files an annual return that is public, with donors named. Waverley Street Foundation is one.

Connections 2

adopted by

  • U.S. Congress 2019 Primary record 12

    The tax code sets a payout rule for private foundations with a 30 percent tax on a shortfall, and in 2019 set the tax on their investment income at 1.39 percent.

  • Waverley Street Foundation Primary record 34
Timeline 1 date
  1. 2019 U.S. Congress adopted Private foundation
Proof 4 sources
  1. 26 U.S.C. § 4940, Excise tax based on investment income, Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 2026. Primary record
    2019—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 116–94, § 206(a), substituted “1.39 percent” for “2 percent”.
    a tax equal to 1.39 percent of the net investment income of such foundation for the taxable year.
  2. 26 U.S.C. § 4942, Taxes on failure to distribute income, Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 2026. Primary record
    a tax equal to 30 percent of the amount of such income remaining undistributed at the beginning of such second (or succeeding) taxable year.
  3. Who Will Get Laurene Powell Jobs’s $3.5 Billion Gift for Climate Work?, The Chronicle of Philanthropy (with the Associated Press), 18 Oct 2021. Scholarship & press
    Foundations are required to list contributions they make in a 990 form they file annually with the IRS. But where Waverley Street, formerly called Emerson Collective Foundation, has directed most of its gifts thus far remains a mystery.
    It’s legal for private foundations to donate to DAFs to meet their required 5 percent annual minimum payout rate.
    Private foundations are subject to rules so that the public is supposed to be able to see what is happening with this money,
  4. Public disclosure and availability of exempt organizations returns and applications: Documents subject to public disclosure, Internal Revenue Service, 2026. Primary record
    With the exception of private foundations, an exempt organization is not required to disclose the name and address of any contributor to the organization.
    A political organization exempt from taxation under section 527(a) must make available for inspection and copying its report of contributions and expenditures on Form 8872
Page history 1 change
  1. Add 55 stories, each checked against its sourcesAlibek96e92fe6

Something wrong or missing? Tell us, with a source, or edit this page.