Lead Stories

The Denver Foundation has been unable to recover from insurance on a claim of computer fraud when a non-exempt applicant submitted a fraudulently modified IRS letter to show that it was charitably tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Tax Code.  A Federal District Court in Colorado has ruled that the loss did not “directly” result from the fraudulent email.

A federal District Court in Texas has dismissed a complaint brought by a 44-year-old white woman who complained that she was discriminated against by Amazon’s diversity grant program for Black, Hispanic, and Native American owners of delivery service partners.  She claimed she was discriminated against because the grants are not available to white or Asian owners.  The Court said she had not alleged an injury sufficient to establish that she had standing to bring the case.

A U.S. private foundation that loaned a physician on its staff to an international agency that conducted nonconsensual human medical experiments cannot be held liable for the actions of the loaned executive when it did not have control over his activities, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed.  The Court has upheld the earlier decision of a federal District Court in Maryland holding that the foundation could not be liable because the physician was not acting as its agent in conducting the experiments.

The state of Utah has recently, and without fanfare, passed a statute (H.B.43) that repeals the requirement for most charities to file charitable solicitation registration forms with the state, commencing with the effective date of the statute on May 1, 2024. 

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed a decision by a state trial court holding that a charitable trust providing support of Virginia Military Institute should not be terminated because the additional burdens of operating as a separate private foundation were not “unreasonably out of proportion to the charitable benefits” of the trust.

When the executive director of the Bronx Conservatory of Music failed to reach agreement with the school on an extension of his employment contract in 2020, he shortly thereafter founded the Bronx School of Music and sent emails to his personal contacts, former students, community friends, and donors, seeking to recruit them to his new endeavor.