Introduction to Foundation

Article 1: What's a Foundation or Grantmaker?

A foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports charitable activities in order to serve the common good. Foundations are often created with endowments money given by individuals, families or corporations. They generally make grants or operate programs with the income earned from investing the endowments. MCF often uses the term "grantmaker" when referring to our member foundations. The term is a broader label that also includes corporate giving programs, which also give grants, but are not technically "foundations." What Are the Different Types of Foundations? There are three basic types of grantmaking foundations: Independent Foundations Independent foundations are the most common type of private foundation. They are generally founded by an individual, a family or a group of individuals. They may be operated by the donor or members of the donors familya type often referred to as a family foundationor by an independent board. Because family foundations have unique needs, MCF often refers to Private Independent and Private Family Foundations separately. Corporate Foundations Corporate foundations are created and funded by companies as separate legal entities, operated by a board of directors that is usually comprised of company officials. Corporations may establish private foundations with endowments, make periodic contributions from profits, or combine both methods to provide a foundations resources. Some companies operate in-house corporate giving programs, which unlike corporate foundations are under the full control of the company and are not required by law to follow the same IRS regulations. Many corporations maintain both a foundation and a corporate giving program. Community/Public Foundations Community and other public foundations are publicly supported foundations operated by, and for the benefit of, a specific community or geographic region. They receive their funds from a variety of individual donors, and provide a vehicle for donors to establish endowed funds without incurring the costs of starting a foundation. Community/public foundations are administered by a governing body or distribution committee representative of community interests. There is also a type of foundation that does not generally make grants, called an operating foundation. The majority of an operating foundations funds are expended to operate its own charitable programs.

What Limits Are There on Foundation Grantmaking? Some foundations have broad discretion regarding the charitable causes to which their grants can be directed. Others are sharply limitedoften legallyby the mandate of the foundation donor. Some foundations are restricted to making grants only to specific causes; others must restrict their grantmaking to a specific geographic area. How Are Foundations Regulated? Foundations are governed by stricter regulations than public charities, which generally raise money from the public to operate institutions or programs. Both foundations and public charities might use the term "foundation" in their titles, but very different laws apply to each. The IRS requires that independent and corporate foundations:

Annually pay out at least 5 percent of the value of their investment assets. Pay an excise tax of 1 or 2 percent on their earnings. Give money only to other 501(c)(3) organizations, with a few rare exceptions.

Nearly all community/public foundations are considered public charities by the IRS. As such, they are not subject to the same regulatory provisions as independent and corporate foundations.

Article 2: 5 Tips for a Successful Foundation-Consultant Relationship

Posted on April 26, 2009 | 1 Comment Simply choosing to hire a consultant isnt enough to guarantee a successful engagement. You need to clearly communicate your goals at the outset, and take the time to provide feedback on whether those goals were met upon project completion. Here are few guidelines to help you succeed with consultants: 1. Understand All Your Goals Before you choose a consultant, take the time to fully understand the problems you want to resolve. Be clear about what you expect the consultant to accomplish and identify all the key stakeholders. Its also essential to identify any barriers that could influence the project, and to be very clear about your timeframe and budget. 2. Identify the Right Consultant Once your goals are clearly outlined, youre ready to find a consultant with the right skills and experience. For instance, you may need someone who speaks fluent Spanish, knows how to conduct qualitative data analysis, and has the interpersonal skills to get along well with your staff. Would you prefer to work with a sole proprietor or a large consulting firm with more capacity? Will you need to develop an RFP to establish a field of candidates or can you source your consultant using referrals from colleagues or professional networks? Once you have your short list be sure to check references and conduct due diligence before finalizing an agreement. 3. Establish a Clear Relationship When you initiate a project with a new consultant, you are laying the foundation for a relationship that could prove to be highly beneficial for you and your organization for many years to come. Take the time to explain your needs clearly and answer any questions the consultant may have. Be sure to agree upon the scope of work: Include specific deliverables, a clear timeline and a set budget. Agree on how you will work together: Do you want to stay informed via email or phone? How often? Do you want to schedule face-to-face meetings at key project milestones? Finally, provide your consultant with all the necessary introductions along with background information and, if needed, infrastructure support. 4. Manage for Success

Even with the best consultant on your team, you wont be able to delegate everything, so be sure to build in enough time to manage your project. You may want to check in with your consultant on a regular basis to air any concerns, troubleshoot potential problems, review draft surveys and reports, or discuss preliminary findings. Be sure to pay the consultant on time, and remember that if you add deliverables to the contract, the fee and timeline may also need to be extended. 5. Conclude and Debrief the Engagement It seems obvious, but it is important to officially conclude your engagement when it is complete or when youre ready to move on to the next phase. Set a time to meet with your consultant to provide feedback on the deliverable and tell them how you intend to put their findings to work in your organization. Have an honest and productive conversation about the consulting relationship and discuss ways you might work more effectively together in the future. We all learn from experience, and this is where you both have the greatest opportunity to voice what you learned.

Article 3: Making a successful trust fund application

Heather Swailes works for a charitable trust that has nearly 500,000 to give away and she explains what charities must do to secure some of the money

Nicola Hill Society Guardian, Thursday 30 November 2000 15.14 GMT Article history

There are more than 8,000 trusts and foundations in the UK and they give approximately 1.25bn in grants each year to charities. Heather Swailes works for the Allen Lane Foundation, which was set up in 1966 by the founder of Penguin Books to support general charitable causes. Its endowment has been valued at approximately 17 million. Swailes is the first person to see the thousands of applications that land on the doormat of their office in Bracknell. She says the two most important factors for applicants to consider are identifying the appropriate trust and writing a good application. To find the right trust, use directories produced by the Directory of Social Change and the Charities Aid Foundation, or search the computer programme FunderFinder. Most libraries or councils for voluntary services will hold copies of these resources. It might sound obvious, but check that a trust will fund charities in your area, that they wish to fund the kind of work your charity does and that they make grants of an appropriate size. "Don't ignore their funding exclusions - believe what they say!" warns Swailes. Once these criteria are met, she says, allow lots of time to write the application. "Do a draft, put it aside for a week and ask someone outside of the organisation to read it." These are her top tips for a successful application: Tailor it to the trust you are applying to - don't do generic applications Write between two and four pages of A4, and include your annual reports and accounts Glossiness is not important, but legibility and accessibility are Use headings, boxes, and shading - anything to make your application more readable Try to say what you actually do - avoid jargon and don't use sophisticated language Ensure the first paragraph grabs attention, encapsulates what you do and explains why you need the money If what you are doing is at risk of being excluded, address this early on - for example, "We are part of a national organisation, but don't receive central funding" Make sure you answer the questions "who?", "what?", "why?", "when?" and "how?" in your application Be realistic with the budget - not too small, but not padded out Show you have thought about costings, but don't go into too much detail - four to

five lines would be sufficient Don't ask for 4,999 if the maximum is 5,000 - it looks suspicious Make sure you include the name, telephone number and address of your organisation - "sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised" Ask for a specific amount of money End the application with your vision - write it with "fire in your belly" Include a paragraph about a case study demonstrating who will benefit from the money - "it brings it to life" Give referees, but don't name drop If you have received money from a local trust before, indicate this - it is a good sign Use the name of the administrator or correspondent - don't say "Dear Sir/Madam" Once you have written the application, Swailes advises imagining you are a funder. Ask yourself: What is good about the application? What is not so good? Is there enough to interest me? Are there any gaps? What would I ask if I went on a visit to the organisation? A few final words of advice. Swailes says: "Most of us don't want to be taken out to lunch - life isn't long enough." If, after taking on board all of this advice, you are not successful, ring up to find out why. If you have no luck elsewhere, go back and try again. But if you are successful, remember to say thank you and keep trusts informed of how their money is being spent.

Introduction to Real Estate

Article 1: Living in the world's most expensive city By Louise Redvers BBC News, Luanda When you think of the world's most expensive cities, the dusty Angolan capital of Luanda seems an unlikely contender. Potholed, chaotic and still scarred by decades of civil war, the city has little of the glitz and glamour of Tokyo, New York or Moscow, and an estimated half of Angolans live on less than $2 a day. But despite the obvious poverty and sprawling slums, Luanda still manages to boast some eye-wateringly high prices. A house can be $10,000 (6,500) a month to rent, a basic meal out for two is easily $50, a hotel room can weigh in at $400 a night and a kilo of imported tomatoes a staggering $16. A basic saloon car without a driver (which foreigners need to negotiate the difficult traffic and parking) will be $90 a day, but upgrade to a SUV (recommended due to the poor quality roads) and you're looking at $200. 'Expense' It is prices like these that in recent years have seen Luanda top expatriate-costof-living surveys by agencies such as Mercer. When Wina Miranda moved from Indonesia to Luanda in 2008 with her engineer husband Erwin Santosa, she knew the city was going to be expensive, but she wasn't prepared for quite how expensive. "Actually the cost of living and the expense was all I found when I Googled Angola," the 34-year-old said. "There wasn't much else, no pictures or other information, just stories saying how expensive it was here. But actually we didn't know quite how expensive it was until we really came here and experienced it." Erwin, also 34, works for an international oil company which pays for his family's housing (a compact three-bedroom bungalow inside a private compound in the south of the city), his car and their seven-year-old daughter Obin's international school fees. 'Not fresh' Wina said the family's main expense was groceries. "I think we probably spend about $2,000 a month, and we don't even drink alcohol," she said, complaining that meat and vegetables were among the most expensive items. "We are Asian and eat a lot of beansprouts but a can here is $6 and beef can be up to $45 for a kilo, and that is frozen, not even fresh." Portuguese telecoms engineer Fernando Azvedo, who has lived in Luanda with his wife since 2010, said the only reasonably priced items were beer (60 cents a bottle), cigarettes ($1.50) and fuel - 40 cents for a litre of diesel.

"You can shop around Luanda to find better prices," he said. "But you are never too sure about the quality of the products. I only buy fruit outside of the regular shops, everything else you don't know the condition or where the product has been." He pays $5,000 a month for his apartment - although this is covered by his company - and says he can easily spend $200 on a basic meal out for him and his wife with only a few drinks. 'Extreme' James Wilde, who has lived all over the world and is now based in Luanda as consultant for a German telecoms company, said: "Luanda is definitely the most expensive place I've ever been, as far as rents and dinners and things like that are concerned." "The rent is extreme. A two-bedroom apartment in Luanda is $4-5,000, per month. When I lived in Moscow I was paying 2,000 euros a month for a two bedroom place, and here you pay much more and don't get nearly the same quality." He added: "When I first arrived I remember I had to stock up my kitchen and that first time I went to the grocery store I spent $800. It didn't even fill the back of the car, I couldn't believe it. "What's most frustrating though is that I don't think you get what you pay for, in terms of quality or service. But then, my salary is adjusted to be here so it's still definitely worth my while to work in Luanda and I think that is the case for most expatriates here." Decimated So why is a city like Luanda so expensive? There are several reasons. The main one is that Angola lived through a long civil war which started in 1975, when the country gained independence from Portugal, and continued right up until 2002. During that time most industry, agriculture and local production stopped and basic infrastructure including roads, railways, electricity lines and water supplies were badly damaged. Having once been a major exporter of products like coffee and cotton, and selfsufficient in most foods, Angola now imports an estimated 80% of its consumable goods. For every tin or packet of food you buy in Luanda, you must factor in the cost involved in getting that product to Angola and onto the supermarket shelf, via a congested port with its highly bureaucratic customs and a traffic-clogged city. There are some cynics who say Angola's business elite, who control the import companies, have also done little to bring down costs, although in recent years bringing down prices has been cited as a government priority. Jose Severino, president of Angola's Industrial Association (AIA), says it is a vicious cycle: "You have unreliable electricity so you need a generator, poor transport networks and weak human capacity and that pushes up the cost of local

production which means it is still cheaper to import goods instead of making them here. "As long as this continues, and as long as local taxes are so high and red tape so complicated here there will be no incentive to produce locally and prices will not come down." Jose Severino, who is also a government advisor, said there needed to be decentralisation away from Luanda, or at least a proper public transport network in order to reduce traffic congestion which he said cost people money, not just in time but also fatigue, productivity, and vehicle maintenance. Falling property prices? There is some good news though. Property prices may have already peaked. Daniel Esteves runs Imorizon, a small real estate company in Luanda. Originally from Portugal, but married to Angolan, he has lived in the country for five years. "It's a supply and demand issue, he said. "As more construction is being done, there is more accommodation available and prices are coming down. In some cases apartments are 50% cheaper than they were three years ago and that trend will only continue as more housing is built." Daniel Esteves said, however, that he can still rent out an apartment in the newlybuilt suburb of Talatona for as much as $15,000, and family homes in that area start from $6,000 a month going up to $30,000, depending on the type of the compound and its facilities. The post-war flood of expatriates into Luanda, many working in the booming construction and oil sectors, has Esteves believes, definitely inflated prices. "I would say the fact you have oil and other big multinational companies looking for so much accommodation has pushed up the costs because they will tend to just pay what they are asked for," he said. But while Fernando Azvedo agrees the multinationals may have increased houses prices, he says at the same time it should be remembered that it was Angolan landlords who have been cashing in on the opportunity. He added that while expats did sometimes splash out on restaurant meals or highcost imported items in the supermarkets, he felt wealthy Angolans were the really big spenders. "I think it is expatriates who are the ones who worry more about the cost and look more for a reasonable price for something," he said. "In supermarkets I see many wealthy Angolans with a full cart of expensive goods like Champagne, they don't seem to care about the price." Grow your own Wina Miranda, who like her husband is an environmental engineer but is not working while in Luanda, said she and other expatriates had learned to be resourceful to get around the costs.

She brings in a container of non-perishable food each time they go home and she has recently discovered a Chinese farm which sells low-cost good quality vegetables. "I know a lady who has her own yoghurt maker, ice-cream maker, bread maker, and she grows her own cabbage and bean sprouts," she said. "There's not much to do here so you do have the time to do these things. "I remember 10 days after we got here my daughter had her fourth birthday and I had promised her she would have a Barbie cake, so I went out looking for one and it cost $360. But the following year, I managed to make her cake myself, that's what you do, you learn how to survive because a birthday cake for $360 is just ridiculous." Ed Corbett is a British business consultant living in Luanda. He speaks Portuguese and has no issue taking a local taxi or haggling for fruit from the street vendors, but accepts that this is not possible for all expatriates. Prices, he said, had come down "remarkably" in the past 18 months, not just property but in supermarkets as well, mostly due to increased competition. "I'd be surprised if Luanda retains its number one spot in the cost of living surveys this year," Ed Corbett said. "Luanda is expensive, but if you know where to shop, it is certainly becoming more affordable."

Article 2: House of horrors, part 2 Economics focus The bursting of the global housing bubble is only halfway through Nov 26th 2011 | from the print edition

MANY of the worlds financial and economic woes since 2008 began with the bursting of the biggest bubble in history. Never before had house prices risen so fast, for so long, in so many countries. Yet the bust has been much less widespread than the boom. Home prices tumbled by 34% in America from 2006 to their low point earlier this year; in Ireland they plunged by an even more painful 45% from their peak in 2007; and prices have fallen by around 15% in Spain and Denmark. But in most other countries they have dipped by less than 10%, as in Britain and Italy. In some countries, such as Australia, Canada and Sweden, prices wobbled but then surged to new highs. As a result, many property markets are still looking uncomfortably overvalued.

Explore and compare global housing data over time with our interactive house-price tool The latest update of The Economists global house-price indicators shows that prices are now falling in eight of the 16 countries in the table, compared with five in late 2010. (For house prices from more countries see our website). To assess the risks of a further slump, we track two measures of valuation. The first is the price-to-income ratio, a gauge of affordability. The second is the price-to-rent ratio, which is a bit like the price-to-earnings ratio used to value companies. Just as the value of a share should reflect future profits that a company is expected to earn, house prices should reflect the expected benefits from home ownership: namely the rents earned by property investors (or those saved by owneroccupiers). If both of these measures are well above their long-term average, which we have calculated since 1975 for most countries, this could signal that property is overvalued.

Based on the average of the two measures, home prices are overvalued by about 25% or more in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, New Zealand, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden (see table). Indeed, in the first four of those countries housing looks more overvalued than it was in America at the peak of its bubble. Despite their collapse, Irish home prices are still slightly above fair valuepartly because they were incredibly overvalued at their peak, and partly because incomes and rents have fallen sharply. In contrast, homes in America,

Japan and Germany are all significantly undervalued. In the late 1990s the average house price in Germany was twice that in France; now it is 20% cheaper. This raises two questions. First, since American homes now look cheap, are prices set to rebound? Average house prices are 8% undervalued relative to rents, and 22% undervalued relative to income (see chart). Prices may have reached a floor, but this is no guarantee of an imminent bounce. In Britain and Sweden in the mid1990s, prices undershot fair value by around 35%. Prices in Britain did not really start to rise for almost four years after they bottomed. Some 4m foreclosed homes could come onto Americas market, which may hold down prices. The second question is whether home prices in markets that are still overvalued are likely to fall. Some economists reject our measures of overvaluation, arguing that lower interest rates justify higher prices because buyers can take out bigger mortgages. There is some truth in this, but interest rates will not always be so low. The recent jump in bond yields in some euro-area countries has raised mortgage rates for new borrowers. And low rates need to be balanced against the fact that tighter credit conditions make it harder for homebuyers to get mortgages. The average deposit needed by a British first-time buyer is now equivalent to 90% of average annual earnings, according to Capital Economics, a consultancy. It was less than 20% in the late 1990s. Another popular argument used to justify sky-high prices in countries such as Australia and Canada is that a rising population pushes up demand. But this should raise both prices and rents, leaving their ratios unchanged. Prices do not necessarily need to drop sharply to return to fair value. Adjustment could come through higher rents and wages. With low inflation, however, it could take a decade or more before price ratios return to their long-run average in some countries. Jingle mail American prices fell sharply, even though homes were less overvalued than they were in many other countries, because high-risk mortgages and a surge in unemployment caused distressed sales. In most other countries, lenders avoided the worst excesses of subprime lending, and unemployment rose by less, so there were fewer forced sales dragging prices down. America is also unusual in having non-recourse mortgages that let borrowers walk away with no liability. An optimist could therefore argue that our gauges overstate the extent to which house prices are overvalued, and that if markets are only a bit too expensive they can adjust gradually without a sharp fall. It is important to remember, however, that lower interest rates and rising populations were used to justify higher prices in America and Ireland before their bubbles burst so spectacularly. Another concern is that Australia, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden all have even higher household-debt burdens in relation to income than America did at the peak of its bubble. Overvalued prices and large debts leave households vulnerable to a rise in unemployment or higher mortgage

rates. A credit crunch or recession could cause house prices to tumble in many more countries.

International Trade

Article 1: Russia becomes WTO member after 18 years of talks Russia has spent 18 years trying to gain access to the World Trade Organization Continue reading the main story Related Stories Georgia opens WTO door to Russia Russia has finally joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) at a ceremony in Switzerland on Friday, after 18 years negotiating its membership. The Swiss brokered a deal between Russia and Georgia earlier this year that removed the last obstacle to Russia's accession. Georgia had tried to block Russia's WTO entry since the two countries fought a short war in 2008. Russia was by far the biggest economy yet to join the global trade body. It is also the last member of the Group of 20 major economies to join, after China gained membership in 2001. "This result of long and complex talks is good both for Russia and for our future partners," President Dmitry Medvedev said in a message to a WTO ministerial meeting in Geneva that formally approved Russia's membership. The White House said US President Barack Obama called Mr Medvedev to congratulate him on Russia's admission. Business environment The 153-member WTO provides a forum for international trade liberalisation agreements, which it polices - deciding when rules have been breached and when retaliatory trade sanctions can be imposed. The removal of trade barriers is likely to stimulate greater and more diversified trade between Russia and the rest of the world.

Russia and WTO timeline 1993 Russia applies to join the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) 1995 The Gatt is institutionalised as the World Trade Organization (WTO) 1998 Russia suffers a major financial crisis

2000 US President Bill Clinton backs Russia's WTO bid in a speech to the Russian parliament Vladimir Putin succeeds Boris Yeltsin as Russian president 2001 China joins the WTO after 16 years of talks Russian membership talks intensify 2002 The US and EU recognise Russia as a market economy, removing a major hurdle to WTO membership 2004 EU gives formal backing to Russia's application 2006 US formally backs Russian membership Georgia threatens to veto after Russia imposes a trade blockade on it 2008 Brief Russian military invasion of Georgia President Putin questions the benefits of joining the WTO 2010 EU reaffirms support for Russian membership 2011 Russia reaches an agreement with Georgia in November, opening the way for its accession in December Some estimates suggest Russian membership will help to boost its economy by tens of billions of dollars each year. Russia is Europe's third largest export market, while Russia's own exports have been dominated by oil and gas. "Better and improved allocation of resources within the country... from less competitive to more competitive industries" would be a major benefit to the country, according to Ivan Tchakarov, chief economist at Russian brokerage Renaissance Capital. But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he thought the biggest and least talked about benefit could be an improvement in Russia's business environment. "By becoming a WTO member, Russia will have to import certain rules and regulations that will address the very issues that foreign investors usually complain about, like corruption, the protection of minority shareholders, the independence of the judiciary." Remaining hurdle One reason the agreement was finally reached was because of a change of heart in the Russian leadership, according to Mr Tchakarov. "Since the 2008-09 [global financial] crisis there has been a certain recognition at the very high level in Russia that... Russia will have to open up a little bit to foreign investment, because this is the only way for Russia to become a more competitive economy," he said.

Ahead of the signing ceremony, Russian officials were talking up the benefit of the deal, which will still need to be ratified by the Russian parliament in the next six months. "This will create the right conditions for the further improvement of our business climate, for an influx of foreign investment and for boosting Russian exports while also retaining the possibility of giving support to our key branches of domestic economy," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich. "We are achieving a completely new level of integration into the global economic system." The deal with Georgia that opened the way for Russia to join hinged on the international monitoring of trade along the mutual borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The two provinces have broken away from Georgia and are recognised as independent states by Russia. However, the agreement may still face a hurdle in the US, where existing legislation left over from the Cold War era blocks favourable trading relations with Russia. But Mr Tchakarov at Renaissance Capital said he believed Congress would agree to eliminate the laws, as past disputes with Russia over agriculture and intellectual property rights have now been fully resolved.