A professional athlete with a growing platform, a charitable impulse that had outrun his paperwork, and an IRS classification he did not yet qualify for. We built the foundation, filed for exemption, and set up the first three grants.
The athlete had publicly committed $250,000 in a single season to causes in his home community. The commitment had been announced at a team event, had generated real media attention, and had been honored through direct payments from his personal accounts.
His CPA flagged the structural problem before it became a tax problem: no entity, no exemption, no charitable deduction, and growing visibility that was about to attract a larger commitment.
He and his family wanted a dedicated vehicle. They did not want to spend a year waiting for IRS determination.
We formed a California nonprofit public benefit corporation with a full board, bylaws, a conflict-of-interest policy, and a clean governance structure. We filed for federal 501(c)(3) status and California state tax exemption, with a detailed narrative description supporting public-charity classification rather than private-foundation classification, which fit his intended activities better and carried lower ongoing restrictions.
We built a grant-making policy the family could operate under immediately, with clear eligibility criteria, a documented selection process, and a reporting template. We coordinated with the CPA on the characterization of payments already made in the calendar year, and with a financial advisor on a five-year funding plan tied to the athlete's contract cycle. We set up the first three grants under the new structure within six weeks of IRS recognition.
"I was giving the money away correctly. I was not giving it away smartly. Brandon fixed that."
— Athlete, Foundation Founder
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