Nonprofit Roundtable: Free Your Restricted Funds!

New for 2024 is the Chamber's Nonprofit Roundtable! We will be meeting quarterly on various topics to bring our members in the nonprofit sector together around various learning opportunities. 

Free Your Restricted Funds! 
 
Restricted funds are monies donated to a charity whose investment, management or use is subject to limitations imposed by the donor, such as for example a prohibition on spending principal or a requirement that the fund be used only for a specified program. Restrictions can also be tied to loans and grants.
 
Many funds held by non-profits have restrictions that make full use of the funds impracticable or impossible. Absent obtaining donor consent to changes in the restrictions, non-profits have to obtain the assent of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and ultimately a Supreme Judicial Court decree releasing the restrictions and enable the full, expanded use of these financial assets. What is this process and is it worth it?
 
Peter Martin, a partner at Bowditch with decades of nonprofit law experience, says that more clients are contacting him about this issue. Peter and Jane Ellis, Chief Financial and Operating Officer at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, will discuss:
1. Cy pres doctrine (used to interpret terms of charitable trusts) versus equitable deviation relief
2. Possible administrative action at the AGO for old, small funds
3.AGO entertaining proposals to borrow against endowment funds