Philanthropic Advisory

Our advisors help our clients make effective charitable gifts for the causes about which they care most.

Working with the lawyers, trustees, and tax and investment professionals at Hemenway & Barnes and Hemenway Trust Company, our philanthropic advisors offer deep knowledge and a broad range of related skills in the areas of governance, management, grant making, and strategy.

Our advisors are active in local and regional philanthropic networks and serve as trustees and board members of nonprofit organizations. These relationships add to our knowledge of work locally, regionally, and nationally and help us in our work with clients to maximize their impact and effectiveness.

Our advisors' expertise spans a broad range of charitable interests – education, the arts, health and welfare, social justice, public policy, and the environment, to name a few. The level and scope of our program work varies based on client needs and their desired level of engagement.

• Program Management – where our team serves as foundation staff or program officers, including grant research and sourcing, proposal evaluations, and grant recommendations.
• Operations and Compliance – handles the administrative and daily details so that the trustees can focus on grantmaking.
• Financial Management – oversee the foundation assets and work with investment advisors (whether in-house or outsourced) and trustees to implement the desired investment program (including attention to values-based investing where desired), monitoring cash management to meet payout requirements, and providing quarterly reporting.

• In-house legal, tax, and investment expertise
• Development and oversight of complex grants and strategies
• Private foundation governance and compliance
• Deep knowledge of the nonprofit community in greater Boston, northern New England, and other geographies
• Multigenerational and next-generation philanthropy
• Administration of split interest trusts
• Work with families who have multiple charitable vehicles
• Program Related Investments (PRI)
• Values-based investment of foundation assets
• Artist-endowed foundations
• Scholarship funds
• Aligning philanthropic and estate planning strategies