Laura Solomon, Esq., founder of Laura Solomon & Associates, will lead this interactive webinar regarding the Coronavirus, the CARES Act benefits for charities and donors, and tools to help charitable organizations navigate this challenging new world. 

This session will include timely information about: 

• The impact of COVID-19’s designation as a “qualified disaster'
• Grant, loan, and payroll tax benefits of the CARES Act for charities and donors
• Additional funding opportunities for nonprofits affected by the pandemic
• Practical strategies to increase contributed revenue and reduce expenses

Laura N. Solomon, Esq. is the founder of Laura Solomon & Associates.  LS&A is a law firm devoted to the representation of nonprofit, charitable, and other tax-exempt organizations and philanthropic individuals.  Ms. Solomon and her associates serve as outside, general counsel to hundreds of organizations, providing a full range of corporate and tax legal services that include representation for mergers, joint ventures, affiliations, and complex financings.  LS&A clients include public charities and private foundations, community foundations, museums, hospitals, schools, religious groups, business, environmental, animal welfare, amateur sports organizations, social clubs, and political action committees. These organizations range in size from small start-up organizations to large social service providers and multi-national charities that conduct international grant-making. 

 Ms. Solomon currently serves as a Board member and Chair of the Grants Committee of the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia.  She is a member of the Charity Working Group of the U.S. Treasury Department and the Tax-Exempt Organizations Subcommittee of the American Bar Association, is a member of the Charitable Organizations Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, a Planner of the Endowment, Foundation, and Philanthropy Conference of the Philadelphia CFA Society and a Faculty member of the Nonprofit Institute of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.  She previously served as a United States delegate to the Financial Action Task Force. Ms. Solomon is a Wexner Heritage Program Fellow and is quoted frequently in the media and lectures often nationally and internationally for lawyers, accountants, and other professional and community groups on issues impacting the charitable sector and philanthropic individuals.  Ms. Solomon also lectures at the LaSalle University Nonprofit Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova, Drexel, and Temple Universities. 

Prior to starting her firm, Ms. Solomon was associated with Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP.  She is a member of the Bar Associations of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Tufts University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.  You can find more information about her practice along with links to helpful information on nonprofits at her website: www.LauraSolomonEsq.com.

Few people realize the leading role Philadelphia has played in the history of charitable gift planning in America.

Bequests and gifts of complex assets were essential for The Pennsylvania Hospital, founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond.  John Trumbull's painting of Jefferson presenting his Declaration to Congress in Independence Hall in 1776 was saved through a gift annuity in 1831.  The U.S. Supreme Court found charitable trusts to be illegal, until a bequest to found Girard College changed its mind in 1844.  And best practices from the 1920s created by actuary George Huggins of Philadelphia remain our core values for gift planning.

Hear these and other true stories, such as why Tax Reform Acts in 1969 and 1986 led to our national association of charitable gift planners, and how demographics of wealth and age will dramatically change American gift planning for decades to come.

Participants will understand Philadelphia’s leadership, and the foundational gifts, best practices, legislation, and court decisions that shape gift planning today; unlock a treasure chest of useful, illuminating, and entertaining donor stories; and gain a powerful perspective on the roots of current events in gift planning.

Ronald A. Brown is the author of A History of Charitable Gift Planning (Amazon 2017) and many articles posted at www.giftplanninghistory.org.  He served as director of gift planning at Princeton University, Fordham, Pratt Institute, United Way of America, and the National Wildlife Federation, and was a senior philanthropic advisor at Columbia University.  He was a board member and chair of the Research Committee for ACGA (2008-2016).  He served on the board of NCPG (now the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners), was president of the Gift Planning Council of NJ, a board member of the Philanthropic Planning Group of Greater NY (which selected him for a distinguished service award in 2019), and is a member of Princeton’s Planned Giving Advisory Committee. 

Ron received an AB degree from Princeton University and an MA degree from the University of Chicago, where he studied the history of ideas and edited the newsletter of the Oriental Institute.  A retired Commander in the US Naval Reserve, he received two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals for writing and research while serving with the US Naval Historical Center.  He has two children and two grandchildren, and lives in Brooklyn.