Foundations that give grants to non-U.S. based charities must do additional reporting to IRS to prove that the funds were used appropriately, either in the form of equivalency determination (ED) or expenditure responsibility (ER). As a result, compared to domestic nonprofits, foreign NGOs must go through many more, often time-consuming, steps before and/or after the grant is made to verify their charitable status and to help the funders comply with their extra reporting requirements.

If your organization wants to get U.S. foundation grants for your international work, participate in this live chat to learn about:

• What processes, procedures, and documents you'll need to meet ED or ER requirements
• Types of projects that are better suited for ED or ER
• NGOsource, a new service that will help to speed up the equivalency determination process

Want to make sure that your question gets asked? Send it to us in advance! You also can post questions or comments when the chat goes live, as well as interact with presenters and other readers.

Experts for this live chat:

Kelly Shipp Simone is the vice president of legal affairs at the Council on Foundations, a membership organization that supports grantmakers in various aspects of foundation management. Kelly has authored several publications for foundations, including “Top 10 Ways Private Foundations Can Influence Public Policy,” “How to Calculate the Public Support Test” and “Family Foundations and the Law.” Kelly holds a J.D. from University of North Carolina School of Law and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of North Carolina School of Social Work.

Sheila Warren, General Counsel, NGOsource: As general counsel of NGOsource and TechSoup Global, Sheila Warren provides guidance on international philanthropy law, oversees the equivalency determination review team, and educates the philanthropic community about the requirements of international grantmaking. She is an attorney who has counseled hundreds of charitable organizations in the areas of tax and corporate law with Adler & Colvin and in private practice and regularly lectures on the topics of international philanthropy and grantmaking. She graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

How Live Chat Works:

Live chats are text-only discussions that happen entirely online. It will NOT HAVE AUDIO. The chat window will "open" about 30 minutes before the event starts. If you cannot participate during the live event, the full transcript will be available afterward in our live chat gallery.