FAR Names Leading Firm on Nonprofit Issues as Legal Advisor

Feb 07, 2017 by Ted Eismeier

WASHINGTON, DC—The Fund for Academic Renewal (FAR) has named Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP as its legal advisor to assist FAR on guiding donors in developing transformative gifts to higher education.

FAR helps higher education donors translate their philanthropic aspirations into gifts that enhance the offerings of the colleges they support. The Fund’s innovative approach is to work with donors to create well-crafted gift agreements that ensure that major donors can give confidently—knowing that their donor intent will be honored—and offers them creative mechanisms to maximize their impact.

In addition, FAR offers accounts that donors can use to direct gifts to various schools, programs, and initiatives devoted to undergraduate subjects such as science and mathematics, economic literacy, the Western tradition, and American history. These accounts provide a unique opportunity for donors to combine their gifts with those of others who contribute to the same fund. FAR provides services to higher education donors and their advisors at no cost to them, thanks to a generous grant from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation.

“The deep experience of the Tax-Exempt Organizations practice group at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in guiding philanthropists is essential to the important work of the Fund for Academic Renewal in assisting donors and their advisors through every step of the gift-making process, from initial planning to drafting a gift agreement, to monitoring and evaluating program success,” said Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill, Ph.D., executive director of FAR. “Working with the firm, FAR will be well-equipped to help donors reinvigorate the liberal arts and high academic standards on campus.”

Andras Kosaras, counsel, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, will be the lead attorney representing FAR. The firm has a long tradition of providing a full range of legal services to all types of nonprofit organizations on a broad range of regulatory, transactional and operational matters. The firm also advises individual and corporate clients on charitable giving matters.