Private Foundations
Legal counsel for private foundations, founders, boards, families, and professional advisers addressing self-dealing, taxable expenditures, grantmaking, minimum distributions, excess business holdings, Form 990-PF, and other private-foundation matters.
Limited to conflicts, matter fit, and potential engagement. Substantive legal advice is provided only after engagement.
Washington, D.C. Office
800 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20006
Direct: +1 202-870-1977
Private foundations operate under a specialized federal tax regime that imposes restrictions not generally applicable to public charities. Issues can arise from transactions involving founders and family members, grantmaking, investment holdings, annual distribution requirements, foreign grants, compensation, and other activities governed by the private-foundation excise-tax rules. Chase Counsel advises private foundations and their fiduciaries on structuring activities, identifying potential exposure, and addressing compliance or controversy matters when problems arise.
Attorney Chase Sizemore, JD, LLM
Principal, Chase Counsel PLLC
Georgetown Tax LLM | Former KPMG Auditor
U.S. Tax Court | Columbia University Graduate Studies
National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Diploma
30+ Years of Legal Experience
Private foundations offer substantial philanthropic flexibility, but that flexibility comes with specialized federal tax rules.
Transactions involving disqualified persons, founders, family members, directors, officers, compensation arrangements, property, loans, and other potential § 4941 issues.
Federal tax issues involving qualifying distributions, annual payout requirements, distributable amounts, and § 4942 compliance.
Private-foundation ownership of business interests, holdings involving disqualified persons, and potential § 4943 exposure.
Grantmaking procedures, taxable expenditures, grants to organizations and individuals, and compliance with § 4945 requirements.
Foreign grants, equivalency determinations, expenditure responsibility, pre-grant inquiry, grant agreements, monitoring, and reporting.
Form 990-PF, excise-tax compliance, recordkeeping, reporting, governance, and recurring federal obligations affecting private foundations.
Before you hire a lawyer, know who you are actually hiring.
Georgetown Tax LLM | U.S. Tax Court | Former KPMG Auditor | Columbia University Graduate Studies | 30+ Years of Legal Experience
Attorney Chase Sizemore personally evaluates and leads each nonprofit and tax-exempt matter, drawing on more than thirty years of legal and advisory experience. He earned an LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, previously worked as an auditor at KPMG, is admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court, completed graduate studies in nonprofit management at Columbia University, and received advanced trial-advocacy training through the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.
His experience extends well beyond his law practice. In 2006, he founded Teach Them To Fish Foundation, a § 501(c)(3) public charity that builds and supports primary schools in rural Cambodia and Uganda. Through nearly two decades of nonprofit leadership, he has dealt directly with governance, board responsibilities, charitable operations, international programs, donor relationships, and the practical challenges of managing charitable resources across borders. His humanitarian service has been recognized with the U.S. Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, the Royal Order of Cambodia medal, and eight Cambodian Sthapana Cheat gold medals.
His published and forthcoming work includes the legal treatise Nonprofit Stewards: Governance, Fiduciary Duty, and Accountability in Tax-Exempt Organizations, the memoirs The Road to Kitgum: A Memoir of Cambodia, Uganda, and the Search for a Child Lost to War and Where the Red Earth Broke: A Memoir of Cambodia, Mercy, and the Cost of Rescue, and numerous legal and scholarly articles.
This video documents the opening of Preah Khol Primary School in Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia.
Preah Khol Primary School -- Opening Ceremony
Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia
Forthcoming Book
Governance, Fiduciary Duty, and Accountability in Tax-Exempt Organizations
By Chase Sizemore, JD, LLM
Nonprofit Stewards examines nonprofit governance, fiduciary duties, tax-exempt organizations, board oversight, donor stewardship, and institutional accountability.
Drawing upon decades of legal practice, advanced tax training, and firsthand experience founding and operating an international nonprofit organization, Nonprofit Stewards explores the legal and practical responsibilities of nonprofit leaders, directors, fiduciaries, and advisors.
The manuscript is currently undergoing professional line editing.
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