Organizations vs Associations vs Foundations

Last Night on All Things Haitian Considered

The earthquake of January 12 2010 had compelled Haitians both living in Haiti and overseas to take part in their homeland’s reconstruction efforts. More than before, they [Haitians] are getting together to brainstorm and implementing effective means to change lives, improve infrastructures, and possibly to connect Haiti with the rest of the world. A Google search for “Haiti or Haiti Earthquake” will quickly return a cluster of websites, Twitter, and Facebook pages, [adding to the harem of international institutions already operating in Haiti], all promoting groups of Haitians with their ideas of helping Haiti.

In last night show, we established key differences and similarities among Association, Foundation, and Organization along with their “Charity” or “Non-Profit” characteristic. We have also discussed legislatures and methods of taxation and registration governing the formation and the operation of each of these entities.

Organization: (United Nations, World Health Organization)
a. Is a structure of people with well-defined roles and functions
b. Can be any entity from a small business to a world body
c. Work toward the same purpose
d. Members have specific roles and functions

Association (NATO, ASDEAN)
a. Members share common interests
b. Members work toward a particular purpose
c. Members form alliances

A foundation
a. Non-governmental entity involved in public welfare programs
b. Established as a nonprofit corporation or a charitable trust in order to make grants available to charities
c. have a fixed source of funding
d. Have one and only one purpose
e. Are charity in nature
f. Private and Public (two types)
Difference between private and public Foundations
a. A private foundation is formed by family members and derives its money from a family, an individual, or a corporation. More likely will bear the name of an individual
g. Must report to IRS all grants made for the year
h. Public Foundation operates like any other charities. They are not required to report or list their grants to IRS
Key differences

a. Organization members don’t share common interests whereas association and foundations (whether private or public) members do
b. Organization cannot be involved in politics whereas association can promote political ideas or back up a candidate
c. Organization and private foundations are required to report their earnings or their grants to IRS
d. Organizations and Associations are continuously involved in fundraisers whereas Foundations have a fixed source of funding.
e. Organizations and Foundations can be either charities or non-profits whereas associations are not charities or non-profits
g. Organizations have paid employees while associations have volunteers who may also contribute their own money

• Charities are all nonprofit organizations that are not foundations
• A non-profit organization is not a charity but a charity can be a non-profit organization as long as it is involved in public welfare programs. Thus, a non-profit organization is involved in business activities.
• One notable difference between a charity and a non-profit organization is the way they are taxed.
• A charity is a charity forever whereas a nonprofit company may change over to a for profit company in future.

Bobb Q Rousseau