While one of the primary motivations of a business is to make a profit, charities start with a very different purpose.  Charities exist for the purpose of making a positive difference in the world. The differences between businesses and charities go far beyond their different purposes.  Many of the laws that govern charities are different from the laws that govern businesses, and the tax and accounting rules are very different.  Such differences comprise one of the reasons we at BMWL believe that charities should be served by a different kind of accounting firm…one that is singularly focused on serving the nonprofit sector.  Many charity leaders have come to BMWL for audit and assurance services because of our strong reputation for helping them make sure the financial bases are covered.  They often come to us after working with another accounting firm, and they share with us that they were concerned that their previous firm was not bringing matters to their attention that needed to be addressed.  After asking around among leaders in the charity community, they learned that BMWL is well known for just that – taking a comprehensive and highly professional approach to providing services that include communicating important matters to our clients on a proactive and consistent basis.

When a large financial institution was serving as the trustee for a charitable organization and had concerns about certain aspects of its compliance and financial reporting, the financial institution engaged BMWL to assist in identifying and addressing the issues and to audit the financial statements. One of the “Big Four” accounting firms had previously provided services for the organization. Our team identified significant compliance issues requiring attention and proactively assisted the organization in addressing those issues. We serve numerous charities in a similar capacity.

In the tax arena, we have helped many charities reduce their state and local tax obligations by helping them take advantage of exemptions of which they were not fully aware. As a result of our services, a significant number of our charity clients have saved very large sums of money by taking better advantage of their exemptions. Saving our clients money is one of our favorite things to do!

Another key area in which we assist our charity clients is addressing their practices for establishing and documenting executive compensation and related party transactions. It is critically important for charities to handle executive compensation and related party transactions properly. Improper handling of these important matters can result in negative publicity as well as possible (very significant) penalties for the individuals involved. Our BMWL professionals can help your organization successfully navigate the rules related to executive compensation and related party transactions – and reduce the risk to your organization and its leaders.

We assist numerous charities in areas such as budgeting; internal controls; financial management; board governance matters; risk management; foreign grant-making and direct foreign activities; corporate structure analysis; federal, state, and local tax compliance; representation before tax authorities; and much more.