Our Focus on Nonprofits

Practice Areas

For more than 29 years our focus has been the needs of the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.

We are a full-service, multi-disciplinary firm, organized to support our clients at every stage of the accounting, financial reporting, and tax cycle. We serve a wide cross-section of the nonprofit economy through nine practice areas.

Audit and Other Assurance Services

A well-planned and well-executed audit is essential to the fulfillment of a nonprofit’s mission and to the successful implementation of its programs and activities. We provide opinions and reports on our client’s financial statements and supporting systems in accordance with all professional standards and in compliance with all relevant national regulations. We advise clients of emerging professional accounting issues and provide recommendations for improvements in structure and procedures. We work with clients to streamline and enhance their internal procedures and processes to increase operational efficiencies and effectiveness, and we guide clients in upgrading their systems and controls to protect them from errors and fraud. Done well, these services can transform a nonprofit.

  • Financial statement audits, reviews and compilations

  • Single audits in accordance with the uniform requirements of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget

  • Selected agreed-upon procedures

Client Accounting Services

Many nonprofit organizations lack the resources to develop financial information that is complete, accurate, timely, and relevant. With our nonprofit-specific client accounting services, we help clients meet this need by serving as a key financial management partner. Our experienced team can support your organization across the entire accounting spectrum — from basic bookkeeping services to real-time processing of accounts payable, payroll, and other business transactions, to detailed stewardship of restricted grants and contracts, to the more strategic requirements you expect from your outsourced controller and CFO. When you need more than an accountant – and are ready for a financial management partner – we are the firm you are looking for.

Exempt Organization Tax Compliance

In today’s increasingly complex nonprofit environment, it’s more important than ever for organizations to stay abreast of fast-changing tax-related legal and regulatory requirements. The Form 990 has changed significantly in recent years, but our nonprofit tax specialists know the Form inside and out. Whether it’s federal and state compliance services, return review, IRS audit support, or addressing federal and state notices, we bring value to our clients through our experience and technical know-how. In addition, we alert clients to breaking tax news, keep them apprised of trends and key issues, and help them understand how new tax developments may impact their organization.

  • Forms 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, and 990-T

  • Charitable trust tax filings

  • State and local tax filings

Exempt Organization Tax Law And Regulatory Counsel

As in audit, the fulfillment of legal, statutory and ethical obligations remains fundamentally important to all well-managed organizations. Accordingly, our firm’s tax and regulatory capabilities are extensive and represent an important resource for our clients. The professionals in our firm possess expertise in all tax areas directly affecting our exempt organization clients, including ensuring the preservation of the organization’s tax exemption and examining the various programs and services offered by the organization to ensure they do not give rise to unexpected unrelated business income.

Private Foundations

The private foundation practice at Gary McGee & Co. is one of the most comprehensive of its kind, serving family foundations, corporate foundations, institutional-related foundations, community and independent groups, as well as donor-advised funds and numerous other grant-making entities. Our private foundation services include the following:

  • Compliance with all private foundation rules and regulations

  • Modeling and forecasting of the 5% minimum qualifying distribution

  • Avoiding self-dealing situations

  • Monitoring and investigating the presence of unrelated business tax exposure

  • Identifying blocker corporations and U.S. tax filings for foreign transactions

  • Reviewing for jeopardizing investments and excess business holdings

  • Audit, review and compilation reporting

  • Filing of 990-PF, 990-T, U.S. state filings, U.S. filings for foreign transactions

  • Expenditure responsibility analysis

  • Program-related investment guidance

  • Analyzing the financial statements and Forms 990 of grantees

  • Grant expenditure evaluation

  • Set-asides for charitable purposes

Employee Benefit Plans

As plan sponsor and fiduciary, our clients are often charged with keeping the future retirements of your employees safe and, with increased public scrutiny and ever increasing regulatory requirements, you need professionals from a firm you can rely on. We understand the risks you face in association with the auditing of your employee benefit plans. Our team of professionals uses practices and procedures to assist in the appropriate recognition of plan net assets in the plan’s financial statements. And our services are provided in a timely, efficient manner, with a reasonable fee structure. Services provided by this practice group also include preparation and electronic filing of the Form 5500 and related schedules.

  • Defined benefit pension plans

  • Defined contribution pension plans

  • Profit-sharing plans

  • Section 401(k) plans

  • Health and welfare plans

  • Section 403(b) plans

  • Section 457(b) and (f) plans

  • Multi-employer plans

  • Form 5500

Charitable Giving and Solicitation

Our professionals are experienced in planning for charitable giving from the perspective of both the donor and the recipient organization. We provide a full range of charitable giving services to nonprofit organizations and individual philanthropists, including the creation and promotion of planned giving programs through services that include donor presentations, preparation of gift proposals, counsel in gift structuring, and advice on the administration of gift programs. We also advise donors on the design and implementation of specific charitable gifting opportunities that will satisfy their charitable, financial, tax, and family objectives.

Formation of New Organizations

We represent clients in connection with the formation of new charitable and other nonprofit organizations. We assist clients in determining whether a business or nonprofit form is most suitable to achieving their goals and, if the nonprofit form is appropriate, determining whether the organization will qualify as a charitable entity. We assist clients in selecting the type of public charity or private foundation that would be most appropriate, and we help our clients develop the equivalent of a charitable business plan, prepare necessary submissions to governmental agencies for approval (e.g., Forms 1023 and 1024), and provide guidance to clients for their future operations.

Advisory Services

Even though accounting and auditing are the largest part of our practice, our services have always gone well beyond the attest function. Because we make it our business to know our client’s business, we are in an excellent position to provide advisory services when the need arises, and to help develop innovative solutions to the business problems encountered by our clients. We work hard to solve our client’s problems with intelligence and creativity, and provide counsel that is honest, direct and discrete.

  • Strategic planning and financial management

  • Cost allocation methodologies and related systems

  • Treasury management

  • Forecasting, financial modeling and feasibility studies

  • Financial performance measurement and evaluation

  • Affiliation and license agreements

  • Management of endowment funds

  • Fiscal sponsorship arrangements

  • Nonprofit mergers, acquisitions, conversions and dissolutions

  • Compliance with applicable public support tests

  • Compliance with OMB circulars

  • Advice on reimbursement of direct and indirect costs

  • Development of indirect cost rates

  • Conduct of indirect cost negotiations with federal and local governments

We advise clients regarding compliance with federal and state rules regulating the charitable sector, including limitations on charitable solicitation, lobbying, political activities, and commercial ventures. We counsel directors and management of charitable and other nonprofit organizations with regard to the proper exercise of their fiduciary duties, and we advise charitable grantmakers, including private foundations and public charities, providing counsel about such specialized subjects as program-related investments, self-dealing, donor-advised funds, and expenditure responsibility requirements.

We also advise U.S. charitable organizations on the making of grants to foreign charitable organizations, and represent foreign charitable organizations with regard to fundraising and other activities in the U.S., including the formation and qualification of U.S. affiliates of foreign charitable organizations.

Finally, we also serve as special counsel to other accounting firms, law firms, and others who retain our firm to provide advice to them and their clients regarding nonprofit sector issues.