Philanthropic Advisory

Getting Started | Implementation & Operations | Engaging the Next Generation | Legacy Planning

Hemenway & Barnes offers a distinctive blend of legal, fiduciary, philanthropic advisory, and grant-making services to private foundations, trusts, individuals, families, and other entities. We advise over 100 charitable clients, ranging in size and complexity from modest to some of the largest family foundations in the region. There is no "one size fits all" solution. We tailor solutions to meet our clients’ individual needs and vision for philanthropy.

Our Team

Our advisors help our clients make effective charitable gifts for the causes about which they care most.

Working with the lawyers, trustees, and tax and investment professionals at Hemenway & Barnes and Hemenway Trust Company, our philanthropic advisors offer deep knowledge and a broad range of related skills in the areas of governance, management, grant making, and strategy.

Our advisors are active in local and regional philanthropic networks and serve as trustees and board members of nonprofit organizations. These relationships add to our knowledge of work locally, regionally, and nationally and help us in our work with clients to maximize their impact and effectiveness.

Our Services

Our advisors' expertise spans a broad range of charitable interests – education, the arts, health and welfare, social justice, public policy, and the environment, to name a few. The level and scope of our program work varies based on client needs and their desired level of engagement.

Program Management – where our team serves as foundation staff or program officers, including grant research and sourcing, proposal evaluations, and grant recommendations.
Operations and Compliance – handles the administrative and daily details so that the trustees can focus on grantmaking.
Financial Management – oversee the foundation assets and work with investment advisors (whether in-house or outsourced) and trustees to implement the desired investment program (including attention to values-based investing where desired), monitoring cash management to meet payout requirements, and providing quarterly reporting.

Specialized Expertise

In-house legal, tax, and investment expertise
Development and oversight of complex grants and strategies
Private foundation governance and compliance
Deep knowledge of the nonprofit community in greater Boston, northern New England, and other geographies
Multigenerational and next-generation philanthropy
Administration of split interest trusts
Work with families who have multiple charitable vehicles
Program Related Investments (PRI)
Values-based investment of foundation assets
Artist-endowed foundations
Scholarship funds
Aligning philanthropic and estate planning strategies

Featured Clients

This is a sample list of our clients. We work with dozens of clients doing charitable giving through foundations, charitable trusts, donor advised funds, and other giving vehicles.