Foundation Association Urges IRS Disaster Declaration for Haiti

The Council on Foundations, an association of grant makers, is asking the Internal Revenue Service to declare Haiti a “qualified disaster,” a move the group says would help corporations assist their employees who were affected by the earthquake.

The designation would allow company foundations to provide monetary aid to their needy workers in the country, writes Steve Gunderson, president of the Arlington, Va., organization, in a letter to Douglas Shulman, commissioner of the federal tax agency.

Under IRS rules, corporate grant makers are barred from using philanthropic dollars to help employees except for special circumstances.

“Regrettably, some U.S. companies have employees who have been adversely affected by the earthquake,” Mr. Gunderson says. “These companies would like to assist their employees by making qualified disaster payments from company foundations.”

He says the move is “urgently needed” and would allow businesses to provide immediate support and start planning for long-term assistance to their affected workers.

The revenue service has made the declaration during previous humanitarian emergencies, like the tsunamis that hit South Asia in 2004.