Alan Cantor Consulting LLC

04/14/2026

Want to fix the tax system? Read this excellent article (free to you, even if you're not a subscriber, I believe) in The Atlantic by my friend Ray Madoff.

Step one: Abolish the estate tax. No, really.

02/04/2026

How would you like a job performance review where part of your compensation package is a $200 million donor-advised fund for you to distribute? Welcome to the world of private equity!

I confess that I spent most of my life blissfully unaware of something called “private equity” and the role it plays in the world. That is, until last week, when I read Megan Greenwell’s new book, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. And then, just as I was finishin...

12/09/2025

What to make of the recent "gift" from billionaires Michael and Susan Dell?

The latest news from the world of billionaire philanthropy features Michael and Susan Dell, who committed $6.25 billion to fund special government-created accounts for newborns. The Dells’ gift to these funds, branded “Trump Accounts,” would add $250 to each of 25 million such accounts.

06/04/2025

Pleased to be published today in The Philanthropy Project.

The walls are caving in on American nonprofits. Alan Cantor explains what needs to happen now to change how DAFs operate.

05/27/2025

My remembrance of Justice David Souter.

When retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter died earlier this month, the nation lost a remarkable public servant – and a man who, sadly, predicted with stunning accuracy the constitutional disaster we now face as a nation.

02/05/2025

A grim (but sorta hopeful) accounting of the devastation wreaked by Trump 2.0 on the nonprofit world.

12/16/2024

I'm really looking forward to leading this two-part series on legacy giving. This is designed to help smaller nonprofits get in the planned giving game efficiently and effectively.

Thanks to the NH Center for Nonprofits and several other statewide nonprofit associations.

Join us!

In this two-part series, participants will develop an understanding of the financial and psychological motivations for donors, and how to create and develop a successful and impactful planned giving program.

11/15/2024

If there's one piece about the nonprofit world you should read today, it's this

Measurable impact has crept into everyday understandings of charity.

10/17/2024

Excited to present Planned Giving Demystified via Zoom January 14 and 21!

Please join me. And -- this is national, so anyone can sign up. Please do!

https://www.nhnonprofits.org/events/planned-giving-demystified-7

07/17/2024

The latest shocking-but-not-surprising article by ProPublica about a "charity" that's not at all a charity. Your tax dollars at work! Ugh!

The little-known charity is backed by famous conservative donors, including the families behind Hobby Lobby and Uline. It’s spending millions to make a big political push for this election — but it may be violating the law.

04/10/2024

If you're wondering why common sense efforts to reform donor-advised funds fail, well, I can give you $11 million reasons.

Opponents of the 2021 attempt to speed donor-advised fund payouts stopped the legislation dead in its tracks.