Mary E. McDonald
Ms. McDonald has been representing tax-exempt not-for-profit organizations, including private foundations, operating foundations, public charities, “friends-of” organizations, social welfare organizations and other 501(c) organizations, since beginning her legal career in 1993. She advises nonprofit organizations on a wide range of operational and compliance issues throughout their corporate life cycles, from formation to dissolution. Her practice includes governance and tax issues, domestic and international grant-making, self-dealing and other private foundation-related issues, lobbying, employment and compensation advise, structuring collaborations and working relationships, and state and federal regulatory matters. Ms. McDonald has significant experience drafting consulting agreements, gift and grant agreements, memoranda of understanding, policies, and complex transactional agreements.
Ms. McDonald began her legal career in the Tax-Exempt Organizations Department at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, LLP, where she worked with one of the largest private foundations in the US on international grant-making issues, including the structuring of global health initiatives for vaccine and treatment development involving multiple stakeholders. She drafted and negotiated corporate sponsorship agreements in connection with the national annual event of a major not-for-profit sports organization.
Before becoming an attorney, Ms. McDonald worked in the nonprofit sector. She was a grant writer for a large New York cultural institution and the Director of Development and Public Information at a substance abuse foundation in New Haven, Connecticut.
Ms. McDonald graduated magna cum laude from Fordham University and received her J.D. from New York University Law School.
Ms. McDonald is admitted to practice in New York.