The private office for people who do good.
Foundation administration, governance, and strategy for family foundations, first-generation donors, corporate giving programs, and the nonprofits doing the work. An attorney-led team, a portal you can open at any hour, and fees you can read before you call.
We keep the record, run the grants, and keep the calendar.
We keep the record. Board dockets assembled and delivered five business days ahead. Minutes and resolutions finalized within five business days after. Policies reviewed on a schedule, and a conflict register that is actually kept.
We run the grants. Intake, diligence coordination, board approval, payment, acknowledgment, and a complete file for every dollar, in a pipeline your family can see.
We keep the calendar. Form 990-PF, extensions, excise estimates, state filings, and the five-percent requirement tracked all year, then handed to your CPA assembled, not excavated.
We think with you. A written giving framework: focus areas, criteria, and a cadence for saying yes and no.
What we never do. Legal advice, tax preparation, or investment management. That work goes to the right professionals, in writing, every time.
Five ways to work with us
Foundation administration
The back office of a professionally staffed foundation, without hiring one.
Learn moreGovernance and compliance
The record a foundation is supposed to have, kept as a matter of course.
Learn moreGiving strategy
A written plan the whole family can point to, before anyone drafts anything.
Learn moreStarting a foundation
From intention to determination letter to first grant, under one agreement.
Learn moreNonprofit advisory
Board, governance, and planning support for established organizations.
Learn moreA quarter with Meridian
The board docket goes out: grant recommendations with diligence attached, the distribution figure to date, and anything that needs a vote.
The meeting is staffed. Minutes and resolutions are in the portal within five business days.
Approved grants are paid, acknowledged, and filed. Reports due from grantees are chased.
The compliance calendar is reviewed against what actually happened, and the next docket begins.
“As a lawyer I was usually called after something had gone wrong: a filing missed, a minute book empty, a family unsure who had approved what. None of it was malice. It was serious giving with no office behind it. Giving money away well is institutional work, and it deserves the same seriousness at two million dollars as at two hundred. Meridian exists so that call never has to be made.”
Anthony Clemenza, Founder
New York attorney. Also runs an operating public charity.
About the firmWho we work with
Legal, tax, and investment work is referred to the right professionals, in writing, every time.
Month to month
Sixty days’ notice, no lock-in.
Your records are yours
Exportable in full if you ever leave.
Fees are published
With an effective date, and honored for thirty days.
The usual first step is the Foundation Health Audit
Three weeks, fixed scope, fixed fee. You receive a written findings memo, a ninety-day remediation roadmap, and one session with your board. Half the fee credits against the first quarter of any engagement that begins within ninety days. The findings are yours either way.
Meridian was founded by a New York attorney who also runs an operating public charity, so our team has answered to funders from the other side of the table.
Three retainers, one audit, every fee with a date.
Meridian Stewardship from $1,950 a month. Meridian Signature from $4,500 a month. Meridian Institutional by invitation. The Foundation Health Audit is $4,500 flat. Effective September 1, 2026.
See every engagementTell us how your foundation runs today.
Every inquiry is read by our team, kept confidential, and answered within one business day, including when the honest answer is that we are not the right fit.
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