From Intention to First Grant in Ninety Days
Most families spend longer deciding how to give than they ever intended. The Launch Path is a disciplined sequence — the thinking, the formation, the launch — with one accountable principal coordinating all of it, and every professional boundary disclosed in writing.
The Giving Blueprint
Before anything is formed, the thinking is done. Meridian works with you to articulate what the giving is for, then walks the vehicle landscape at educational altitude — private foundation, donor-advised fund, direct giving, or a combination — comparing control, privacy, cost, and permanence. You leave with a written blueprint: the recommended structure, the governance design, and the plan for the first year of giving. The blueprint is yours to act on with us or without us.
Formation & Tax Exemption
Forming the entity and securing federal tax exemption is legal work, and Meridian is not a law firm. This step is engaged separately with counsel of your choosing — your family's existing lawyer, a firm we help you identify, or Clemenza Law Group under the written disclosure below. Whoever holds the pen, Meridian coordinates the calendar so formation feeds directly into launch.
Clemenza Law Group is a law firm owned by Meridian's founder. Formation is a separate legal engagement under its own engagement letter, and you are always advised in writing of your right to choose independent counsel.
The Launch Concierge
The determination letter is where most advisors stop and where most families stall. The Launch Concierge is Meridian's onboarding: your portal goes live with the foundation's records in order from day one; the governance kit — bylaws calendar, policy suite, minute templates — is installed; the compliance calendar is built around your actual filing dates; and the first grant docket is prepared for your board's first real meeting. When a Meridian engagement begins within sixty days of formation, the onboarding fee is waived.
Three moments when a foundation stops being an idea
After a Liquidity Event
A sale, an exit, or an IPO has created both the means and the tax moment. The window for deliberate structure is now — before default decisions harden into permanent ones.
An Estate Plan Taking Effect
The documents call for a foundation, and the family now has to build the institution the plan assumed. We turn a paragraph in a trust into a working grantmaker.
Formalizing a Family's Giving
The checks have been generous but ad hoc for years. The family is ready for structure: shared purpose on paper, a governance rhythm, and giving the next generation can inherit.
Asked, Answered
Can we use our own lawyer for formation?
Of course. Meridian works alongside any counsel you choose — your family's existing firm, a specialist we help you identify, or Clemenza Law Group. The Giving Blueprint and the Launch Concierge are the same either way; we simply coordinate the calendar with whoever is doing the legal work.
Do we have to form a private foundation?
No, and the Blueprint does not assume one. For some families a donor-advised fund, direct giving, or a combination serves the intention better. The Blueprint compares the vehicles honestly at educational altitude, and its recommendation follows your goals — not a product.
Is ninety days realistic?
Ninety days is the working plan from engagement to first grant docket, and each step above shows where the weeks go. The one timeline no one controls is the IRS's processing of the exemption application — so the plan is built to make everything else ready the moment the determination letter arrives, and we tell you plainly when government timing, not preparation, is the constraint.
What does Meridian actually do versus the lawyers?
Meridian does the thinking before formation (the Blueprint) and the building after it (the Launch Concierge) — strategy, governance design, administration, and the portal. Lawyers form the entity and secure the exemption under their own engagement letter. The seam between the two is documented, deliberate, and disclosed in writing.
Ninety days starts with one conversation
Tell us where the intention stands — a liquidity event on the horizon, an estate plan in motion, or a family ready to formalize — and we will map the path from there.