We look forward to hosting you for the 2024 seminar!
Gain invaluable knowledge to protect your organization's assets and limit liabilities
This seminar is designed to update and inform managers and trustees of private foundations about the ever-changing tax laws that affect private foundations and encourage dialogue with the panel of speakers about practical problems foundation managers face in the day-to-day management of their foundations.
To do this, the seminar sessions address a wide array of topics – IRS perspective, often overlooked rules, current and real-life issues. A panel of knowledgeable speakers share their expertise and experience with attendees. The seminar strives to bring attendees together in a nurturing and collegial atmosphere to learn the basics, hear about new developments, discuss real-world solutions and discover the best practices already in use by their peers.
We believe this seminar is the preeminent tax forum for private foundations in the country as it continues to present superb speakers who share their expertise with attendees.
Meet the faculty
James K. Hasson, Jr., a graduate of Duke Law School (J.D.) and Duke University (A.B.), is a partner in the law firm of Hasson Law Group, LLP, in Atlanta, Georgia. He has published numerous articles and speaks extensively at various conferences around the country, and has served as Chair of the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar for Private Foundations since it was founded. He served from 1987 through 1990 as a member of the Exempt Organization Advisory Group to the Commissioner of the IRS and served for almost 20 years as an adjunct professor of law in the graduate tax program at Emory University School of Law. He has served as chairman of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the Tax Section of ABA and as the Tax Section liaison to the Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS, and he is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. He has been recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers since 2003 in the area of tax; named to The Best Lawyers in America since 1987 in the areas of nonprofit/charities law; and selected annually for inclusion in Georgia Super Lawyers®. He serves as legal counsel for, or as a board member of, multiple foundations and other tax-exempt organizations.
Ann Batlle advises medical research organizations, private foundations, and public charities on tax, executive compensation and employee benefits issues, intellectual property and research matters, and grantmaking. She has worked closely with independent research organizations, major research universities and academic medical centers, and research-focused philanthropies as they seek to catalyze basic research and impact the lives and health of others through innovative partnerships and technology transfer arrangements. She also advises tax-exempt organizations on lobbying compliance, corporate governance and board interactions, related organization and complex structures, and Internal Revenue Service audits.
Krysta Copeland joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2019 and currently serves as Vice President & Associate General Counsel. Ms. Copeland is the lawyer for the Foundation’s Innovative Finance team, which structures program-related investments (PRIs) worldwide, including debt, equity, convertible grants and guarantees. By leading the implementation of PRIs, she also strengthens the Foundation’s programmatic work in energy, food, health, economic equity and climate & resilience. She is the lead lawyer for Rockefeller Foundation Impact Investment Management, the Foundation’s investment advisory arm. She also supports the Foundation’s endowment office and serves as secretary of the Investment and PRI Committees.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Copeland was a corporate attorney at Latham & Watkins in both London and Washington, DC. She primarily represented fund sponsors and institutional investors, leading all legal aspects of fund formation, fundraising, governance and compliance. She also represented issuers and investment banks in international debt and equity offerings.
Ms. Copeland is admitted in New York and D.C. and is a member of the National Bar Association and American Bar Association. She earned her J.D. from the Howard University School of Law and her B.A. in Political Science and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
Maureen Lawrence serves as El Pomar's Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Director of Community Programs. She manages the legal affairs of the Foundation and provides strategic and operational leadership for El Pomar's Regional Partnerships program as well as oversight for other Foundation community stewardship programs.
Maureen first Joined El Pomar as an intern in 2002, and then again in 2003 as a participant in the Fellowship program. After her time as a Fellow, Maureen earned her law degree and then clerked on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit for the Honorable Paul J. Kelly, Dr. She was a commercial litigator at WilmerHale in Washington D.C. before relocating to Philadelphia where she practiced for eight years, first as an associate and then shareholder, at Hangley Aronchick Segal Puldin & Schiller. Maureen's practice focused on federal antritrust litigation and other complex commercial litigation matters. She also routinely advised clients on matters of legal and judicial ethics. Maureen has been actively involved in her community through board service as well as pro bono work, which included her collaboration with other firm colleagues and the Pennsylvania Innocence Project in the release of a Pennsylvania inmate whose conviction was overturned after having served 33 years in state prison. Maureen returned to El Pomar in her current role in September 2019.
Ofer Lion has represented nonprofits and tax-exempt organizations in a wide range of tax, transactional, corporate, governance, and fiduciary matters, including formation, mergers and acquisitions, executive compensation, international activities and affiliations, unrelated business taxable income, joint ventures, program-related investments, political activities and lobbying, audits and tax controversies, tax return review, tax -exempt bonds, and dissolutions.
He has extensively represented companies in all aspects of transactional tax matters, including mergers and acquisitions (domestic and cross-border taxable transactions, tax-free spin-offs, Section 351 transactions and corporate reorganizations), equity and debt securities finance, partnerships and private equity funds, real estate investment trusts (REITs), bankruptcy reorganizations, debt restructurings, and state and local tax issues.
Ofer has been quoted as a tax-exempt organizations authority in numerous news stories, including on NPR, by The Associated Press, and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Tax Analysts, The Huffington Post, Forbes.com, and Politico.com.
He has taught “Tax-Exempt Organizations: Law and Practice” as an adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Law.
Ruth Madrigal has extensive experience, both within the government and in private practice, advising on a wide variety of legal and tax policy issues affecting charities and other tax-exempt entities. She is a principal at KPMG LLP and the leader of the Exempt Organizations group in the firm’s Washington National Tax practice. Ruth has more than a decade of private practice experience in law firms, advising a broad range of exempt organizations and their donors, as well as advising corporations and individuals on such areas as charitable giving, social impact activities, and corporate social-responsibility programs.From 2010 to 2016, Madrigal served as an attorney and policy advisor in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where she was responsible for advising the Assistant Secretary of Tax Policy on all tax matters involving tax-exempt organizations and their donors. She was responsible for drafting regulations, administrative guidance, and legislative proposals relating to the tax-exempt sector and charitable giving, as well as representing Treasury at public hearings and meetings with other federal agencies, foreign governments, Members of Congress, and state regulators.
Celia Roady counsels tax-exempt organizations on tax and governance issues. Charities, foundations, colleges and universities, museums, and other nonprofits are among her clients. She regularly advises private foundations and public charities on operational and programmatic issues, including the structuring of complex grants, program-related investments, joint ventures and collaboration arrangements. Tax-exempt organizations turn to Celia for advice on issues such as executive compensation, private foundation excise taxes, unrelated business income, corporate sponsorships, lobbying and campaign intervention, and board governance practices. Celia regularly represents tax-exempt organizations in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits, as well as seeking IRS rulings and determinations.
El Pomar’s Penrose House Conference Center serves as the venue for the 14th Annual Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar. Located at 1661 Mesa Avenue in Colorado Springs, it is conveniently located within walking distance of The Broadmoor hotel. Additional information and history of Penrose House can be found here.
Seminar attire is business casual (no coat or tie). Please dress comfortably.
Information well worth your time
Continuing Education
The Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar for Private Foundations provides CPE and CLE credits. Participants earn up to eleven CPE or CLE credits. To be awarded full credit hours, you must be present, registering your attendance and departure on attendance sheets provided during seminar. Advanced preparation or prerequisites not required to attend Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar.
Continuing Professional Education (CPE)
El Pomar Foundation and the Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar for Private Foundations is an official sponsor on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. Our sponsor identification number is 137037.
Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar for Private Foundation is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE)
All participants who will be applying for CLE credits will receive all necessary documents to then be filed by the participant with their appropriate state entity following the Seminar.
Say hello to Eleanor Martinez
Please contact Eleanor Martinez, eleanormartinez@elpomar.org or (719) 577-7062, for questions or assistance.
Seminar policies
Please find policies below to help guide your Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar experience.
Every effort is made by seminar faculty to answer all questions posed by registrants, but with the understanding that such questions and answers do not create an attorney-client relationship with the faculty members and are provided for educational purposes only. Presentations and answers to questions do not constitute legal advice or a recommended course of action in a specific organization’s situation and registrants should engage and consult qualified legal counsel before taking any action discussed during the seminar.
Per Treasury Department requirements, none of the written materials provided to attendees during the seminar is permitted to be used in promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax shelter or other transaction, arrangement or matter or for the avoidance of any penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code or any other applicable tax law.
The sponsors of the seminar, upon request, will assist any registrant in obtaining professional education credit for seminar attendance but cannot assure registrants that such credit will be provided and cannot assume any costs associated with obtaining credit of this type.
The Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar for Private Foundations is an informal forum for the exchange of information among speakers, trustees or directors, foundation staff members and governmental representatives. Its purpose is to advance knowledge of and compliance with the many federal and state laws and regulations affecting private foundations and similar organizations. Experience has shown that the free and open exchange of information is inhibited if audio or video recordings are made of presentations by speakers and of question and answer sessions among speakers and guests. It is the policy of the Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar that no speaker or attendee may record the presentations or question and answer sessions, even if for one’s personal use. Any speaker or attendee who violates this policy will be required to leave the seminar if he/she is unwilling to comply and to erase any recordings made contrary to this policy. El Pomar Foundation, as presenter of the seminar, reserves the right to require any person to surrender to it any recording made in violation of this policy.
Registrants may cancel their registration through August 28 for a full refund. Please contact eleanormartinez@elpomar.org to request a refund.
Plan your stay in Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is centrally located in Colorado, with easy access from the Colorado Springs Airport, and a reasonable drive from Denver International Airport. A major tourist destination, Colorado Springs offers an abundance of activities and amenities to enhance your visit for the Seminar.
Round-trip and one-way shuttle service between both Colorado Springs Airport and Denver International Airport and our Colorado Springs resort can easily be arranged through The Broadmoor Transportation Department once you have finalized your flight plans. Please contact us at (855) 266-2522 to arrange reservations or learn more about our airport shuttle services and other transportation options.
The official hotel for Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar is The Broadmoor. Built in 1918 by El Pomar Foundation founder, Spencer Penrose, The Broadmoor is Colorado’s Premier Forbes Five-Star Resort, offering world-class, luxury amenities in an extraordinary Rocky Mountain setting.
Since first opening its doors over a century ago, THE BROADMOOR has offered guests an incredible way to experience the unique beauty of the American West. Today, that tradition is met with warm, genuine hospitality and an unmatched selection of programs and activities that celebrate its magnificent surroundings.
A room block will be held for Rocky Mountain Tax Seminar attendees at The Broadmoor. When seminar registration opens on March 15, 2024, a link will be posted here to access hotel room block registration.
Valet Parking: The overnight Valet Parking Fee for Hotel Guests is $35.00 per night. Based upon availability, Valet parking for those visiting our restaurants or shops is complimentary.
Parking Garage: The overnight Self-Parking Fee for Hotel Guests is $25.00 per night with full in and out privileges.
For those guests visiting property, but not staying overnight, Garage Parking is available. The hourly charge begins at $2.00 for the first 30 minutes, with an additional $2.00 per half hour up to 10 hours or $12.00. Any parking exceeding that amount of time will be tallied at a maximum daily charge of $25.00.
Colorado Springs Airport (COS) is conveniently located just 15 minutes from The Broadmoor and is serviced by several major airlines, with non-stop flights available through several U.S. cities.
Head west onto the Milton E. Proby Parkway
Continue onto Drennan Road
Turn left onto S. Academy Blvd.
After 1.1 miles, take the ramp onto US-85
Turn left onto US-85 N/US-87 N
After 3.2 miles, turn left onto Lake Avenue
Continue straight through 3 traffic circles to reach the main gate to The Broadmoor
Denver International Airport (DEN) is one of the world’s largest airports, providing nonstop daily service to more than 126 domestic and international destinations. A major international gateway to the Rocky Mountains, Denver International Airport is located 90 minutes from our Colorado Springs resort.
Exit the airport on Pena Blvd.
Follow Pena Blvd. to Interstate 70 West
Stay in the right-hand lane and take the first exit, which is I-225
Follow I-225 until it intersects I-25
Take I-25 south to Colorado Springs
Continue on I-25 through Colorado Springs to exit 138, Circle Drive.
Turn right off the exit onto Circle Drive and follow it until it becomes Lake Avenue, approximately 2.6 miles, to The Broadmoor.
Colorado Springs is a world-class destination with an array of urban activities, outdoor recreation offerings, and cultural experiences. Enjoy live music at quality concert venues, authentic meals at trendy restaurants, or a trip to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, which was ranked the 3rd best zoo in North America! You’ve probably heard about Garden of the Gods, Manitou Incline, and Pikes Peak, all of which are renowned places to visit in the region.
To learn more about all that is happening in Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region, visit Peak Radar or Visit Colorado Springs.