Maura Whelan is Senior Counsel in the Firm’s Exempt Organizations Practice. Maura has deep experience advising philanthropists and tax-exempt organizations on advancing mission objectives while navigating complex legal and regulatory rules. She provides practical, solutions-oriented counsel to tax-exempt organizations, high net worth individuals, family offices, major corporations, and innovative philanthropic structures seeking to carry out effective and compliant philanthropy. Maura represents tax-exempt organizations across their full lifecycle, from formation and governance to succession planning and ongoing compliance to wind-down and termination. Maura has particular experience working with private foundations and other grantmaking organizations to structure and implement sophisticated grantmaking programs, and regularly counsels donors on major gifts, including gifts of art and other complex assets. In addition, Maura represents charitable and social welfare organizations pursuing social impact, mission-related, and program-related investments, as well as endowments, foundations, and other institutional investors engaged in alternative investments.
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Work Highlights
- Formation and structuring, governance framework and initial multi-funder planning related to the establishment of a novel $1 billion philanthropic initiative seeking to expand economic opportunity for low-income Americans
- A private foundation in connection with transformative grants to domestic and international universities
- A philanthropist in connection with an historic gift to Hunter College to enhance its nurse practitioner master’s degree program and catalyze a new level of high-quality health care in underserved communities across New York City
- One of the world’s largest private foundations in connection with governance and succession planning
- A private foundation in connection with the establishment and operation of a highly-selective fellowship program hosted at a premier Chinese university
- A major collector in connection with a promised gift of Cubist art and a monetary gift to fund a new research center at a New York museum
- A private foundation in connection with the transformation of an historic pier on Manhattan’s west side into a public park offering an immersive experience with nature and art
- Various tax-exempt organizations in connection with the establishment and implementation of “mission-related” investment policies and programs
- Several significant private foundations in connection with program-related investments and loans
- Several public charities and private foundations in comprehensive governance reviews and audits
- Several endowed institutions in connection with secondary sales of interests in their investment portfolios
Education
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Harvard Law School, 2010 J.D.
cum laude
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Georgetown University, 2005 A.B.
magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa
Associations
- American Bar Association Section of Taxation, Member and Former Secretary, Exempt Organizations Committee
- New York City Bar Association, Former Member of the Non-Profit Organizations Committee
Admissions
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District of Columbia 2025
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New York 2011
Maura Whelan is Senior Counsel in the Firm’s Exempt Organizations Practice. Maura has deep experience advising philanthropists and tax-exempt organizations on advancing mission objectives while navigating complex legal and regulatory rules. She provides practical, solutions-oriented counsel to tax-exempt organizations, high net worth individuals, family offices, major corporations, and innovative philanthropic structures seeking to carry out effective and compliant philanthropy. Maura advises tax-exempt organizations across their full lifecycle, from formation and governance to succession planning and ongoing compliance to wind-down and termination. She has particular experience working with private foundations and other grantmaking organizations to structure and implement sophisticated grantmaking programs, and regularly counsels donors on major gifts, including gifts of art and other complex assets. In addition, Maura represents charitable and social welfare organizations pursuing social impact, mission-related, and program-related investments, as well as endowments, foundations, and other institutional investors engaged in alternative investments.
Maura is recognized as a thought leader and is regularly featured as a speaker at the premier conferences of exempt organizations and their advisors, including Georgetown University Law Center’s Representing and Managing Tax-Exempt Organizations Conference, University of Texas School of Law’s Nonprofit Organizations Institute and meetings of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation Exempt Organizations Committee. Maura also regularly participates in conferences and convenings aimed at capacity building for smaller and less-resourced tax-exempt organizations, including those hosted by New York State Council on the Arts, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
Maura is a member of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation’s Exempt Organizations Committee and previously served as Secretary of that Committee. The Committee is considered the nation’s leading exempt organizations practitioners group. Maura also is a former member of the New York City Bar Association Non-Profit Organizations Committee.
Maura earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she graduated cum laude. She earned her A.B. from Georgetown University, where she graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.