Liam is 21 and has two weekly volunteer jobs: helping care for to-be-adopted cats and making/delivering lunch to Meals on Wheels clients. It is not so unusual, I guess, for a man to be so passionate about giving back to his community. Except this one thing about Liam: he was diagnosed with severe autism before age 2. He also happens to be my son. When Liam was diag [...]

Last year I was lucky enough to attend the Food Bytes Summit in San Francisco hosted by Rabobank. Besides the great venue of a craft brewery and distillery, the energy in the room was electric. The goal of the summit is to provide a platform for innovative food startups to showcase their product and to help facilitate connections that would hopefully lead to seed fund [...]

The definition of vertical integration is as follows: “The combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies.”Many of us are familiar with “vertical integration” and see it on a regular basis – most recognizably in the areas of communications and technology. For example, phone companies (such as Apple and Verizon) v [...]

“Work life balance” and “flex schedule” are two phrases that have been thrown around and overused in the accounting profession for years. In concept they are great. They provide opportunity for me to fit more things into my day. I can now work my 10+ hour day, take the kids to school, have a greater amount of family time, volunteer, coach, go to the gym, read a book, [...]

While California is on the mend from a drought (we can only hope the rain continues to help replenish our lakes and rivers), many other parts of the country are drowning. Louisiana is recovering from what the National Weather Service is calling a “1,000-year rain” that flooded the area for three days leaving houses, industry and farmland devastated. Louisiana is known [...]

In our previous blog, No Strings Attached, we discussed the importance of unrestricted general operating support from grant makers. However, general operating support may not be the best – or only way – to assist every grantee organization. Instead of, or in addition to a grant, program-related investment (PRI) sometimes makes sense. If you haven’t ventured into prog [...]

There have been numerous discussions about the economic pros and cons of a phased-in $15 wage floor but not that many around the practical application, so I thought I’d share a recent situation I encountered. Background: On January 1, 2017, the minimum wage in California increased to $10.50 per hour for employers with 26 employees or more (a large employer). Questio [...]

The world of video on demand (VOD) is evolving steadily as VOD networks and their content suppliers continue to find synergies and profit strategies beyond everyone’s expectations. It seems like both sides are not necessarily in opposition at this point – both just want to figure this out. One example is the speed at which first-run films are getting to VOD. The trad [...]

By Liubou Partnaya (Tax Senior Associate, GHJ) With Donald Trump as President-elect, proposals presented during his campaign are brought to the forefront. Among his proposals are sweeping changes to our income tax laws. Here is a quick overview of individual and business tax reform positions. Major highlights for individual taxpayers include: Simplifying the tax code [...]

They say there are those who have a green thumb, and those who do not. I fall somewhere in the middle of “those who do not.” I struggle every day just to water my plants, if only for the opportunity to watch as they grow and thrive right in front of my eyes. As it turns out, many more Americans are doing the same or more when it comes to growing their own food. An est [...]