Voices from the Field

Know Your Family Foundation Life Cycle

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Mary Phillips, GMA Foundations

a family with kids plays in a pile of autumn leaves
Editor’s note: This content is authored by Mary Phillips at GMA, where she leads GMA Foundations’ consulting practice. GMA is a content partner of NCFP and the piece appears with permission. By nature, family philanthropy is a deeply meaningful and evolving endeavor. Families are notoriously unique in their approaches to giving together, yet there are common stages and transitions that… Read More
Voices from the Field

The Exit Interview: Lessons Learned, Stories Shared and Memories Treasured from Richard Woo’s 20 Years of Leadership at The Russell Family Foundation

Posted on January 24, 2020 by The Russell Family Foundation

Richard Woo and Kathleen Simpson of the Russell Family Foundation
Editor’s note: This interview originally appeared through The Russell Family Foundation’s website and appears with permission. Original preface: Over the last 20 years, outgoing chief executive officer Richard Woo has led The Russell Family Foundation from its early beginning as he and co-founders George and Jane Russell charted its philanthropic path and giving model all the way to present-day as… Read More
Voices from the Field

4 Questions to Sit With As You Learn to Let Communities Lead

Posted on January 23, 2020 by National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

white question mark on an abstract background
Editor’s note: This article by Walter Howell and Lauri Valerio was originally published on the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy’s website and appears with permission. Good things happen when funders shift power to communities. It’s “regenerative.” We “actually get outcomes that work” and “build a groundswell for change.” But it’s hard to “give up power and build trust,” to “learn… Read More
Effective Family Philanthropy in Action

Get Rid of the Go-Between: Jacobs Family Foundation

Posted on January 21, 2020 by Elaine Gast Fawcett

Cover of the Passages Issue Brief, Bridging the Power Divide, with a person teaching a few others in a room
As a family funder, how can you acknowledge and responsibly navigate the power of your position? How does the power and privilege you hold affect those you interact with and support? How can you use your power for good—to make lasting impact? This Passages Issue Brief features stories, perspectives, and practical tips on power, and suggestions for how family funders can work… Read More
Uncategorized, Case Studies

Trust-based Philanthropy: Satterberg Foundation

Posted on January 13, 2020 by The Whitman Institute

The Satterberg Foundation recently decided to transform its processes in an effort to build greater transparency and alignment with their core values. One of the most dramatic changes was a shift to multi-year general operating support. The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project’s Shaady Salehi sat down with Executive Director Sarah Walczyk to get the scoop on why they did this and what… Read More
Uncategorized, Case Studies

Transfer Decision Making and Wealth: Chorus Foundation

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Elaine Gast Fawcett

Cover of the Passages Issue Brief, Bridging the Power Divide, with a person teaching a few others in a room
As a family funder, how can you acknowledge and responsibly navigate the power of your position? How does the power and privilege you hold affect those you interact with and support? How can you use your power for good—to make lasting impact? This Passages Issue Brief features stories, perspectives, and practical tips on power, and suggestions for how family funders can work… Read More
Voices from the Field

7 Resources to Guide Your Work Toward Inclusive Growth

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Kahler Sweeney

two people sit across a table from another person in a work environment
This piece was originally published through the Johnson Center and appears with permission. This blog was produced as a part of Field Focus: Inclusive Strategies for Prosperity, a digital series to explore philanthropy’s role in inclusive economic development and community prosperity. In his most recent article, the Johnson Center’s Distinguished Scholar in Residence for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Dr. Juan Olivarez… Read More
Network News

January 2020: News and Notes from NCFP’s Friends of the Family Network

Posted on December 31, 2019 by National Center for Family Philanthropy

a snowy forest
Friends Focus highlights updates from members of our Friends of the Family network and their cutting edge work. This month features updates from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and The Russell Family Foundation. Are you a current Friend or Leadership Circle member of NCFP with an update or good news about your foundation that you would like to share with Family Giving News readers? Please… Read More
Voices from the Field

Keeping What Counts: Should Limited-life Foundations Create Archives?

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Matthew La Rocque

archives stored in shelves in a library
What follows is a brief excerpt of the S. D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation’s report, Keeping What Counts: Should Limited-life Foundations Create Archives? Explore our content collection on foundation archives. When a foundation chooses to wind down and close its doors, it confronts a range of new questions. The most obvious relate to when it should close and what it should… Read More
From NCFP

How We Give: Ten Tips for Donors and Families

Posted on December 18, 2019 by Virginia M. Esposito

dandelion
Editor’s Note: It’s the giving season! NCFP originally published this piece on October 15, 2007. All of the tips and recommendations here remain as relevant today as they were then… There is a lot of justifiable attention paid these days to some of the BIG questions about philanthropy and the philanthropic process: Why give? How much to give? What to… Read More