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Family Philanthropy Board Chairs: Leading with Joy and Effectiveness

Posted on May 15, 2019 by Elaine Gast Fawcett

Two white women sit at a table, looking off camera to illustrate the Passages issue brief on Board Chairs
Who typically serves as the board chair of a family foundation, and how does the board choose who will be placed in this essential role? What are the responsibilities of board chairs, and what skills, qualities, and aptitudes are likely to lead to better board dynamics and performance? What are the common challenges that board chairs face, and what tips do existing chairs for tackling these challenge? And how do board chairs and leadership staff work together to strengthen board and foundation performance?… Read More
Featured Article

New ncfp.org and Family Philanthropy Online Knowledge Center

Posted on May 14, 2019

An important part of the new site is opening up public access to the Family Philanthropy Online Knowledge Center. This means anyone can access many of the Knowledge Center’s resources without logging in. Most importantly, these resources will now turn up in online searches via Google and other search engines. This raises the visibility of NCFP and our content, and… Read More
Voices from the Field

Let’s Be Candid About Board Succession Planning

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Katie Ensign, Deidre Garton, Megan Bell

Board meeting where people are analyzing numbers on a sheet
The Wilson Foundation was started in 1963 by Joe Wilson, founder of Xerox Corporation, and his wife, Peggy. The foundation embarked on strategic planning to revisit their giving priorities, but they quickly realized their impact goals would be successful only if they had the proper governance structure. In this blog, they share their board succession planning process… Read More
Voices from the Field

Family Funders: Always Important in Rural Communities

Posted on May 10, 2019 by Allen Smart

The history of the United States is marked by wealth created in rural America. Timber and wood products in the northwest and northeast; fossil fuels in Appalachia, the southwest and Rocky Mountains; textiles in the south, among others. Related philanthropic funds have been created alongside these rural industries—often from multi-generational family commitments to these rural communities. With the renewed focus… Read More
Voices from the Field

Why Study Integrated Philanthropy in Complex Multi-Generational Families?

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Wendy R. Ulaszek, Ph.D., Neus Feliu, Ph.D., Kelin E. Gersick, Ph.D.

Generations - African American Family
In a follow-­up to Generations of Giving, NCFP is now co-­sponsoring a research project with LGA to explore how complex, multigenerational business families are using a variety of vehicles beyond their family foundations to pursue philanthropic goals—including their personal philanthropy, donor-­advised funds, corporate social responsibility programs, and values‐aligned investing strategies… Read More
Voices from the Field

My Family Stories: Thickening a Thin Narrative

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Sara Southwood

A black background graphic that says "we learned to invite funders to ask themselves three important questions: what am I inheriting? who am I? what do I want to do about it?"
A real storytelling practice only began in my family about 10 years ago. Like many other families with a strong patriarch, our family foundation needed to make important and difficult decisions together while also managing our differences. In order to be more effective, our multi-family office suggested we “tell the family stories.” While my grandmother is a genealogist who has written 17 books about 400 years of my mother’s family line, we had never been much about family storytelling… Read More
Voices from the Field

Arriving at 100 Percent for Mission. Now What?

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Clara Miller

A hand holds up a pen that says "where to invest?"
The Heron Foundation, which seeks to help communities out of poverty, has used innovative financial techniques to reach their goal of 100% of their endowment towards mission. What's next? We always knew that “getting to 100 percent,” would be like reaching a false summit. We would like to share some lessons we learned on the path to our “100 percent” goal, as well as our thoughts on the significance of those lessons and our own plans for the future… Read More

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