NCFP Blog

Lisa Parker remembers the first time she met someone like her. Parker, now the third-generation president of the Lawrence Welk Family Foundation, had grown up in a prominent philanthropic family. But it wasn’t until middle school — when she learned that one of her classmates was the daughter of a family that ran a California family foundation — that she discovered that she is part of a larger tribe. “We looked at each other and thought, ‘We’re the same aliens,’” Parker recalled earlier this month from the main stage of the National Forum on Family Philanthropy in Seattle… Read More

I can’t not do this. It’s not that I can do this, it’s that I can’t not. I don’t have time to not make an impact. I could not imagine not..." I don’t remember the first time I heard someone use one of these grammatically incorrect phrases. But I hear these statements consistently, to this day, from educated and literate people. I know you have heard of “can-do” people, they are eager and willing, we admire them and hope our children become like them when they grow up. But the regular heroes you will meet in this book go way beyond can-do, they can’t not do. … Read More