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Geographic Dispersion

Posted on December 15, 2007 by National Center for Family Philanthropy

Q: My family’s foundation has traditionally given in New England and continues to support nonprofits there, but family members live all around the country. How do we keep people engaged? A: As today’s families are more mobile than ever, geographic dispersion has become a crucial issue for family philanthropists as they try to keep distant family members involved. Consider the… Read More
Featured Article

Telling Your Family’s Story

Posted on September 15, 2007 by Kevin Laskowski

Family philanthropies are intimately connected with the past that shapes them. As stewards of both a public trust and a family legacy, philanthropic families are constantly drawing on their history for wisdom, energy, and focus. That’s why growing numbers of families are recording their stories to share with future generations. The sharing can be as simple as storytelling at a… Read More
Featured Article

Beyond Grantmaking

Posted on August 15, 2007 by Kevin Laskowski

“Foundations do not need a lot of money to be effective,” Ylvisaker declared. “If, indeed, they were to exploit only a fraction of the strategies available to them, their individual and collective impact on American life would be vastly and beneficially expanded.” Charles W. Collier, senior philanthropic adviser at Harvard University, agrees. “There is more to family wealth than the… Read More
Featured Article

Privacy and Publicity: First Steps in Creating a Communications Strategy

Posted on July 15, 2007 by Kevin Laskowski

Family philanthropy is at once an intensely private and a very public enterprise where personal principles meet public obligations. It is often difficult to find a compromise between these competing values. Many giving families opt to keep a low public profile, preferring to remain largely out of the public eye. Others see value in stepping into the spotlight, and many… Read More
From NCFP

Summer, Sharing, and Vacations: Activities for Children

Posted on July 15, 2007 by Virginia M. Esposito

It’s summer and a young person’s fancy turns to …philanthropy? Well, perhaps more than you might think. I ran into a friend recently and she told me her college freshman daughter was off to Nicaragua. Sarah belongs to a group that organizes charitable field trips for young people – giving them the chance to help those considerably less fortunate while… Read More
Case Studies

The Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Kevin Laskowski

Charles Bronfman returned from a trustees’ meeting of the Mount Sinai Medical Center with an idea. Bronfman, Chairman and co-founder with his late wife Andrea of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, had heard of the Medical Center’s efforts in the emerging field of personalized medicine. Dr. Jeffrey Solomon, President of the Philanthropies, recalls, “He came back to the foundation… Read More
From NCFP

Motivations for Board Service: Why Many Family Members Want In and Some Don’t Want to Leave

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Virginia M. Esposito

Many of the requests for help that come to me directly or as referrals from colleagues or National Center staff are about governance. When it comes to the fundamentally important issue of effective trusteeship – and appropriate foundation governance – the range of questions is startling and no question is insignificant. How do other foundations structure their boards? Should we… Read More
Case Studies

The Theodore R. & Vivian M. Johnson Scholarship Foundation

Posted on April 15, 2007 by National Center for Family Philanthropy

“Mr. Johnson felt he had been ‘lucky.’ Those were his words: ‘You know, we’ve been lucky with money.’” Theodore “Ted” Johnson returned from service as a gunnery officer in World War I and took a job with Merchants Parcel Delivery, a private messenger and delivery service. Johnson would work his way through college and up in the company, obtaining an… Read More
Featured Article

Program and General Support: Choices for Giving Families

Posted on April 15, 2007 by Kevin Laskowski

In an ongoing salvo in the decades-long debate surrounding program and general operating support, a 2007 report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy charges: The grantmaking practices of a significant part of the foundation sector may be crippling small community-based and other nonprofit organizations because of one significant factor—the unwillingness of most foundations to provide general operating support to… Read More

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