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How to Manage Relationships with your legal, financial, and investment advisors

Posted on September 15, 2010 by National Center for Family Philanthropy

How can we get an honest picture from our advisors about whether the strategies they are pursuing are the right ones? How do we know our advisors are telling us everything we need to know? Consider having general investment, legal and other training sessions for your foundation board that are conducted by someone other than the advisors who you’re working… Read More
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What is the 5% payout rule?

Posted on October 15, 2008 by National Center for Family Philanthropy

This familiar, if complex, rule is getting additional attention from family foundations looking at the fourth quarter of the year amid an economic downturn. What do the rules require? And what will that mean next year for foundations and the nonprofits they support? So what exactly are the rules? The figure below from Splendid Legacy 2: Creating and Re-creating Your… Read More
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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