Voices from the Field

Courtesy of Leah Kelley from Pexels While COVID has brought to the forefront the challenges that students face with getting a quality education, many students have struggled to get the supports they need to succeed in school for years. As the executive director of a family foundation focused on supporting efforts that promote educational, career, and life success, I have… Read More

Courtesy of Tiger Lily from Pexels This blog post is excerpted from the upcoming Passages Issue Brief: Enhancing Your Family Philanthropy with The Family Governance Pyramid. For more information about family governance, please register for our Effective Governance: Principles, Policies, and Practices webinar on April 8, 2021. Over the past few decades, practitioners and academics from various disciplines have been… Read More

Courtesy of Pixbay on Pexels Donors have an array of options when it comes to selecting a giving vehicle(s). Vehicles offer a range of tools, decision-making structures, and approaches to achieve impact. While philanthropy traditionally showed up as grantmaking through two main entities, the private foundation and the donor-advised fund, a number of alternate and uniquely impactful vehicles have gained… Read More

In this new series, Meeting Makeovers, board development expert and founder of CSR Communications, Nancy Murphy, highlights a different meeting challenge each quarter and offers a makeover solution. See the first blog post here. Problem Area: Failing to “look in the mirror.” Makeover Solution: Institute a regular meeting evaluation using a consistent format. For many boards, the end of a meeting… Read More

This article was originally published by Giving Compass and is re-posted here with permission. This is part two in a four-part series. Read part one here and part two here. “The most important journey you will ever take is from your head to your heart.”  —Anonymous When our group of 13 women came together in 2019 to imagine a future where affluent individuals “returned” a portion… Read More

Courtesy of Pixabay This letter was originally published by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and is re-posted here with permission. Jaimie Mayer is a co-chair of NCFP’s new Board Chair Peer Network. If you are interesting in joining, please sign up here. In Alicia Garza’s new book, The Purpose of Power, she writes: “Before we can know where we’re going…we need to know where… Read More

As the CEO of a family foundation with a defined end date, I am frequently asked how we retain and motivate staff when everyone on the team knows their job will end in the not-too-distant future. As a leader, this is a tremendously interesting situation to manage. It takes careful thought and deft, compassionate leadership (which I aspire to but… Read More

Courtesy of Serpstat from Pexels Foundations have been badly underserved in terms of available financial benchmarking resources. Coverage of foundations tends to focus mainly on where donations dollars are going without much attention paid to what happens to the money that stays in foundations’ endowments. The few reports that are available either 1) only describe the largest foundations, 2) are… Read More

The McKnight Foundation has implemented a new program devoted to equity and inclusion in our state. David Nicholson, program director of the Vibrant & Equitable Communities program, shares how that team is thinking about systems change and what they’ve learned so far. Q: As a family philanthropy, how do you see your role in moving racial equity forward? And how… Read More

As we approach the conclusion of Black History Month we are pleased to share a fresh look at the special role of Black philanthropy in the US. “African American giving is grounded in a collective sense of responsibility and obligation towards the community and the continuing larger struggle for liberation. It is based on a generosity of spirit as an… Read More