Goals and Mission: Chapter 2 of “Splendid Legacy 2: Creating and Re-Creating Your Family Foundation”
Book Chapter
This resource is an excerpt of Chapter 2 from “Splendid Legacy 2: Creating and Re-creating Your Family Foundation”.
Documenting your motivations, values and principles, and priorities is a terrific way to clarify your giving. You’ll use that documentation to review opportunities to give and get involved that come your way and to dream of opportunities you want to proactively pursue. As you give and volunteer over time, you’ll learn new ways to express the ideas or even refine or re-write some.
As you put your motivations, values, and priorities to work, you may find the need for further clarification. The need may come as you involve more family members, as you start receiving more requests to give, or both. Defining your preferred giving style and creating a purpose statement increase that clarity and increase both the personal reward and impact of your giving.
NOTE: If you haven’t already done so, consider starting your exploration of purpose and motivations by reviewing the Philanthropic Purpose Primer and other featured tools in NCFP’s Family Giving Lifecycle primer series.
Start Here
Crafting Your Charitable Mission Statement: A Guide for Donors
Report
When donors start along their philanthropic journeys, one question that often arises is whether it is important to craft a mission statement; and if so, how best to do so. As with any journey, knowing your destination – or in this case, articulating your goals for your philanthropy by crafting…
Perspectives from Peers
Looking Inward: How We Clarified Our Values and Vision
Blog Post
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…
Focused Mission Statements Help Donors Decide Where to Direct Their Money
Article
Creation of a good mission statement is a worthwhile endeavor. It involves and educates current and future stakeholders, enforces focus, clarifies decision-making, and provides valuable information to nonprofits and other donors alike.
Perspectives: Internal vs. External Missions
Aligning Your External Mission with Your Family’s Values
Article
In our day-to-day work in family philanthropy, we often worry about ‘what’ we do and don’t often pause to consider the ‘why.’ Perhaps we should also spend some concerted time thinking about the why — asking questions like, "Why is our family involved in philanthropy? What impact do we hope…
Activities
Stories and Samples
Examples of Mission, Vision, and Values Statements from Family Foundations
Sample
This collection of sample mission, vision, or values statements is from NCFP’s Friends of the Family network and others and are shared as examples only. If you have sample statements that you would like to share, please contact ncfp@ncfp.org.
Mission and Values (Tarsadia Foundation)
Sample
Mission The Tarsadia Foundation supports non-profit organizations with programs and projects that provide educational opportunities for the underserved, support health and well-being of the community, and help to employ the employable through economic empowerment. Values Thrive: Programs, services and institutions can profoundly impact and improve people’s lives and prosper, as…
Mission and Values of the Irving Harris Foundation
Sample
This is an example of a Family Foundation's mission and values. The mission states enhancing the quality of life for children, families and communities by advancing human potential, social justice and equity, and creative experience and expression.
Mission Statement and Guiding Principles: Ten Commandments of the Bernstein Family Foundation
Sample
The Bernstein Family Foundation is committed to investing in people and ideas to strengthen and celebrate the greater Washington, DC, community. This document describes their full mission as well as the "Ten Commandments" that they use as guiding principles for their grantmaking.