Ginny Esposito

Virginia M. Esposito

Senior Fellow and Founding President

Virginia M. Esposito, is the founding president of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. In January 2020, Ginny transitioned to the role of Senior Fellow to focus her efforts on research, writing, and consulting with families.

For more than 35 years, Ginny has worked to advance private philanthropy through research and education. For 30 of those years, she has focused on the family philanthropic experience, promoting values, vision, and excellence across generations of donor families. Ginny was editor and principal author of the first edition of Splendid Legacy and of Splendid Legacy 2: Creating and Recreating Your Family Foundation. Her research publications include The Power to Produce Wonders: The Value of Family in Philanthropy and The Family Foundation CEO: Crafting Consensus out of Complexity. Ginny also edited, and was principal author of, the four-volume Family Foundation Library and numerous articles and issue papers on family philanthropy. She has presented at hundreds of programs for and about donor families throughout North America and on four other continents. In addition to her work on family philanthropy, Ginny edited Conscience and Community: The Legacy of Paul Ylvisaker, the writings and speeches of the late foundation trustee, educator, and dean of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. She has served on boards and committees for organizations including Great Nonprofits, the Binational Commission on the Nonprofit Sector (US and South Africa), the Commission on the Future of Public Education (Public Education Network), Committee on Ethics and Accountability (Independent Sector), the Philanthropy and the Black Church Project, and Strengthening Native American Philanthropy. She currently serves on the board of directors of the John M. Belk Endowment.

Contributions

From NCFP

Values, Visions, and Vitality

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Virginia M. Esposito

Last week, the National Center for Family Philanthropy held its annual board retreat. We returned to The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in Tarrytown, New York for the first time since our first board retreat more than 15 years ago. We spent most of our first retreat developing our values statement and refining our mission and program agenda,… Read More
From NCFP

The Spirit of Spring

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Virginia M. Esposito

Virginia Esposito, President, National Center for Family Philanthropy Happily, it is Spring. Those in the Northeast may be wondering about that but I assure you, it is coming to you too. There is something about the spirit of Spring that, for me, embodies the spirit of family philanthropy. It’s renewal. Without the promise of new vitality, of renewing the promise… Read More
From NCFP

Be the Architect of Change, Not the Victim

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Virginia M. Esposito

“Foundations change, like it or not. The fundamental issue is whether they will change by chance or for significant reasons. The latter comes about only through conscious effort.” – Frederick deWolfe Bolman Transitions in family philanthropy are those moments in the life-cycle of your philanthropy – prompted by family, foundation/fund, or community circumstances – that signal some significant shift. The… Read More
From NCFP

Celebrating Fifteen Years of Advancing Excellence in Family Philanthropy

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Virginia M. Esposito

What a privilege it is to begin the New Year celebrating the National Center for Family Philanthropy’s 15th Anniversary!  For the small, dedicated, and optimistic group that launched a center committed to advancing family philanthropy in 1997, what has been accomplished in our first 15 years exceeds even our wildest dreams. Even I (maybe the most optimistic of all) marvel… Read More
From NCFP

The Gift of Leadership

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Virginia M. Esposito

‘Tis the Season …. The Season of Gifts.  We figure out those who will receive the gifts, we research, we wrap, we ship, and we anxiously await word on whether our gift was a hit. For family philanthropy, such gift giving is a way of life.  You’re in the happy – if challenging – position of making smart, successful gifts… Read More

Performance Review: Evaluating the Family Foundation CEO

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Virginia M. Esposito, Beth Casselman, Julie Fisher Cummings, Doug Bitonti Stewart

Little has been written about how to review the performance of family foundation CEOs. The job carries a unique set of roles and responsibilities including the special skills required to support effective board governance, work within the family’s culture, represent the family in the community, and engage in grantmaking in the context of the family’s legacy… Read More
From NCFP

Milestones in Family Giving: the Contagious Joy of Philanthropic Celebrations

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Virginia M. Esposito

Everyone loves a good celebration.  Families particularly mark the special moments in their lives with celebrations: an anniversary, graduation, wedding, or a birthday (especially those birthdays that end in the dreaded “0” – 30, 40, 50, and whatever numbers come after that!). While families may celebrate personal milestones, their approach to their philanthropic work may be more “nose to the… Read More
From NCFP

Rowing the Philanthropic Boat Together: Reflections on Consensus and Civility

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Virginia M. Esposito

A foundation needs trustees who can work together productively, but it does not require that they be unanimous in their opinions or uniform in their outlook. …A foundation’s extraordinary potential for good springs from its board’s ability to act as a collective, to be cohesive in fulfilling its public trust. As Alfred North Whitehead remarked, “No member of a crew… Read More