National Center for Family Philanthropy

All hands on deck: Next gen board promotes new leadership

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Kevin Laskowski

A few summers ago, the board of the Lawrence Welk Family Foundation issued a challenge to young family members. Gathered at a family-owned resort in San Diego for the family’s annual meeting, the fourth generation of Welk family members was told about a local shelter for homeless families. The shelter hosted a preschool and therapeutic learning center that needed a… Read More

Passing the Baton: Generations Sharing Leadership

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Alice Buhl

Today’s family foundation field has many well-prepared next generation members and a whole generation of longer living, active senior members. And while the field has been resourceful in promoting next gen involvement, it has done little to address succession issues for the senior generation or to consider options for shared, multi-generational leadership. Alice Buhl discusses lessons learned from family business,… Read More

Strategic Philanthropy: Maximizing Family Engagement and Social Impact

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Ashley Blanchard

For the sake of family cohesion and engagement, many family foundations base their grantmaking on the varied personal interests of their trustees. The unfortunate result is a scattershot grantmaking portfolio, with limited social impact. Conversely, a family foundation risks excluding family members if they are not interested in a shared programmatic agenda, minimizing the unifying potential of the foundation. The… 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

Family Governance Meets Family Dynamics: Strategies for Successful Joint Philanthropy

Posted on October 28, 2007 by Fredda Herz Brown, Patricia Angus

This Passages issue paper explores the interplay of family dynamics and family governance in family philanthropies, concluding families who think about their governance systems, including how decisions will be made, are less likely to be encumbered by family dynamics than families who begin their philanthropies informally, progressing to formality over time. In addition, families who openly address their underlying internal… 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

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