Blog | Ask NCFP

How do I set priorities as the new CEO of a family foundation?

Editor’s note: This article is excerpted from the new NCFP CEO Guide, Performance Review: The Complete Guide to Evaluating the Family Foundation CEO, volume 3 of our Family Foundation CEO Leadership Series. Setting priorities can be challenging for a new CEO, what with the myriad responsibilities of the job. When Kathleen Odne, the executive director of the Dean & Margaret Read More
Blog | Featured Article

Getting Started with CEO Performance Review: Now’s the Time

June 15, 2012 | Susan Crites Price
Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from NCFP’s CEO Guide, Performance Review: The Complete Guide to Evaluating the Family Foundation CEO. In a 2010 interview study of 60 family foundation chief executives by National Center for Family Philanthropy President Virginia Esposito, most told her they do not receive a formal performance review by their board. But when NCFP interviewed board Read More
Blog | From NCFP

Milestones in Family Giving: the Contagious Joy of Philanthropic Celebrations

June 15, 2012 | 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
Knowledge Center | Passages Issue Briefs

A Place at the Table: Non-Family Membership on the Family Foundation Board

March 17, 2012 | Dorna L. Allen, Joseph Foote
Family giving comes from a common cause, a shared vision, a particular need for giving back a portion of life’s gifts. Family members can focus on shared personal interests and can shape the architecture of their giving by expressing and validating shared family experience. Foundation board service can be the means by which family members find a new and worthwhile Read More
Blog | Ask NCFP

Donor Legacy Statements, Values Statements, and Ethical Wills

I work for a small family foundation as their non-family executive director. The foundation has been in existence for 25 years. In the near term, I will be sitting down with the founder, who is preparing to write his legacy. I am wondering if you’re familiar with other founders who have shared excerpts concerning their vision for philanthropy that you thought to be Read More
Blog | Featured Article

The Value of Family Philanthropy in a Democracy

The passionate generosity of countless American families has inspired – and continues to inspire – extraordinary gifts. Indeed, we may know many of these families more by their philanthropy than by the business successes that made their largesse possible. What is most remarkable is the very phenomenon of American family philanthropy itself. An astonishing number of families make record-setting, private contributions Read More
Blog | Uncategorized, Case Studies

The Ansara Family Fund: Partnering Beyond Borders for Long-term Impact

April 15, 2010 | Jason Born
When Karen and Jim Ansara contacted the Boston Foundation on January 14, 2010 to talk about how their family’s donor advised fund could best respond to the earthquakes in Haiti – which had happened less than 48 hours before – they were continuing both a longstanding commitment to international philanthropy, as well as a more recent commitment to Haiti in Read More
Knowledge Center | Passages Issue Briefs

Logic Models: Not Just for Big Foundations Anymore

January 4, 2010 | Erica V. Ekwurzel
Logic modeling is popular with large foundations, but has not been embraced by many of the smaller ones. One reason is that foundations with few or no staff fear that producing one is complicated and time consuming. It doesn’t have to be. And it can be a crucial tool for small asset foundations looking to make sustained impact, as explained Read More
Knowledge Center | Passages Issue Briefs

Family Foundations as Agents of Change

September 4, 2009 | Jeffrey M. Glebocki, Joann Ricci
We often hear media reports on the contributions and impact of super-sized grants and mega-foundations. But data and experience tells us it’s the presence and consistency of small- and medium-sized family foundations that provide much of the fuel for nonprofit organizations in our communities. Family foundations are uniquely positioned to serve as leaders in community problem-solving. Because their board members Read More