What Donors Want

Posted on February 8, 2007 by Deanne Stone, Jan McElwee, Shirley Fredricks

With the creation of new family foundations, donor-advised funds, and supporting organizations still flourishing, many advisors to today’s donors (and often donors themselves) wonder, ‘What kind of information/ assistance/ inspiration/ support do new founding donors want these days?’ Advisors benefit from knowing what the concerns of new donors are, and new donors benefit from understanding what other donors are seeking… Read More

Sharing Values Effectively Across Generations

Posted on August 10, 2006 by Sharna Goldseker

Sometimes it can be tough to communicate values across generations even if the only thing that changes is the vocabulary. Although at heart we know that members of our family share values, defining and verbalizing a shared philosophy can take a special effort… Read More

The Practices of Effective Families

Posted on January 12, 2006 by Charles W. Collier

In this interactive session, Charles W. Collier, the senior philanthropic advisor at Harvard University, explored and discussed seven practices of effective families through the lens of family systems theory. He also provided fresh insights on developing the four basic components that comprise true family wealth: human, intellectual, social, and financial capital… Read More

Alternatives to Perpetuity: A Conversation Every Foundation Should Have

Posted on October 21, 2005 by Deanne Stone

This Passages is aimed at new donors considering a limited lifespan for their foundation, existing foundations that have already set a closing date, or any family contemplating the question of perpetuity. Author Deanne Stone gives background on the perpetuity vs. spending down debate and discusses the motivations for considering an alternative to perpetuity. The paper then identifies the basic challenges… Read More