Systems change

The Power of Urgency – The Eckerd Family Foundation

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Jason Born

Organized from its inception as a limited life foundation, the Eckerd Family Foundation took a bold and strategic approach to using its assets to create significant change on issues affecting young people, including juvenile justice, foster care, and education… Read More

The New Family Philanthropy: Investing for social and environmental change

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Lisa Hagerman

The impact investing marketplace is gaining traction—investment vehicles now span asset classes, infrastructural improvements are enhancing transparency and investor confidence, and social enterprise is maturing with a new generation of entrepreneurs. On the investor side, industry growth is being driven by large institutional investors such as public sector pension funds, banks, and private foundations. Today, we are also seeing a growing movement by families who seek to realize their core values, and effect societal change, through their family assets… Read More

Fast Forward to Greater Impact: The Power of Field Scans

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Christine Sherry

Field scans are emerging as a core tool for family funders inundated by increasingly larger numbers of nonprofits seeking funding, the ubiquity of social media pitches, and an almost limitless amount of data available on the web—data which can be more overwhelming than useful. Field scans are particularly valuable for family foundations that want to try a new strategy, find… Read More

A guide to risk taking at NYSHealth

Posted on July 15, 2013

In April 2011, a group of staff from the NYSHealth Foundation met and considered the topic of risk taking in their grantmaking. This checklist was developed for staff to more systematically assess the potential level of risk when evaluating a proposal or project. To learn more about tht thinking behind this checklist, see the June 5, 2013 iarticle, “Nothing Ventured?… Read More

Community Connections: Place-Based Family Philanthropy

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Reginald Jones, Valerie Jacobs Hapke

While some families pay particular attention to the family’s legacy of giving, and some focus on a particular issue or cause, many choose to limit their grantmaking to a specific city, state or region. Hometown serves as both the family’s sense of place and commitment. Gratitude to a supportive community and a desire to give back mean developing giving interests along geographic lines… Read More

Measuring What Counts: Meaningful Evaluation for Family Foundations

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Anne Mackinnon

Family foundations are in business to make a difference. As one family foundation leader put it, creating a family foundation is a “powerful statement about wanting to achieve impact.” Yet family foundations often get painted unfairly as not having impact, perhaps because they aren’t always very good at understanding or describing the impact they have, even to themselves… Read More

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