While there are good resources to help family foundation boards identify common and effective practices in each area of governance-related questions, this guide by the National Center for Family Philanthropy focuses less on the outcomes and more on ensuring that all of the issues are considered for building the board your foundation deserves.
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Because nearly 90% of all foundations are set up with the intent to exist in perpetuity, their success depends on their ability to prepare for and manage change. The challenge isn’t merely a transition, but also the internal stress of balancing the energy and engagement of new blood with the experience and traditions of its senior members. Based on over a decade of experience supporting over 2,000 foundations, this booklet provides pertinent discussion points for each of these common transitions and what to consider at each juncture.
Beset by economic uncertainty and increasing demand for funding, grantmakers and family foundations find themselves at a pivotal moment as they adapt to a changing environment. With this breakout report, grantmakers will learn how their peers are approaching the challenges ahead of them, including mitigating the effects of inflation, addressing the talent crunch, and investing in technology to increase their agility and flexibility to further help the needs of their grantees.
During this two-part webinar presentation on private foundation succession planning, insights and planning tools are outlined and discussed to help the next generation of decision making. While there are different approaches to succession planning, knowing the donor intention is essential. Other planning elements and considerations include a mission statement, successor decisionmakers, checks and balances, spend-down division, and enhanced flexibility.
This issue brief examines the kinds of decisions that family foundations often face and sets out practical, easy-to-apply guidelines for ensuring that the foundation’s decision-making methods vary appropriately, as conditions and circumstances change.
Finding a way to facilitate trust, communication, and proper preparation and development of the necessary skill sets of the next generation can be difficult and will vary from family to family. Today, many families are finding answers to these questions through a private family foundation. If you’re thinking about staring a family foundation, here are considerations to help guide the setup, as well as potential benefits for your family and the long-term preservation of your family’s wealth.
One of the many challenges facing wealthy families in today’s fast-paced society is the need to meaningfully involve family members, including the rising generation, in the management of the family wealth enterprise. One way to engage the family is through philanthropic giving where families can derive great benefit from working together to define their core values and shared vision. If your family decides to take this approach, forming a private foundation may be the right answer for you.
When starting with family philanthropy, a family can choose a donor-advised fund or establish a private foundation. Each option has different requirements and management issues, including start-up costs, privacy matters, control of grants and assets, and flexibility in impact investing. Serving as a general guidance for you and your experienced advisor, this chart provides comparison data between donor-advised funds and private foundations that can help you choose the option that is best for you and your family.
Philanthropy is changing and evolving more quickly than ever, with new societal challenges, new players, and new strategies. In this time of change, questions of how family foundations can optimize their effectiveness are increasingly urgent. This paper by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors provides an overview of the Theory of the Foundation, some of its benefits, and a roadmap that enables foundations to address urgent questions, explore fundamental beliefs or implicit assumptions about their work, public benefit, and action.
There is a passionate and growing effort among funders to focus less on change that is short-term or only at the project or program level; such funders are instead using models that reach across different sectors and approaches and dig deep into root causes, leading to more structural, systemic change. Aiming their efforts at more transformational progress on the challenges facing society today, family foundations and funders are moving forward with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).