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This guide reviews various ways to assess philanthropic impact. It looks at what assessment can accomplish and what it has difficulty measuring. It sets out a series of questions donors can ask as they consider how to proceed with their philanthropy. And finally, it details some of the limitations inherent in trying to understand exactly how donors’ dollars are working. While precision in measuring impact can be difficult, donors should not be discouraged.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law in the U.S. on March 27, 2020. The legislation has brought about sweeping changes meant to provide relief to individuals and businesses. As part of the CARES Act, certain changes were made with respect to tax benefits to incentivize charitable giving.

As individuals and families contemplate their charitable giving, they often consider forming a private foundation or creating a donor-advised fund. Understanding the pros and cons of each giving strategy can help them determine the best option to meet family development and philanthropic goals.

What does it mean for a family funder to share and shift power? Here are ideas and questions to help guide an internal discussion on how your policies and practices affect the power dynamics of your philanthropy, and what you can do to alleviate this in your grantmaking, governance, and management practices.

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.

In this Executive Summary of the Trends 2020 survey report, conducted by the National Center for Family Philanthropy, it shares the updated trends on the governance and management practices of U.S. family foundations, and includes new questions relevant to ongoing changes in the field including issues of equity, place-based giving, transparency, the role of the donor, and the question of spend down versus perpetuity.

In this Trends 2020 survey report, it focuses on the family foundation, the most common philanthropic vehicle for families seeking more structure, control, flexibility, next generation engagement, and visibility. The study reveals a shift in grantmaking strategies, an increasing use of impact investing, and a strong focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.