by Kevin R. Laskowski
This year, the National Center for Family Philanthropy
celebrates ten years of inspiring family giving. To mark the occasion,
Family Giving News invites you to spend “A Year with the Giving Family.”
What follows is a calendar of activities designed to engage
you and your family in a new philanthropic endeavor or to reinvigorate an
existing family giving program. Each month in 2007, in addition to Family
Giving News’ regular features and profiles in family philanthropy, we’ll
revisit these activities with new ideas and stories on how your philanthropic
family can plan, act, evaluate, celebrate, and innovate in the new year and
beyond.
This proposed calendar may proceed too quickly for some
groups and too slowly for others. Our hope is that we can provide you with some
practical ideas that will make your giving together more meaningful and
effective. A happy New Year to all and happy giving!
Planning (January-March)
- Assemble a giving team.
Whom would you like to involve? Parents, siblings, children? Close friends
or colleagues? Would you like to work within an existing giving program or do
you want to start something new?
- If you’ve already been
giving together, identify and discuss areas of satisfaction with your efforts,
and areas that you think need strengthening.
- Re-examine personal
values. Recall a book or film or article or event that caught your attention
and informs your thinking. List your values. Consider using a workbook such
as Inspired Philanthropy by Tracy Gary and Melissa Kohner to guide your
discussions together.
- With the group, decide on
a common set of values. Bring your personal values to the group, and look for
areas of common ground. Depending on your group, these areas could be fairly
narrow and specific, or they might be broad and general. In either case, look
for a convergence and build from there.
- Begin to think of the
kinds of work that supports these values and the groups doing that kind of
work. Team members may need to do some research on the Web or ask
knowledgeable people in the community (or those already funding your issues)
for ideas.
- Begin listing several
nonprofits you’d like to support in some way to act on these values.
- Decide on an amount to be
distributed. Will this money come from the group? From an existing
philanthropy? How much?
- Develop a set of
evaluative questions. What are your goals in supporting each nonprofit? How
will you know your goals are being met? What are your expectations?
Action (April-June)
- Decide which members of
your giving team will speak with each of your potential grantees about the
kind of support they need and about your group’s expectations.
- Contact prospective
grantees and discuss your options. Determine which organizations are working
in your interest areas and, in general, whether their results have been
positive to date. Report back to the group about your findings.
- Decide as a group which
nonprofit or nonprofits will receive grants and for what amount.
- Now that you have decided
to invest financially, consider how else you might support the work of these
grantees. What talents, skills, interests and connections does your giving
team possess? How might this capital be tapped as well to support your new
grantees?
- Draft an informal plan for
each major grantee that outlines not only your hopes for what the grant will
accomplish, but also includes the other ways your group can be involved.
- Make the grants, and where
possible, get involved.
Making a Difference (July-September)
- Make a site visit if
you’re not already working with the grantee in some other way. Contact the
grantee and discuss successes and challenges.
- Evaluation can be
problematic on a scale such as this—one year and possibly a relatively small
grant. Nonetheless, revisit your evaluative questions. Is this grant meeting
your expectations? Why or why not?
Celebration (October-November)
- Talk together about what
you’ve done and what you’ve learned. Share what this has meant to you with
the rest of the team. When you’re ready, share your observations with others
outside your team, and with representatives of the nonprofit itself. If your
group is pleased with your process and what you’ve learned through your
interactions with your grantees, think about ways to share the learning with
others.
Innovation (December)
- Finally, think about what
remains undone. What else might your team be able to accomplish, perhaps done
differently, in the new year? If you could do things over again, what would
you do differently?
- More broadly, think about
your efforts over the course of the year. How much of your current
philanthropy is the result of careful planning and reflection upon your values
and your goals for the future? How much of your grantmaking is done in
consultation with the needs of the groups with whom and for whom you make
grants? How often and in what ways do you evaluate whether or not you’re
accomplishing your philanthropic goals? Do you pause to celebrate and share
the achievements of your nonprofit colleagues with others?
- Resolve to innovate in the
new year for another year of inspired family giving.
Portions of this article have been adapted from an article
that appeared in The Cursor (Portland, OR: Software Association of
Oregon, February 2000), written by Dianna Smiley.
Family Giving News is published monthly by the
national center for family philanthropy
1818 N Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036
http://www.ncfp.org
please be advised that the content of family giving news is for informational
purposes only, and is not intended to constitute legal advice.