by Kevin R. Laskowski
by Kevin R. Laskowski
Family philanthropy is at once an intensely private and a
very public enterprise where personal principles meet public obligations. It is
often difficult to find a compromise between these competing values. Many giving
families opt to keep a low public profile, preferring to remain largely out of
the public eye. Others see value in stepping into the spotlight, and many are
taking advantage of new technology to improve transparency amid increased media
and regulatory scrutiny and an ever more sophisticated fundraising community.
Philanthropy will always be a balance of both private and public — private enough
to truly express your family’s values and yet public enough to inspire others. This month’s Family Giving News offers
suggestions for creating a communications strategy that strikes the appropriate
balance.
In crafting a communications strategy, it may help to
clarify how private or public your family wishes to be. What might a higher or
lower profile mean for your family, your grantees, and the general public?
Some families opt for a low public profile. One philanthropy advisor tells a
story of serving on an awards committee that was about to give an award to an
extremely generous community donor before learning of the donor’s particular
circumstances. The donor lived frugally in what some might call a bad
neighborhood, despite being relatively well off.
“He was distraught,” the advisor remembers. “No one could know he had that kind
of money to give. In accordance with his wishes, we gave the award to someone
else.”
Concern for one’s own safety and the safety of one’s family motivates many to
keep their family’s giving quiet. Families with young children or elderly family
members are sometimes very anxious about the kinds of attention their wealth
could attract. Others are concerned about how their children might be treated
if, for instance, they attend a school where the library, the chemistry
department, or the school itself bears a family member’s name. Others decline
naming opportunities and even recognition on a list of donors out of everyday
modesty and humility. Some families are willing to consider a more public
profile, but worry that they’ll be inundated with grant requests.
Families in small communities worry that even casual social gatherings could
become impromptu fundraising events as folks become aware of their wealth.
Whatever the motives, many wealthy families cherish their privacy.
Reasons for being public are equally varied. Some philanthropists appreciate
being thanked and acknowledged for their gifts. Some donors feel they can be a
role model to encourage others to give. Still others are looking to gain
attention for the causes and institutions they care about. This month’s
Profile in Family Philanthropy describes the
Charles A. Frueauff Foundation,
which enjoyed a relatively low profile for most of its 50-year history until the
trustees discovered how much they could advance the cause of their grantees by
taking their Little Rock-based philanthropy public. Other trustees take the
position that as stewards of a public trust, they should adopt a profile that
ensures transparent and accountable philanthropy.
“Foundations have this reputation of being mysterious, these castles surrounded
by alligator-filled moats,” declares Bruce Trachtenberg, Executive Director of
The Communications Network, an affinity
group of foundations that promotes and strengthens the practice of
communications in philanthropy. “You have no idea what goes on there.”
Family philanthropy cannot be completely private.
This is especially true for family foundations, because their tax forms are
public records easily accessible on the Internet.
How public you want to be is a discussion every family should have. Hold a
family meeting to consider the family’s mission, goals, guidelines, and how
public your common enterprise has been and ought to be in the future.
“You really need to understand and articulate who you are internally before you
can begin to communicate that externally,” explains Rich Polt, Founder and
President of Louder than Words, a
Massachusetts-based communications agency. He suggests asking the following
questions: “Will publicity allow us to further our mission? Will ‘getting the
word out’ allow us to do what we want to do better?”
Ask questions about how family members feel about the family’s wealth and the
opportunity to accomplish something significant with that wealth. How might they
feel about being recognized? How might they feel about being in the paper? How
about on TV? How might your grantees feel?
Note where the opportunities and trade-offs might be. Would you be willing to
give up a bit of privacy in exchange for helping a grantee attract new funders?
Might you consider declining naming opportunities if it made other family
members more comfortable participating in the family’s philanthropy? How will
your family balance its private commitments and its public duties?
Once you’ve explored these questions, here are some strategies for how your
family might strike that balance.
Those looking to protect their privacy have quite a bit of
latitude to do exactly that. Nothing in the law requires you to list your
telephone number in the phone book, create a web site, maintain a public office,
print business cards, publicize your grants, be acknowledged by a grantee on a
list of donors, or take advantage of naming opportunities.
Many families take this “unplugged” approach. One Southeastern family receives a
report of their fund’s finances in early November. They make giving decisions
around the dining room table the day after Thanksgiving, and a trusted attorney
signs the checks before the end of the year. Few outside the family know of
their generosity.
A foundation CEO noted that his employers made an important
decision at the outset not to lend the family name to the foundation. While the
foundation enjoys a high profile and the family itself is well-known, few know
the two are connected. Indeed, a giving vehicle allows a family to create a sort
of alter ego.
In a classic example, John Andrus dubbed his creation the
Surdna
Foundation in 1917. Surdna is “Andrus” spelled backwards. Other families
have been equally creative in crafting brands that deflect attention away from
the family and toward the causes they care about. One foundation executive
pointed out that her foundation bore the founder’s wife’s maiden name, which
distinguished the foundation from the company that bore the family’s name and
was not a name anyone in the family carried. The family was free to carry out a
very public giving program without being asked if they were that “Smith”
or that “Jones.”
“If you’re a foundation, someone’s going to find you,” says
Trachtenberg. It is legally impossible to give anonymously through a foundation,
due to tax reporting requirements. Add to that the increasingly sophisticated
services of organizations like the
Foundation Center and Guidestar,
both of whom make the Form 990-PF of the nation’s foundations available online
in searchable databases, and, chances are, your foundation’s filings will be
seen by enterprising grantseekers and fundraisers, curious reporters, and casual
web users.
For this reason, many families consider alternative vehicles such as
donor-advised funds or giving circles. If you have a foundation and are
concerned about privacy, you may want to consider whether your goals can be
achieved through another kind of vehicle. Some families even have multiple
giving vehicles for different kinds of giving.
Ironically, one way of preserving privacy in some areas is to communicate more in others. If you’re a foundation, begin with the Form 990-PF. On page 10, there is a box that can be checked to indicate your foundation “only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds.” Include this language on your web site, if you have one, and on any materials for current and potential grantees.
The possibilities for rich communication are growing exponentially. There are numerous ways for foundations and funds of all kinds to attract attention for the causes and institutions that matter to them. Here are a few:
Attempting to tell a single, powerful story can be a
difficult task if you’re sending mixed signals. The
Council on Foundations recommends making public the basic information about
your philanthropy: names of the board members, mission, guidelines, grant
process (including whether unsolicited proposals are accepted), finances,
procedures, timetable, grantee list with amounts and purpose, etc. Meanwhile,
you have a number of potential audiences: your family and staff (if any),
grantees, the media, regulators, and the general public. That can be a lot of
information to impart to a lot of people. Will your message make it to its
destination?
Trachtenberg recommends creating a basic fact sheet—a one-to-two-page document
that details all of the above information, the essential facts of your
philanthropic life from your values and history to the grants that express them.
Take care that all communications—from conversations with grantees to interviews
with reporters—reflect the information on this fact sheet and the story you wish
to tell.
“The best place to get information is from the foundation
directly,” asserts Anna Kay Freuauff Williams, trustee and Vice President of
Communication and Programs at the Charles A. Freuauff Foundation. And one of the
best ways to impart that information today is through a web site. Your web site
can serve as the one-stop shop for information about your philanthropy in lieu
of or in addition to a traditional printed annual report.
Begin with the information on your fact sheet: contact information, mission,
grant guidelines, and finances. The web sites of the
Dyson Foundation and the
Johnson Scholarship
Foundation are models of transparency. At the Dyson Foundation’s web site,
you can see the foundation’s annual reports and view statements of financial
position. The Johnson Foundation posts its financials and even provides a
glimpse into how its assets are managed.
Once you’ve established your basic web presence, you can experiment with more
personal and more interactive features. The
George Gund Foundation makes its
famous annual reports available online. Each year, a photographer is
commissioned to highlight a particular area of interest for the foundation’s
annual report. The Foundation simultaneously promotes the arts, the communities
it serves, and the field’s interest in accountability.
The Helen Bader Foundation offers an online
application process, streamlining the application process for interested
grantees and busy staff. The Frieda C. Fox Family
Foundation offers in-house video production to select nonprofits and hosts
the resulting documentaries on the Foundation web site.
Creating a compelling web site needn’t be overly complicated. In fact, you may
already have the talent and resources within your family. The Fox Family
Foundation’s web site was created entirely in-house—from the logo to the
programming. If you’re considering a web site, think about tapping next
generation family members for help. You might be surprised at what they’re able
to create. Other foundations have used students and faculty at local
universities to create their sites. Talk to fellow donors with web sites or
contact your local community foundation or regional association and ask how they
built their online presence.
Remember that your foundation already has an online presence at sites like the
Foundation Center and Guidestar. Both organizations allow foundations to update
their profiles. Take a moment to see what grantees and the general public are
seeing when they log on to sites like these. If you’d like to take that profile
at step further, the Foundation Center provides free web sites to foundations
through its “Foundation
Folders” program.
And keep in mind that family foundations aren’t the only giving vehicles with an online
presence. The Jonas Center for Nursing
Excellence is a project of the Barbara and Donald Jonas Family Fund, a
donor-advised fund at the Jewish
Communal Fund in New York. Dining
for Women and Bread for the
Journey are networks of giving circles around the country.
Start small. The Helen Bader Foundation’s now well-known
communications efforts started small with one-on-one conversations with
reporters about foundation priorities. You can begin your own media relations
program by assessing the outlets—press, radio, TV, online—in which you’d like
your stories and the stories of your grantees to appear. Identify the person at
those outlets responsible for the kind of stories you’d like to tell. If there
isn’t a philanthropy reporter, perhaps there’s an education, health, or religion
reporter who might be interested in your story. Introduce yourself and pitch
your story.
“If you’re really trying to build public will and support for something
extremely important,” Trachtenberg suggests, “It may make sense to hire
someone.” As your communication needs grow, consider hiring a consultant or an
experienced staffer or perhaps retaining the services of a public relations
firm.
Don’t be discouraged if your grantees aren’t front-page news tomorrow. Even if
your story doesn’t catch on, you’re developing relationships with people who
might be interested later. You might be called upon later for answers to
questions about developments in philanthropy, an excellent opportunity to
promote your family’s efforts and the achievements of your grantees.
Family philanthropy inevitably operates along a continuum
of private and public--from anonymous giving to high-profile grantmaking.
Wherever your family's giving happens to fall, consider making your public
profile a conscious decision, striking a balance between private values and
public commitments and ensuring a rich, rewarding experience for you, your
family, and the communities you support.
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