FAMILY GIVING NEWS
Geographic Dispersion in Families:
Working Together from a Distance
 

November 2003, Volume 3, Issue 11
 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

[Click on the section title to jump immediately to that section.]

UP FRONT... GEOGRAPHIC DISPERSION IN FAMILIES: WORKING TOGETHER FROM A DISTANCE

WHAT'S NEW AT THE NATIONAL CENTER
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND FORTHCOMING RESEARCH

FRIENDS SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT ON...
PLACE-BASED PHILANTHROPY

SPOTLIGHT ON...
TRENDS AND NEW RESEARCH ON FAMILY PHILANTHROPY

WHAT'S GOING ON:
CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS

Many of us look to the Thanksgiving holiday as a central occasion to get together and celebrate all that we have to be thankful for as families and as individuals. Some families also use this time as a chance to talk about their philanthropic activities and values, and to have a family foundation board meeting or discussion to review grantmaking strategy, mission, and a shared vision for the goals of the philanthropy.

Such discussions are a perfect example -- or perhaps byproduct would be a better description -- of the focus of this month’s issue of Family Giving News: geographic dispersion in families, and it's effect on the family's philanthropy.

Geographic dispersion is a fact of contemporary American life that has forever altered family relationships. Inevitably, it has affected family philanthropy as well.

Topics discussed in this month's issue include:

• Funding in areas where trustees no longer live

• Maintaining effective family communications over large distances

• Developing a grants strategy and focus that keeps family members engaged and reflects their different interests and backgrounds... but that also reflects the shared family values that the philanthropy was established to represent

• Additional opportunities for geographically-dispersed families

This issue of FGN also features a look at the Place-Based Philanthropy Initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as well as new trends and research on family philanthropy.

As always, please let us know what issues you are currently facing, and how the National Center for Family Philanthropy and Family Giving News can better serve you in this important work.

The December issue of FGN will include our first-ever reader survey, and we hope that you will take a few moments to provide us with your perspectives on what we are doing well... and not so well!

Thanks in advance, and best wishes to you and your families for a very Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at the National Center.
 

Source:
Grantmaking
With a
Compass

BOARD DISCUSSION QUESTIONS ON GEOGRAPHIC DISPERSION
Situations of geographic dispersion force families to raise fundamental questions. This set of Board discussion questions is included in the National Center's publication, Grantmaking With a Compass: The Challenge of Geography.  Issues addressed include how to share responsibility for grantmaking and governance across distances, and how to develop criteria for participation among family members who no longer live in the community in which the philanthropy is based.

STRATEGIES FOR FUNDING IN AREAS WHERE FAMILY
MEMBERS NO LONGER LIVE
Today, it is not uncommon for family foundations to find themselves funding in geographical areas where no family trustees live and, for that matter, where no future generations are likely ever to live. In some cases, trustees have no say about where grants are given; the donors of those foundations left instructions in their trusts legally binding successive generations to distribute funds in a particular place. More often, though, trustees voluntarily continue the practice of funding those communities out of respect for the donors. Usually it is the place where the donors lived and prospered, and the entire family feels a debt of gratitude to the area.

No matter how good their intentions, however, many successor trustees learn that it is not always easy to keep such a commitment. Third-and-fourth generation trustees may no longer live in the donors’ community—indeed, some may never have lived there—and find it difficult to sustain interest in a geographic region they do not know and to which they lack any personal connection. Moreover, they are unsure of the best way to continue serving it.

One family wrestling with that dilemma is the Holley Foundation in Detroit. Since its inception in 1944, the foundation has funded organizations that fall under a broad mission of helping disadvantaged young people receive an education. The three second-generation trustees allocated the largest portion of funds to Michigan, where the donor had lived and where one trustee resided, and divided the rest between the home towns of the other two trustees. Today, the circumstances are far more complex. The size of the board has quadrupled: currently, three family members from each of the three branches plus three non-family members serve on the board. The 12 trustees live in seven states. Furthermore, the family members, who grew up in different towns, don’t know one another well and, predictably, have diverse interests. What’s more, none of the family trustees lives in Michigan.

The board has scheduled a series of retreats to consider its role in southeastern Michigan philanthropy along with the philanthropic interests of its geographically dispersed board members. Barbara Frank, the foundation’s president, is optimistic about the outcome. Working in its favor is the board’s commitment to the foundation and the positive energy the trustees bring to their discussions. “What unifies us is our admiration for our grandfather and our shared memories,” says Frank. “He was a generous and creative man, and we all want the foundation to reflect his spirit.”

Those who strive to honor the donors’ attachment to a community say that their biggest challenge is staying sufficiently well-informed about the area to make good grantmaking decisions. Chapter Two of Grantmaking with a Compass: The Challenges of Geography explores how geographically dispersed boards have responded to this challenge, including:

• Educating trustees about the community,

• Drawing on community resources,

• Bringing non-family community members onto the board,

• Setting up separate funds,

• Taking legal action to change the trust, and

• Spending out the corpus.

Order your copy of Grantmaking With a Compass today to learn more about these techniques and strategies for dealing with geographic dispersion in your family.

CASE STUDY

A TREE GROWS IN GALVESTON: THE EXPANDING LEGACY OF THE HARRIS AND ELIZA KEMPNER FUND

The roots of the Kempner family in the United States started with Harris Kempner. A Jewish immigrant from Poland in 1854, he made his way to Cold Springs, Texas, where he worked as a door-to-door peddler, and then leveraged his business into a successful dry goods store. In 1946, two of his son's, along with three grandsons and a granddaughter, started the Galveston Fund with $38,500. The fund is worth more than $30 million today.

One of the major organizational challenges for the Kempner family is geography. While Galveston is the ancestral homeland for the Kempners, many of the younger family members are no longer interested in or living in Galveston. And while nothing in the Fund's bylaws explicitly states that it must fund in Galveston, the foundation clearly has had a Galveston-centered mantra. This profile explores the implications of these and other issues on this fascinating Texan family.

CASE STUDY
 

THE SHERWICK FUND: ESTABLISHED BY A FAMILY OF VISION
This profile of the Cleveland-based Sherwick Fund describes the evolution and purpose of this family-managed supporting organization. Created in the early 1970s as the first supporting organization in the United States, the fund's trustees have worked with their parent organization, the Cleveland Foundation, to develop policies and standards in areas of grantmaking, management, and governance. As part of this development, the Fund has considered how best to incorporate the interests of trustees who no longer reside in the Cleveland area, along with criteria for their ongoing participation, described here.

Source:
Andrus Family
Fund

Read more
about the experiences
of the Andrus
family here.

CASE STUDY

THE BETS: AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO EDUCATING TRUSTEES AND FAMILY MEMBERS ABOUT PROGRAM AREAS
In January 2001, the Andrus Family Fund launched the Board Exploration Triads (BETs) project, an experimental approach to learning about grantmaking. Participants were divided into small study groups or triads composed of an Andrus Family Fund trustee, an extended Andrus family member, and an outside expert. Over a period of eight months, each BET explored a different aspect of the Fund's two program areas: Transition from Foster Care to Independence and Community Reconciliation. In September, the teams met in New York to share what they had learned.

This paper describes the BET process and suggests how other family foundations may adapt the model to their circumstances.

Source:
Family Matters

GEOGRAPHIC DISPERSION:
FINDING OPPORTUNITY THROUGH GROWING PAINS
As family foundations age and disperse they face many of the growing pains that families themselves do. Foundations, however, undergo an additional challenge: meeting the emotional needs of the family and the operational needs of the foundation.

Most family foundations established in perpetuity experience the challenge of geographic dispersion. As family members move to different parts of the country, and even the world, a host of questions ensue. How can the foundation keep a scattered board in contact, interested and active when the foundation is centered hundreds of miles away?

This edition of the Council on Foundation's Family Matters newsletter shares strategies and perspectives on issues related to geographic dispersion. Special thanks to Karen Green of the Council for allowing us to share this resource with Family Giving News subscribers.

Please go here or to the link at left for additional details.

DEMYSTIFYING DECISION-MAKING IN FAMILY PHILANTHROPY
The notion of selecting a method to use in making a decision is foreign to many family foundations and advised funds. Getting board members to agree can be difficult enough. Why would foundations and advisory boards want to add yet another step to the process? Many family foundations follow the decision-making procedures established in their bylaws. Typically, the bylaws require a majority vote or consensus to set or change policies, and foundation boards use these methods to make all decisions.

This current edition of Passages describes different kinds of decisions made under varying conditions and circumstances requiring different decision-making methods.

By Ann Shulman
September 2003, 12 pages

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS:
SAVE MORE THAN 40% ON THESE COMPREHENSIVE SETS
The National Center has created these special collections bundled for your convenience by topics of interest. Topics covered include Options for Family Giving; Trustee Orientation and Training; Family Dynamics; and others.

Click on the links below to review contents and to order.

Getting Started: Options for Family Giving –
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Getting Started in Family Philanthropy –
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Trustee Orientation and Training –
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Organizational Planning and Renewal –
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Management and Financial Issues –
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Family Dynamics –
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For additional information about Friends
of the Family, please
click above.

The National Center for Family Philanthropy is pleased to announce a new feature for Family Giving News: the "Friends Spotlight". Each edition of FGN will highlight families and foundations that are part of the National Center's Friends of the Family network. Families and individuals belonging to our Friends of the Family network have shown an ongoing commitment to the values, vision, and vitality of family philanthropy in their communities, and throughout the U.S.

If you are interested in learning more about this special leadership circle of partners, please contact the National Center at 202.293.3424.

This month’s issue features a look at the work of the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to “develop educational programs to end the cycle of domestic violence and save lives.” The Foundation was officially launched on November 12th.

JOE TORRE SAFE AT HOME FOUNDATION
Friend of the Family since 2003

According to the Foundation’s website:

“The thrust of the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation will be one of education aimed at breaking the very cycle of [domestic] violence. Over the next year, the Foundation will focus on the New York metropolitan area. A national model will follow."

"The Foundation will utilize experts in the field of abuse prevention to design focused outreach geared for specific action. Plans are being put in place for an all-out campaign to educate those trapped in abusive homes on how they can get help. Boys and girls will be taught that abuse is wrong and that they can and must be part of the solution.”

In an article published by PNN Online, Torre explained his very personal reasons for establishing the foundation:

"For most kids, home is a sanctuary, a place where they feel safe and secure and loved. Many children, however, live in homes filled with violence and fear, and I know from personal experience how devastating growing up in a home like that can be. Our Foundation will be dedicated to developing and funding educational programs to end this devastating cycle of domestic violence, so that every young person has the chance to truly experience the joys of childhood and a safe and loving home."

"Domestic violence is a national tragedy that remains mostly hidden behind closed doors," he continued. "It affects families of all cultures and economic means. Virtually every serious social problem is more likely to visit a child who has been raised in an abusive home."

The Foundation's website includes facts and statistics on domestic violence, as well as a bio on the foundation's founder, the current manager of the New York Yankees.

For more information about the vision, mission, and goals of the foundation, please visit the link at left.

PLACE BASED PHILANTHROPY: THE ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION

Over the past fifty years, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has developed knowledge and tools to advance strategies that produce improved results for disadvantaged children and their families. The Foundation has found that focusing on a specific place -- a neighborhood or community -- with an emphasis on strengthening families, has enabled it to have the greatest impact on the kids and families who live there. The Foundation has also learned that while changing the results for kids and families in tough neighborhoods is difficult work, some foundations have been more effective than others in achieving significant results.

Based on its experiences, the Foundation has identified the following characteristics as being reflective of effective foundations:

• They focus their philanthropy to respond to a pressing social need;

• They recognize the role of place in a family's success and partner with residents to develop strategies to produce improved results for children and their families;

• Their programs and activities are results-oriented and informed by a theory of change that understands the need for long-term involvement;

• Strategies emphasize the collection and use of data to set priorities, advocate for change and track results;

• They act as a catalyst or convener to foster collaboration and coordination among the various community stakeholders, such as non-profits, businesses, government, residents and consumers;

• They use their unique standing in the community to leverage political, human, and financial capital to support these strategies.

The Foundation refers to this type of grant making as "Place-Based Philanthropy."

WHERE DO MOST FAMILIES GIVE?
According to Family Foundations: A Profile of Funders and Trends, most family foundations limit giving to their local communities, states, and regions. The study, based on a sample of more than 18,000 family foundations, found that only one-in-thirteen of all family foundations funds nationally or internationally.

The following chart, adapted from the Association of Small Foundations' 2002 Membership Survey Results, found that nearly one-in-five of ASF's members funded on an national or international basis during the previous year.

Source:
Annie E. Casey Foundation

CASE STUDY:

STEANS FAMILY FOUNDATION: A CASE STUDY IN PLACE-BASED GIVING
In 1994, the Steans family had the satisfying experience of seeing three-quarters of the children in their I Have a Dream class graduate from high school – in fact, 90 percent of this classroom of low-income children mentored by the family was able to take advantage of the Steans’s pledge to send them to college. At the same time, the Steans family anticipated that their family foundation assets would soon expand exponentially through the sale of a bank. Parents Harrison and Lois Steans and adult daughters Heather, Jennifer, and Robin were determined to use their resources in a way that would have the maximum impact on disadvantaged children in their hometown of Chicago.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
PLACE-BASED PHILANTHROPY READING ROOM
This collection of resources from the Casey Foundation's Place-Based Philanthropy website includes research and discussion papers on the motivations of donors and the strategies of family foundations and other funders. These resources are designed in part to help local nonprofits and community service organizations develop effective outreach techniques for working with these new and existing donors.

Subscribe now to Passages

Order
Family Philanthropy:
What We
Don't Know

FAMILY PHILANTHROPY: WHAT WE DON'T KNOW
How has family philanthropy been defined? What is the extent of family philanthropy? What patterns of giving characterize family philanthropy? What are the motivations for family philanthropy? How are family philanthropies governed and managed?

In 2002, the National Center for Family Philanthropy commissioned The Urban Institute to identify, review, and assess existing empirical research on a set of broad questions concerning the sources, nature, and consequences of family involvement in philanthropy. We cast a wide net, seeking research on giving or volunteering by any two or more individuals related by blood, adoption, or marriage. We not only sought research explicitly focused on family philanthropy, but also work on related topics (such as foundations or individual philanthropy) that might include material on family philanthropy.

This paper provides those with research, policy, and practice-oriented interests in the field – including nonprofit administrators, fundraisers, advisors, and donors themselves – with a compilation of available knowledge about family philanthropy.

This study is one of a kind, the first to venture into unexplored terrain about family philanthropy.  It provides a wealth of new knowledge about this important part of American society.  It also presents many areas for future research. 

-- Richard M. Hunt
Trustee, Roy A. Hunt Foundation

View 90 page report (946K)

View 20 page summary
(570K)

Visit New Visions' Website

This study and the larger Donor Education Initiative was funded by the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

"More donors today are seeking greater ‘social returns’ on their giving," says Tom Reis, Program Director in Philanthropy and Volunteerism at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "The foundation world has an important stake in supporting the learning needs of America's diverse donor base. This study provides an important roadmap for how the philanthropic community can help to strengthen the resource infrastructure of the donor education field."

TIME AND MONEY:
AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT 45+ VOLUNTEERS AND DONORS
This AARP study was developed to assess the extent of community service and charitable giving practices for the population aged 45 and over. The study's introduction notes that life expectancy in the U.S. has doubled over the past 100 years, and that a person aged 50 today can typically expect to live another 30 years.

The study found that most people aged 45 and over take on some role as a volunteer and contributor. The study included several questions designed to determine the extent of non-organizational donations and reported results on these types of donations as well as more traditional gifts. When questions measuring charitable giving were expanded to include non-organizational donations such as money given to family and non-family persons in need, the study reports that almost nine in 10 individuals have made charitable donations in the past year.

Additional findings from the study include:

• Older African Americans are more likely than those of other racial and ethnic groups to work through their churches to help the needy

• Older Asian Americans are more likely to support museums and other cultural institutions

• Older Hispanics donate the least money -- but the most time -- to community organizations and people in need.

The survey, of Americans 45 and older, reveals that all of them donate time and money for the same reasons: a sense of responsibility to their families and their communities and a feeling of satisfaction in helping.

NEW EQUATION FOR CHARITIES: MORE MONEY, LESS OVERSIGHT
According to this recent article from the New York Times, the Internal Revenue Service currently has 800 employees who collectively have the task of monitoring more than 900,000 charities - along with another 690,000 other tax-exempt organizations.

The article describes a variety of recent scandals at nonprofits and foundations, and notes that, "A drumbeat of such reports has made regulators and leaders of large charities aware of the need for greater accountability."

"But efforts to bring change have faltered, victim to budget constraints or lobbying by nonprofits that have long mastered the art of casting themselves as on the side of the angels."

The article describes the shortcomings of the existing structures in place at the state and federal levels to provide oversight to nonprofits, and the eroding of public trust in charities due to these and other negative stories.

The article also refers to the important role that the boards of nonprofits and foundations must play in ensuring the appropriate use of charitable dollars, but reports that, "Lawyers who work with charities, and experts in nonprofit governance, say the volunteer nature of most charity work has contributed to a laxness that has been compounded by the structure of many nonprofit boards."

NUMBER OF CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS IN S. FLORIDA SURGING
This article describes a new study from the Donors Forum of South Florida which reports on the creation of nearly 670 foundations in the region since 1996. The article says that the creation of these new foundations "marks the beginning of an unprecedented transfer from one generation to another of trillions of dollars, and has already begun changing the face of philanthropy in the area."

The study reports that 330 new foundations were formed since 1996 in Palm Beach County alone, representing $885 million in new philanthropic assets. Nearby Broward County saw the creation of five new family foundations with assets of more than $33 million. One of these foundations, the Chen Family Foundation, was established in Fort Lauderdale in 1998 following the death of the family's grandfather, a Taiwanese fishing and shipbuilding mogul and philanthropist.

The Donors Forum called it "hard evidence of the long-predicted, unprecedented intergenerational transfer of wealth," citing the 2000 study by Paul Schervish and John Havens from Boston College which estimates that between $41 trillion and $136 trillion will change hands from now until 2052, with $6 to $34 trillion estimated to pass to the nonprofit sector.

Featuring speeches by Bill Clinton and Carrie and Charles Schwab, as well as a wide variety of sessions on governance, management, grantmaking, and family dynamics.

Featured sessions include:

• Grace, Gratitude, and Generosity: How Faith Motivates Family Philanthropy (Monday, February 10, 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.)
   
• Generations of Giving: Leadership and Continuity in Family Foundations (Monday, February 10, 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.)

For additional information about registration and agenda for this conference, please go to: http://www.cof.org.

Review
Program

Building for Success
FOX 2004 Multi-Family Office and Wealth Advisory Firm Conference
Sponsored by Family Office Exchange
February 18 to 20 ~ Phoenix, Arizona

For additional information about registration and agenda for this conference, please go to: http://www.foxexchange.com

Corporate Citizenship Seminar Featuring Claire Gaudiani
Sponsored by the Boston Business Journal, Associated Grantmakers,
  and Social Venture Partners
December 10 ~ Boston

For additional information about registration and agenda for this conference, please go to: www.boston.bizjournals.com.

For additional information about registration and agenda for this conference, please go to: www.law.miami.edu/heckerling.

3rd Annual Conference on Borderless Giving
Global Philanthropy Forum
March 3-5, 2004 ~ Palo Alto, California

For additional information about registration and agenda for this conference, please go to: www.philanthropyforum.org.

For additional information about registration and agenda for this conference, please go to: www.geofunders.org.

THANK YOU for reading this month's edition of "Family Giving News." We encourage you to share this resource with your colleagues and associates: please sign up below if you are not already a subscriber to this complimentary resource. Be on the lookout for the next edition of "Family Giving News" in late December.

BEST WISHES TO ALL FOR A VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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© 2003 National Center for Family Philanthropy.
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