CASE STUDIES AND
FINAL REPORT

COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS
COLLECTION

LINKS TO ADDITIONAL
RESOURCES

The Practice of Family Philanthropy
in Community Foundations

PRACTICES FROM YOUR COLLEAGUES:
DONOR ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATION

Has your foundation created an effective strategy or practice for engaging and educating donors that you would like to share? Please send your suggestions to ncfp@ncfp.org. Remember to include a brief description of the challenge you were seeking to address, how you addressed that challenge, and what the results have been. Also include your contact information for those looking to get in touch with you for further details.

STRATEGY/CHALLENGE #1: 
STRATEGIC GRANTMAKING SEMINAR

Donors wanted a deeper opportunity to learn about philanthropic strategies used by the Foundation that they might use in their own giving.  Seminar was designed and made available to general public. 

HOW:

Our strategies in philanthropy seminar looks at five different lenses that we use at PCF in our grantmaking -- from crisis response to systems building.  The seminar looks at the HOW of giving, not the TO WHAT.  It takes people off of issue areas and specific projects into the deeper questions of what results am I expecting? What is my style of giving and why am I comfortable there? 

We also look closely at the concept of "return on investment" in grantmaking because we've found that when there's a disconnect between the grantmaking strategy and the expectation for its outcome, there can be huge donor disappointment.   We try to bring that possibility to consciousness by looking closely at ROI (i.e., I must SEE the results of my giving to I'm comfortable with knowing I played a small part in something really big.)

RESULTS:

The strategies seminar has had a huge impact.  Novice grantmakers have started to find their wings, take carefully considered risks (another concept we preach), and analyze results.   All participants have said that they surfaced assumptions they were using in their previous giving that they could reconsider.   

Foundation: Peninsula Community Foundation
Website: www.pcf.org

Submitted by: Ash McNeely
Email: ash@pcf.org

STRATEGY/CHALLENGE #2: 
CREATING PHILANTHROPIC PLANS FOR FAMILIES

When donors first start a fund, some are so sure they know what they want to support. But after a while, they say that "it isn't as satisfying" as they thought it would be. Some complain about the myriad of requests they receive after word gets out about their charitable giving. Some say they feel frustrated and abused.

HOW: 

We took a multifaceted approach to this challenge. We meet individually with donors, bringing in consultants when appropriate, to define values and dreams. In addition, we hold donor sessions monthly (8-9 total- no one is in AZ in summer), sometimes at donors' homes, sometimes at the office, to alternately, review and practice skill development in grantmaking (missions, evaluating requests, what to ask for, etc.) and hear from community organizations and ACF staff about community issues. This affords donors an opportunity to get a sense and determine what they really care about, meet other donors with similar interests and to learn from each other.

We encourage involvement of young adult children in all our activities. We also have sent out a bibliography of books and internet resources, some of which we have in the office Family Foundation Library, of materials for family foundations. In addition, we created a place on our website that donors can use to view charities' missions, practices and needs they may be interested in, and to make grants on-line. Through this website, donors can post their own requests for proposals for donor advised funds and support organizations, making their grantmaking strategic, at times, and more focused. Donors can also review their fund activities on-line, giving them a current status of grantmaking capabilities.

RESULTS: 

Many donors have not participated in these activities, preferring to continue their own advising practices. Others have written, with assistance and with tools we provided, missions, guidelines, processes and have made a commitment to review these periodically. Donors have invited other donors to visit charities with them.  Donors have used the website to post a request for proposals and research areas of interest. Families can also check the fund activity statements, giving them a current status for their grantmaking capabilities.

Foundation: Arizona Community Foundation
Address: 2122 E. Highland, Suite 400
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Website: www.azfoundation.org

Submitted by: Joan Lowell
Email: jlowell@azfoundation.org

STRATEGY/CHALLENGE #3:
GETTING PEOPLE TO THINK ABOUT FAMILY PHILANTHROPY

HOW:   

Hold Center for Family Philanthropy sponsored events to broaden our donors' perspectives.  Last year we had, "How to Become a Strategic Family Philanthropist" event and this year we had, "How to use Philanthropy to Raise Responsible Children in Families of Wealth" (Silver Spoon Kid's authors).  We hope to have similar events at least twice each year, with smaller group education topics like:  10 Ways to Involve Your Children in Philanthropy, Grantmaking 101, How to Stay Strategic, How to Leverage Your Giving Through Partnerships, etc.

RESULTS:  

Our education events allow donors to see that they are not alone, and spark thinking about how to use simple ideas to have an exciting outcome.  Something just happens when a high net worth couple says "Here are all of my concerns, and here are the specific ways that philanthropy has helped."  It causes our donors to work more closely with their donor relations officers in more intentional ways to achieve similar objectives (or to even have the discussion about what their objectives even are.)

Foundation: The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
Address: 50 Hurt Plaza, Ste. 449
Atlanta, GA  30303
Website: www.atlcf.org

Submitted by:  Bryan Clontz
Email: bclontz@atlcf.org

STRATEGY/CHALLENGE #4:
CREATING A MISSION STATEMENT FOR DONORS 

Creating a "mission statement" for the donors (mom and dad) that dealt with the fact that their two daughters were on polar opposite ends of the abortion issue. The donors were concerned that after their deaths, the two daughters would grant the balance of their fund to organizations that supported their daughter's personal position on that issue. The donors did not want the fund to further divide their daughters.

HOW: 

After sharing with the donors examples of existing mission statements that, as part of the mission statement, restricted the use of grants to certain types of non-profits, we crafted a statement that reflected mom's and dad's interests - which were varied - and restricted any grants from being made to organizations whose mission involved any aspect of reproductive issues.

RESULTS: 

The outcome of the this work was that mom’s and dad's interests and wishes were and will be met and it removed a very troubling concern of the donors that their money would go to support organizations that did not reflected their interests and would cause additional sibling conflicts. The daughters were free to give their money to their interests but not mom’s and dad's money. I believe the daughters came to recognize that this was too divisive an issue to be carried into the future of this fund.

Foundation: Greater Houston Community Foundation
Address: 4550 Post Oak Place, Suite 317
Houston, Texas 7027
Website: www.ghcf.org

Submitted by: Robert W. Paddock
Email: bpaddock@ghcf.org

STRATEGY/CHALLENGE #5:
DEALING WITH RAPID INCREASE IN PHILANTHROPIC ASSETS

In less than 6 months during the year 2000 the Foundation's assets tripled. This was primarily through the establishment of advised funds set up by lawyers and accountants on behalf of families who had made a great deal of money in the high tech industry. These people were newly wealthy, new to philanthropy and wanted a high degree of anonymity. The issue was threefold:

1. getting to know and gain the trust of these donors;
2. helping them develop good grantmaking practices;
3. finding ways to integrate their interest with community needs.

HOW: 

We established a two-year pilot called the "Philanthropic Partners Program" (PPP) which had several facets:

• site visits to local organizations

• meetings with members of the Foundation's volunteer Grants Committee

• opportunities to attend conferences and workshops along with Foundation Board members and staff.

All of these provided opportunities for donors to network with each other.

RESULTS:

We have developed close and trusting relationships with all of the donors of our largest funds. They now approach us for philanthropic advice and welcome grant suggestions. More than 50% of the grants made in response to the recommendations of the Foundation's Grants Committee now come from Advised funds. All our major donors have agreed to their endowed funds becoming unrestricted after no more than one successive generation.

Foundation: Community Foundation of Ottawa
Address: #301 - 75 Albert Street
Ottawa, ON K1P 5E7
Website: www.communityfoundationottawa.ca

Submitted by: Barbara McInnes
Email: bmcinnes@communityfoundationottawa.ca

STRATEGY/CHALLENGE #6:  
SUCCESSFUL INVOLVEMENT OF FAMILIES AND SUCCESSOR GENERATIONS IN DONOR ADVISED FUNDS

HOW: 

The “tried and true” method. We do with families and successor generations the same as we do with the original donor. It does work. We meet with them and explain the rules and regulations. We encourage them to make additions to the fund. We encourage a two-way discussion on the charitable needs in our region.

RESULTS: 

We have had no problems in this area at all.

Foundation: The Erie Community Foundation
Address: 127 West Sixth St., Erie, PA  16501
Website: cferie.org

Submitted by: Mike Batchelor
Email: ecf@team.org

STRATEGY/CHALLENGE #7:  
DEEPENING RELATIONSHIP WITH CURRENT DONORS

The foundation has as one of its goals, to build and deepen relationships with current donors, by learning more about them, their families and their grant making interests, and how we may provide valuable services to them.

HOW: 

Within the development department, we have separated gift planners and donor relations staff, and made a concerted effort to hand the relationship from the gift planner to donor relations when a donor has established a fund.  Our Donor Relations team assigns each donor and planned gift donor, plans to meet with each new donor soon after a fund is established or a planned gift commitment is made known.  Individual relationship plans are being created for many of the donors.

RESULTS: 

As a result of the efforts to learn more about our donors, we are developing systems to track information about them and their giving interests, and creating individualized plans.  Providing greater support and personalization of services is a goal.  The outcomes will be more evident next year, as this is a work in progress. 

Foundation: The Saint Paul Foundation
Address: 600 Fifth Street Center
55 East Fifth Street
Saint Paul, MN  55101
Website: www.saintpaulfoundation.org

Submitted By: Sally Seiberlich
Email: sjs@saintpaulfoundation.org