Edited by
Virginia M. Esposito
2002, 258 pages, $50

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Splendid Legacy:
The Guide To Creating Your Family Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact 202.293.3424.

THE FIRST GUIDE TO CREATING A FAMILY FOUNDATION RELEASED BY
THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR FAMILY PHILANTHROPY

August 30, 2002, Washington, DC.   At a time when family foundations are being created at an unprecedented rate, the first comprehensive guide designed especially for donors, families, and their advisors who are starting family foundations has been released by the National Center for Family Philanthropy.  Splendid Legacy:  The Guide to Creating Your Family Foundation is intended to offer a detailed and practical action plan for setting up a foundation. Combining practical, “how-to” advice with personal anecdotes from families that have already established foundations, this guidebook aims to meet the needs and aspirations of all giving families. See links at left for brochure, table of contents, and additional information.

“The combination of the practical and the personal makes this guidebook most unique and most relevant to the needs and aspirations of giving families,” said Virginia Esposito, editor of Splendid Legacy and president of the National Center.

According to the Foundation Center, the number of active grantmaking foundations more than doubled between 1987 and 2000, from about 27,700 to nearly 56,600. The National Center estimates that about 40,000 family foundations now exist, and that thousands more will be created in the coming decade, as the Baby Boom generation inherits trillions of dollars and as donors and families whose businesses flourished in the 1990s make plans to give back to their communities. 

Splendid Legacy is designed to help thousands of family foundations seeking to renew their mission, programming, and administration; thousands of donors just starting family foundations; and many donors seriously considering establishing one. 

“Every existing family foundation, and every family foundation to-be, has a different mission and character, determined by the founders, families, and the community interests they serve,” said Ms. Esposito.

"Splendid Legacy offers donors and families, no matter what their unique characteristics, a common set of questions they can use to address major issues such as values, mission, and family involvement. The thought and work that donors and families put into answering these questions can determine the nature of the shared experience and the quality of their grantmaking.”

Some of the questions the guide addresses include:

• How do you tie every facet of foundation operations to your deepest values and goals for your philanthropy?

• How can you and your family create a mission statement?  Who decides the wording of the mission statement?

• How do you decide who to choose to be on your foundation board?

• What considerations go into establishing a grantmaking program and guidelines that carry out your mission?  How do families develop grantmaking programs that take into account the geographic dispersion of family members and diversity of interests of members?

• How can you have an impact in your community?

• Who will do the work of the family foundation—how do you staff it?

• How can you use communications tools and strategies to help achieve your mission?

With a foreword by entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul Brainerd, founder of the Brainerd Foundation and Social Venture Partners Seattle, Splendid Legacy offers dozens of stories and vignettes from the experiences of family foundations of varying asset size, mission, and style. These stories and vignettes illustrate how family considerations affect key decisions during startup and throughout the development of the family foundation. An interview with Bill Gates, Sr. co-chair and CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, offers a detailed look at how one prominent family foundation developed its mission, focus, and structure over time. 

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Dozens of charts, checklists, and pull-quotes throughout are designed to make Splendid Legacy inviting and easy to read. The guide is 258 pages and includes a comprehensive glossary, sample policies and forms, list of resources, and index.

The information and guidance offered on every page is intended to save donors, families, and their advisors countless hours and precious grantmaking dollars.

Splendid Legacy costs $50.  Copies can be ordered by calling the National Center at 202.293.3424, or visiting the National Center’s web site at www.ncfp.org. 

The National Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing and encouraging family giving. The National Center publishes resources for donors, families, and their advisors; conducts and commissions research on family philanthropy; and presents education programs nationwide.

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