Call a family meeting
Attempting to tell a single, powerful story that advances your philanthropy is going to be a difficult task if you’re sending mixed signals. Bring the family together with your fund’s staff and advisors, if any, to discuss communication. Consider the family’s mission, goals, guidelines, and how public your common enterprise has been and ought to be in the future.

Examine your communication goals
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. 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 more public are equally varied. Some philanthropists appreciate being thanked and acknowledged for their gifts. Some feel they can be role models to encourage others to give. Other trustees take the position that as stewards of a public trust, they should adopt a profile that ensures transparent and accountable philanthropy. Still others are looking to direct attention to the causes and institutions they care about and regularly communicate with legislators, experts in their fields of interest, the media, and the general public.

Consider whether greater publicity or privacy would advance or hinder your shared charitable goals. Ask questions about how family members feel about the family’s wealth and the opportunity to accomplish something significant with that wealth.Note where the opportunities and trade-offs might be.

• How might they feel about being recognized?
  
• How might they feel about appearing in the newspaper? How about on TV?
  
• How might your grantees feel?
  
• 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 preferences and its public duties?

Once you’ve explored these questions, ask what your family is looking for from its current and potential communication.

Evaluate your existing communication
Rather than trying to create a media and public relations program from scratch, begin simply by evaluating the ways in which your philanthropy is communicating.

• Take a look at your website if you have one and Form 990-PF if you’re a foundation. Gather your grantmaking guidelines, letters of acceptance or rejection, and other grantee communications.
  
• Review your foundation’s profile on Guidestar or the Foundation Center.
  
• Review any news articles that may involve your philanthropy. 

How are you communicating with family members, both within the philanthropy and outside of it? How does the family communicate with staff members and advisors? How about regulators and legislators? Grantees and potential grantees? Fellow funders and colleagues in the field? Media? The general public? How might you communicate differently?

Create a philanthropy fact sheet
With a map of these messages in mind, create a single fact sheet, a set of talking points covering the basic bits of information somebody would need to know 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.
  

Naturally, families bring diverse, ambivalent motives and goals to philanthropy. Your fact sheet is a way of putting everyone literally on the same page. This document forms the basis of your shared communication. 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.

Consider an online presence
One of the best ways to impart information today is through a website. Your website can serve as the one-stop shop for information about your philanthropy in lieu of or in addition to a traditional printed annual report.

You can create a simple website using the information on your fact sheet: contact information, mission, grant guidelines, and finances. Once you’ve established your basic web presence, you can experiment with more personal and interactive features. Photos, videos, reports, commentary, blogs—all of these and more can be a part of your website. You can move your application process online, archive important information in a password-protected members area, and conduct meetings via webinar.

Creating a compelling website needn’t be overly complicated. In fact, you may already have the talent and resources within your family. If you’re considering a website, 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 philanthropists with websites or contact your local community foundation or regional association to 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. The Foundation Center provides free websites to foundations—take advantage of this service if you’d like to take your profile at step further.

Keep in mind that family foundations aren’t the only giving vehicles with an online presence. If your family gives through a donor-advised fund or giving circle, you may also find it helpful to communicate through a website.

Build your communication strategy
There are a number of options for communicating and achieving your charitable goals: annual reports, named gift opportunities, news releases and media relations, and advocacy campaigns.

Start small but start talking: attend and speak at local hearings, school board meetings, and conferences. Keep your plan in mind, and refer people back to your website for more information.

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.

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 in the future for answers to questions about developments in philanthropy—an excellent opportunity to promote your family’s efforts and the achievements of your grantees.

Communication, however, is a two-way street. With all that you’re saying on behalf of the causes and agencies you care about, remember to listen. Survey current and potential grantees to find out how your grantmaking process is serving those you support. Convene stakeholders to get feedback, access new expertise, and build community.

Consider professional assistance
All of this communicating can be a lot of work. As your communication needs grow, consider hiring a consultant or an experienced staffer, or perhaps retaining the services of a public relations firm. No one expects you to do it alone.