Blog | From NCFP

How to Successfully Engage in Your Family’s Philanthropy as an Adult

April 25, 2024 | Cara Binder-Kopchick
In our recent publication, A Guide to Meaningfully Engaging Next-Generation Adults in Your Philanthropy, we explore ways for those who are currently managing a family’s philanthropy to thoughtfully welcome next-generation adults. While so many of the formal transition responsibilities lie with the philanthropy’s current leaders, the incoming adult leaders also have several opportunities position themselves for success and to actively Read More
Blog | Network News

April 2024: News and Notes from NCFP’s Members and Partners

April 17, 2024
NCFP strives to connect its members to resources, best practices, and to peer funders. Network News highlights updates from our members and partners, showcacsing accomplishments, new approaches or giving areas, innovative ideas, and staff and board transitions, and more.  We encourage our members and parters to email us with news that you would like to be shared. Dilnaz Waraich and Read More
Blog | From the Archive

From the Archive: Things We Wish Our Founders Had Told Us

April 11, 2024
NCFP’s From the Archive series highlights resources from our Knowledge Center that have stood the test of time and continue to provide valuable guidance for the field.  In 2016, 20 years after the death of her father, Susan Packard Orr reflected on the challenges of interpreting donor legacy. Susan wrote that, after asking her father to share what he wanted Read More
Blog | From NCFP, Effective Family Philanthropy in Action

Know Your Neighbors: Building Trusting Relationships in Family Philanthropy

April 1, 2024 | Erin Borla, Sokol Shtylla
Collaboration and partnership are the cornerstones to accomplishing meaningful impact on pressing social issues. But both are difficult to come by due to the inherent power imbalance that exists in philanthropy, where funders control resources needed to support the wellbeing of communities. Trust is required to foster collaborative partnerships between funders and grantees. But how can trust occur if you Read More
Blog | From NCFP

Navigating Philanthropy and its Shifts: Insights from Philanthropic Advisors

March 20, 2024 | Shannon Jeffries
In recent years, the philanthropic landscape has evolved in response to issues of equity and justice. Consequently, many donor families seek guidance and support from philanthropic advisors to help them navigate the complexities of these shifts, ensuring that philanthropic efforts align with and are informed by the communities they serve.  As families work to translate their philanthropic purpose to impact Read More
Blog | Network News

March 2024: News and Notes from NCFP’s Members and Partners

March 14, 2024
NCFP strives to connect its members to resources, best practices, and to peer funders. Network News highlights updates from our members and partners, showcacsing accomplishments, new approaches or giving areas, innovative ideas, and staff and board transitions, and more.  We encourage our members and parters to email us with news that you would like to be shared. In Memoriam: Celebrating Read More
Blog | Effective Family Philanthropy in Action

Declining Applications and Inquiries: How Funders Can Do Better

March 6, 2024
Peter Marks, executive director of The L.B. Research and Education Foundation, received positive feedback from grant seekers who were not selected to move forward in the foundation’s application process. The feedback affirmed Peter’s own experience as a nonprofit grantseeker: funders often fail to provide helpful information in their declination letters. Here, Peter shares a template for other funders to employ. Read More
Blog | From NCFP, Effective Family Philanthropy in Action

Improving Philanthropic Practice by Prioritizing Reflection & Learning

February 6, 2024 | Emerald Adeyemi, Don Chen
Family philanthropy done well can achieve lasting and meaningful change in the world and within the families themselves. To be effective, NCFP believes funders must employ four principles: accountability, equity, relationships, and reflection and learning. Despite being essential to impactful funding, a commitment to reflection and learning is often the first practice to be left behind when the day-to-day is Read More
Blog | From NCFP

Preparing for Bold Leadership

January 26, 2024 | Nicholas A. Tedesco
As I look back at the past few years, it’s clear that the challenges we faced as a society and as a sector have been unrelenting. It’s also been a time of great promise. Many families have shifted their philanthropic practices to respond to urgent and entrenched problems. They have taken bigger risks, leaned into trust, listened to communities, and Read More
Blog | From NCFP

Beyond the Family: An Ecosystem Approach to Family Philanthropy

December 12, 2023 | Nicholas A. Tedesco
The success of family philanthropy is dependent on the willingness of the family to embrace an ecosystem of partners. In fact, the most effective philanthropic leaders recognize that the family operates in relationship to many others—most importantly community and staff members. Embracing an ecosystem approach to philanthropy, which focuses on building and respecting relationships to others in the system, is Read More