Shaping a Legacy Plan and Working with Your Advisors to Achieve It

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Tracy Gary

Families who think thoughtfully about what they want to achieve with their wealth - either through their foundation, their personal giving or both - and who communicate that clearly to their advisors, will have more success in seeing their legacy fulfilled. Unless you develop a plan and share your vision, your financial advisors may advise you to follow a conservative giving plan that doesn't take into account your capacity to give or desire to go beyond just preserving wealth… Read More

Strategic Focus for Family Foundations

Posted on February 14, 2008 by Valerie Jacobs Hapke, Ashley Blanchard

Ashley Blanchard presents how family foundations can transition from a giving approach based on trustees' disparate interests, to a more focused and strategic approach based on common values and interests. Focusing on her own experience as a family foundation trustee, as well as the experience of other giving families that have made a transition to more strategic grantmaking… Read More

Strategic Philanthropy: Maximizing Family Engagement and Social Impact

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Ashley Blanchard

For the sake of family cohesion and engagement, many family foundations base their grantmaking on the varied personal interests of their trustees. The unfortunate result is a scattershot grantmaking portfolio, with limited social impact. Conversely, a family foundation risks excluding family members if they are not interested in a shared programmatic agenda, minimizing the unifying potential of the foundation. The… Read More

Family Governance Meets Family Dynamics: Strategies for Successful Joint Philanthropy

Posted on October 28, 2007 by Fredda Herz Brown, Patricia Angus

This Passages issue paper explores the interplay of family dynamics and family governance in family philanthropies, concluding families who think about their governance systems, including how decisions will be made, are less likely to be encumbered by family dynamics than families who begin their philanthropies informally, progressing to formality over time. In addition, families who openly address their underlying internal… Read More