“I feel like I’ve just finished the greatest book I’ve ever read, and I’m sad.” This was the observation of one of 70 attendees at the first ever national symposium on the leadership role of family foundation CEOs, sponsored by the National Center for Family Philanthropy on March 23-24 in Washington,...
Eleven-year-old Kylie of the Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation is a veteran grantmaker, having served on the junior board of her family’s foundation since age 8. But unlike the adults on her family’s foundation board, who can meet peers at grantmaker meetings and conferences, Kylie had no kids to compare...
The late Gary Tobin dubbed family foundation chief executives Mad Hatters. It was a reference to the many hats these professionals have to wear: administrator, mediator, visionary, ambassador to the community, confidant and, occasionally, family therapist, just to name a few. Tobin believed there were...
Like a lot of smaller funders, the 20-year-old McCarthy Family Foundation operated out of Treasurer Tim McCarthy’s home office. He learned a lot of important lessons about disasters the hard way after his home was among the hundreds of properties destroyed in the October 2007 San Diego wildfires....
Summer’s over, but for many Massachusetts families, the memories linger on. That’s because from July 3 to September 4, Boston’s Highland Street Foundation sponsored Free Fun Fridays at each of 10 museums and other attractions across the state. Thousands of children and families enjoyed a free...
With a tough economy comes tough decisions. That was true for the Pottruck Family Foundation board, which dissolved the foundation effective Jan. 30, 2009. As their assets shrank in the declining markets of 2008, the family decided that by shifting their philanthropy to a donor-advised fund, they could...
Lessons from One Family’s Transition from Founder to Nonfamily Director
When Bill O’Neill Jr., president of the William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation in Cleveland, decided to step aside from being “chief cook and bottle washer for 20 years,” the family faced a common dilemma: how to shift the...
