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Carmela Castellano-Garcia and Carmen Castellano at the 2014 National Forum on Family Philanthropy “I’m most proud of the legacy we’re leaving. Latinos are philanthropists,” said Carmen Castellano in a 2015 interview as a part of NCFP’s “I am Family Philanthropy” series. In her 81-year life, Carmen built a legacy she and the Latinx community could be proud of, modeling formalized… Read More

Editor’s note: NCFP is pleased to partner with the Monitor Institute of Deloitte on the publication of An Event or an Era? Resources for social sector decision-making in the context of COVID-19. For those looking to learn more from the Monitor Institute, consider joining one of the upcoming focus groups for senior staff and trustees at family foundations. As family… Read More

Active and open listening to grantee communities is not an entirely new topic for the philanthropic sector. Many funders have acknowledged the power dynamics inherent in their role, and as philanthropy evolves, there has been a shift towards greater transparency, deeper relationship-building between funders and grantees, and more grantee-focused funding practices. Groups like the Fund for Shared Insight and the… Read More

With support from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, NCFP spent months planning an April retreat in New York for foundations that are planning to spend down or considering the option. A pandemic intervened, so last week, we held the gathering online. It’s not an ideal way to meet new friends and share candid conversation, admittedly, but it worked surprisingly… Read More

The philanthropic response to COVID-19 has been dominated by three separate but interconnected themes: (1) Relaxation of standard reporting requirements, programmatic restrictions and timelines, (2) Advocacy for funders to extend themselves past standard 5% payout spending policies and (3) Creation of emergency funding pools or other rapid response structures. While all are worthy of consideration, these trends are not groundbreaking… Read More

We’re eating more meals together than we ever have before. We are getting to know our neighbors better. We see our child or children more hours of the day, and many of us are fortunate enough to hear the sounds of toys and giggles filling our homes. Ok, while all of these facts are true (and my son is adorable… Read More