Giving While Living: Profiles of Donors and Families

Giving While Living — the idea that people with wealth should use it during their lifetime to help others — is central to the work of a growing number of donors, including Atlantic Philanthropies’ founder Chuck Feeney, who has been a leading spokesperson in this movement to inspire individuals at varying levels of wealth to actively give their funds, skills and time during their lives, and receive enormous satisfaction in the process. This Content Collection offers a variety of perspectives on this topic, including the Conversations With Remarkable Givers series of video interviews with leading donors subscribing to the Giving While Living philosophy.

For additional perspectives and case studies on whether to operate indefinitely or limit the lifespan of your family’s foundation, see the Content Collection, Strategic Lifespan and Limited Life Foundations

Giving While Living: Making the Case

Considering the Choice to Spend Down is Good for Philanthropy

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For much of the 20th century, the vast majority of U.S. foundations operated under the idea that they would be in business forever. But as a new generation of family philanthropists take over — a growing number are deciding that they would rather grant their assets during a set period…

Why the Raikes Foundation is Not a Perpetual Foundation

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People often ask me what we focus on at the Raikes Foundation (empowering young people to transform their lives) and how we do it (investing in capable people addressing under-resourced challenges where our dollars can have an outsized impact on the systems that serve youth.)

Finding Your Passion

The 6 Motivations for Family Philanthropy

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Why does your family give? This question is central to the work you do — because it helps understand the motivations behind your foundation’s mission.

Passion: Discovering Meaning in Your Philanthropy

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What is the place of passion in philanthropy? When it comes to giving and volunteering, we might think of passion as that mix of curiosity, enthusiasm and conviction which takes us beyond an annual contribution into a sustained engagement with an issue, cause or organization. The passion in philanthropy can…

Find Your Passion: Information for Next Gen Donors

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How do you find a cause you want to support? How do you find your "perfect match"organization? Use this guide from Giving Circles Fund to narrow your passions into causes you can support through philanthropy!

Conversations with Remarkable Givers

Giving while living: Eli Broad

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to feature videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. To launch this series, we share Bridgespan’s interview with Eli Broad on his entrepreneurial and “give now” approach to philanthropy, along with an introduction from…

Giving while living: Laura and John Arnold

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to feature videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. For our February edition in this series, we share Bridgespan’s interview with John and Laura Arnold, recently named to the Philanthropy 50 list of top…

Giving while living: Caroline Avery, The Durfee Foundation

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to feature videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. For our March edition in this series, we share Bridgespan’s interview with Carrie Avery, president of The Durfee Foundation and board chair of the National Center…

Giving while living – Steve Hilton and The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to feature videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. For our February edition in this series, we share Bridgespan’s interview with Steve Hilton, president and CEO of The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. To learn more…

Giving while living: Wallis Annenberg and Leonard Aube

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to feature videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. For our May edition in this series, we share Bridgespan’s interview with Wallis Annenberg, board chair, and Leonard Aube, executive director, of The Annenberg Foundation. To…

Giving while living: Barbara and Pitt Hyde

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to feature videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. For our June edition in this series, we share Bridgespan’s interview with Barbara and Pitt Hyde, founders of the Hyde Family Foundations and Autozone, and long-time…

Giving while living: Jean and Steve Case

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to feature videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. For our July edition in this series, we share Bridgespan’s interview with Jean and Steve, co-founders of the Case Foundation and AOL, and two of the…

Giving while living: Jennifer and Peter Buffett

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to share videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. In this month’s installment, we feature Bridgespan’s interview with Jennifer and Peter Buffett, founders of the Novo Foundation. While Peter has been in the news lately…

Giving while living: Emmett Carson, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to share videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. In this month’s installment, we feature Bridgespan’s interview with Emmett Carson, founding CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Carson has long been one of the field’s…

Giving while living: Charles Bronfman

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to share videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. In this month’s installment, we feature Bridgespan’s interview with Charles Bronfman, son of Seagram Company founder and philanthropist Samuel Bronfman and founder, along with his…

Giving while living: Carolyn and Peter Lynch

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Editor’s Note: The National Center is delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to share videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. In this month’s installment, we feature Bridgespan’s interview with Carolyn and Peter Lynch, co-founders of The Lynch Foundation. Under Peter Lynch, Fidelity Investments’ then-obscure Magellan…

Giving while living: Melinda Gates

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Editor’s Note: The National Center has been delighted to partner in 2013 with the Bridgespan Group to share videos from its Conversations with Remarkable Givers series. In this month’s installment, our final in this series, we feature Bridgespan’s interview with Melinda Gates, board member and guiding force behind the world’s largest…

Atlantic Philanthropies

Giving While Living: The Story of Atlantic Philanthropies

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This book explores Atlantic Philanthropies' Founder Chuck Feeney’s long-standing belief that people with wealth should use it during their lifetimes to help others.

NCFP Webinars

April 13, 2017

Spending Up: A Discussion on Strategic Lifespan at the Quixote Foundation

Editor's Note: Our thanks to the Fund for Shared Insight for supporting NCFP's work in the area of transparency and family philanthropy.

March 8, 2012

Straight from the Source: Working with a Living Donor

The dreams, life experiences, and personalities of donors and donor couples are at the heart of family philanthropy. Everything from the family’s philanthropic focus and mission to the interaction with potential grantees connects to the legacy of the founders. Sometimes these legacies are living legacies, and there are special opportunities…

November 10, 2010