Goals and Mission: Chapter 2 of “Splendid Legacy 2: Creating and Re-Creating Your Family Foundation”
Book Chapter
This resource is an excerpt of Chapter 2 from “Splendid Legacy 2: Creating and Re-creating Your Family Foundation”.
Documenting your motivations, values and principles, and priorities is a terrific way to clarify your giving. You’ll use that documentation to review opportunities to give and get involved that come your way and to dream of opportunities you want to proactively pursue. As you give and volunteer over time, you’ll learn new ways to express the ideas or even refine or re-write some.
As you put your motivations, values, and priorities to work, you may find the need for further clarification. The need may come as you involve more family members, as you start receiving more requests to give, or both. Defining your preferred giving style and creating a purpose statement increase that clarity and increase both the personal reward and impact of your giving.
NOTE: If you haven’t already done so, consider starting your exploration of purpose and motivations by reviewing the Philanthropic Purpose Primer and other featured tools in NCFP’s Family Giving Lifecycle primer series.
Start Here
Crafting Your Charitable Mission Statement: A Guide for Donors
Report
When donors start along their philanthropic journeys, one question that often arises is whether it is important to craft a mission statement; and if so, how best to do so. As with any journey, knowing your destination – or in this case, articulating your goals for your philanthropy by crafting…
Where Do We Go Fom Here: Crafting a Family Mission Statement
Article
`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ [asked Alice]. `That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ [said the Cat]. `I don’t much care where,’ [said Alice]. `Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.’ [said the Cat]. — Lewis…
Perspectives from Peers
A Rockefeller Family Foundation Turns Over Some New Leaves
Article
Over the past 18 months, the trustees and staff of the David Rockefeller Fund have embarked on a journey to engage a new generation of family trustees and reinvent a 25 year-old family foundation for a new century of philanthropic challenges.
Looking Inward: How We Clarified Our Values and Vision
Blog Post
Courtesy of Pixabay This letter was originally published by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and is re-posted here with permission. Jaimie Mayer is a co-chair of NCFP’s new Board Chair Peer Network. If you are interesting in joining, please sign up here. In Alicia Garza’s new book, The Purpose of Power, she writes: “Before…
Have a Mission to Preserve a Vision
Report
An effective mission statement can help further many objectives for a family foundation, including helping to preserve and protect the vision of the founding philanthropist. Yet the importance of mission has been largely ignored by foundation experts and philanthropy pundits over the last 10 years.
Focused Mission Statements Help Donors Decide Where to Direct Their Money
Article
Creation of a good mission statement is a worthwhile endeavor. It involves and educates current and future stakeholders, enforces focus, clarifies decision-making, and provides valuable information to nonprofits and other donors alike.
Perspectives: Internal vs. External Missions
May 14, 2015
Balancing Internal Vs. External Missions in Family Philanthropy
What is your family’s dream for philanthropy? Are you primarily interested in achieving a particular grantmaking mission? Or are you interested in creating an opportunity for family members to come together and strengthen family ties through philanthropy and service to others? For many philanthropic families, the answer to this question…
Aligning Your External Mission with Your Family’s Values
Article
In our day-to-day work in family philanthropy, we often worry about ‘what’ we do and don’t often pause to consider the ‘why.’ Perhaps we should also spend some concerted time thinking about the why — asking questions like, "Why is our family involved in philanthropy? What impact do we hope…
Why is it Important to Have an Internal Mission That is Separate and Distinct from an External Mission?
Ask the Center
This month we are delighted to feature a question recently asked in our May webinar, Balancing internal vs. external missions in family philanthropy. This in-depth conversation on successful strategies for thoughtfully defining, measuring, and tracking both internal and external missions in family foundation features Julie Fisher Cummings and Doug Bitonti…
Activities
The Angels and Heroes Exercise: A Purposeful Visioning Exercise to Help You Leave More Than Money
Tool
Beyond money, you can leave behind values, vision, and a legacy to guide your family. John A. Warnick’s Angel’s and Heroes exercise helps you identify those who have had a positive impact on your life and why. This exercise prompts thoughtful consideration of your values and is a tool to…
From the Start: Questions for Donors and Family Members
Tool
Donors often seek effective ways to involve other family members from the start. Heirs, meanwhile, look for ways to appropriately honor the legacy of the donor(s). There are many questions and issues likely to be considered by both the donor and future generations. (Source: Living the Legacy: The Values of…
Stories and Samples
Examples of Mission, Vision, and Values Statements from Family Foundations
Sample
This collection of sample mission, vision, or values statements is from NCFP’s Friends of the Family network and others and are shared as examples only. If you have sample statements that you would like to share, please contact ncfp@ncfp.org.
Mission and Values (Tarsadia Foundation)
Sample
Mission The Tarsadia Foundation supports non-profit organizations with programs and projects that provide educational opportunities for the underserved, support health and well-being of the community, and help to employ the employable through economic empowerment. Values Thrive: Programs, services and institutions can profoundly impact and improve people’s lives and prosper, as…
Mission and Values of the Irving Harris Foundation
Sample
This is an example of a Family Foundation's mission and values. The mission states enhancing the quality of life for children, families and communities by advancing human potential, social justice and equity, and creative experience and expression.
Mission Statement and Guiding Principles: Ten Commandments of the Bernstein Family Foundation
Sample
The Bernstein Family Foundation is committed to investing in people and ideas to strengthen and celebrate the greater Washington, DC, community. This document describes their full mission as well as the "Ten Commandments" that they use as guiding principles for their grantmaking.