Governance
Every giving effort needs a guiding framework to be effective. Governance—defined principles, policies, and practices— is the framework.
Governance, a system for who will make decisions and how, is the means by which you and others—your family or non-family stakeholders—can strive together to achieve long-term philanthropic success.
There is no shortage of hard choices to be made in philanthropy, from which issues to explore to which organizations to support. Without governance, trying to navigate this terrain as a family or group often magnifies the difficulty of the challenge.
Consider the following:
- Who will make decisions in what settings?
- How will we make decisions?
- How will we document our choices?
Designed to help you create a structure that supports your goals, this primer and the following content offer a framework for exploring the people, principles, policies, and practices that comprise your governance.