Exploring Identity, Lifespan, Transitions, and Successor Engagement
This primer will help you and your family to define your philanthropic legacy, consider your philanthropy’s lifespan, and decide, if needed, on a succession plan. It includes worksheets to help you apply the concepts to your work as well as a playbook that you can create with your family to codify decisions and plan your course of action.
The topics of succession and legacy invite you to envision a future in which you won’t be actively managing your philanthropic vehicle or social impact strategy. Use this primer to make intentional and informed choices on these topics.
The Family Giving Lifecycle primers are available to NCFP Members and Network Partners.
Watch the Planning for Succession and Legacy Explainer Video
Related Resources
- Things We Wish Our Founders Had Told Us: Interpreting Donor Legacy
The questions that Susan Packard Orr and her fellow trustees wished they had asked of the founders when they were still alive.
- Legacy in Family Philanthropy: A Modern Framework
This guide makes the case that legacy is emergent and iterative and ought to be considered regularly throughout the lifecycle of the family philanthropy.
- Balancing Purpose, Payout, and Permanence
This strategy guide invites you to reflect on how your foundation chooses to balance four factors—purpose, conditions and trends, time horizons, and assets for mission.
- Is Spending Down Right for Your Philanthropy? How to Make the Decision and What to Consider in the Process (Webinar)
How does a philanthropic family make the decision to spend down and what plans must be put in place related to grantmaking, investing, staffing, and communications?
For more resources on succession, legacy, and next-generation engagement, please visit the resource library.