Tony Macklin, a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy®, consults with donor families, grantmakers, and their advisors about purpose, use of resources, action planning, and learning. As executive director of the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, he facilitated changes in visioning, impact investing, grantmaking, trustee education, and back-office management. In twelve years at the Central Indiana Community Foundation, he led grantmaking initiatives, advised wealthy donors, attracted $39 million, and launched a social enterprise. Tony currently serves as program manager for the NCFP’s Community Foundations Family Philanthropy Network. He also serves as a senior advisor to the Impact Finance Center and peer reviewer for The Foundation Review.

Contributions

Community Foundations Topical Call: Philanthropic Advisor Competencies

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Dien Yuen, JD/LLM, CAP®, AEP®,, Tony Macklin

The demand for philanthropic advice is increasing and, in response, more firms and organizations are hiring advisors to wealthy donors and families. However, our field of philanthropic advisors and consultants is a beautiful mess of talents, perspectives, responsibilities, and expectations. In October 2022, the American College of Financial Services convened 50 experts and practitioners to envision a more cohesive future… Read More
From NCFP

Avoiding Avoidance: Managing Healthy Family Conflict

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Tony Macklin

A man stops dominos falling with his hand.
Avoiding conflict can often seem like the easiest path to take, but if families are to truly practice effective family philanthropy they must deal with conflict head on. Tony Macklin outlines how families can better approach this issue. Disagreements between two or more people are about what they want to happen next. The participants can typically resolve the dispute without… Read More

Community Foundations Topical Call: Balancing Individual and Collective Giving in Families

Posted on February 15, 2023 by Ashley Blanchard, Tony Macklin

Families often balance giving based on shared purpose and priorities with allowing members to pursue individual interests and goals. The tension between those two goals increases as new voices join the decision-making—spouses/partners, younger generations, non-family advisors, and more. NCFP and Lansberg Gersick Advisors (LGA) recently completed a study of how families navigate the tension and successfully sustain collaborative philanthropy. LGA… Read More
From NCFP

Building and Maintaining Successful Board Chair-CEO Relationships

Posted on January 19, 2023 by Tony Macklin

Liz Bonner, Nat Chioke Williams, Diane Kaplan, and Adam Gibbons speaking at Building and Maintaining Successful Board Chair-CEO Relationships at the 2022 National Forum on Family Philanthropy
NCFP Senior Program Consultant Tony Macklin attended NCFP’s 2022 National Forum on Family Philanthropy. Read on for Tony’s takeaways from Building and Maintaining Successful Board Chair-CEO Relationships. “Will you let the other person be a whole person—be who they really are?” That question came early in a session about the relationship between foundation board chairs and CEOs at the 2022… Read More

Community Foundation Spark Session: Guiding Donors on the How and Now of Philanthropy

Posted on January 12, 2023 by Rebekah Allison, CAP®, Ayanna Wakefield, Brennan Gould, Nicholas A. Tedesco, Tony Macklin

Compass guiding donors in philanthropy
Our communities face many complex and interconnected challenges. Most require us to confront racial, economic, and other inequities. We’re also living in an era of massive wealth creation and wealth transfer. More donors have the resources to meaningfully address those challenges. But the how and now of their philanthropy matters more than ever. Community foundations have an incredible opportunity—and perhaps… Read More
From NCFP

Supporting Systems Change

Posted on December 7, 2022 by Tony Macklin

An attendee at the 2022 National Forum on Family Philanthropy asks a question on systems change
NCFP Senior Program Consultant Tony Macklin attended NCFP’s 2022 National Forum on Family Philanthropy. Read on for Tony’s takeaways from Funding Movements for Systems Change: There is a role for every type of funder. “We want to get to the root of the problem, not just fund the symptoms.” “We should go upstream and prevent these things from happening.” I… Read More

Community Foundations Network Topical Call: Connect with Peers Based on Experience Level

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Shannon Jeffries, Katie Scott, Tony Macklin

We are creating time for peer learning and connection based on experience with philanthropic advising for multi-generational families. Bring a challenge to share or a recent success or 2023 goal to share with your peers. We will divide by experience level using zoom breakout rooms and have a group share back. This interactive call will be hosted on Zoom meeting… Read More

Community Foundation Spark Session: Community Foundation Business Models for Family Philanthropy (Round 5)

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Thomas Griffith, Monica Merante, Heather Cash, Anne McKune, Tony Macklin

hand pointing to graph
This is NCFP’s fifth deep dive into how community foundations structure their business models for more intensive philanthropic services. Two foundations will serve as case studies, describing how they defined their customer segments, developed their portfolio of programs and services, worked with their board to set goals and success measures, refined their financial model for expanded services, engaged advisors, and more. Their presentations will be based on NCFP’s Philanthropic Services Business… Read More

Community Foundations Network Topical Call: Using the Family Giving Lifecycle Toolkit

Posted on June 21, 2022 by Nicholas A. Tedesco, Tony Macklin

Community foundations are asked to guide families through many points of inflection and reflection in their philanthropic journeys. In those moments, families can embrace proven practices and advance momentum or stall out due to uncertainty and lack of clarity. How can you as a philanthropic advisor forecast those points of inflection and prepare your donors for more informed decisions? NCFP’s… Read More

Defining Your Family’s Philanthropic Purpose

Posted on May 17, 2022 by Fred Kaynor, Megan Costigan, Jean Buckley, Tony Macklin

illustrated image of people pushing together life-size puzzle pieces
What motivations and values drive your generosity? What priorities propel your social action? A clear philanthropic purpose defines why you want to make a difference and your priorities for where and who you most want to benefit. It improves family decision-making, community relationships, and impact. On this webinar, you’ll learn how you and your family can define your philanthropic purpose—shared… Read More