Defining Your Motivations, Values, Principles, and Priorities
This primer will help you and your family to understand the core values and principles which drive you to give. 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.
Understanding why you want to give is critical for meaningful and effective philanthropy. Why you give matters as much, if not more, than what you give. Your why enlivens, inspires, and informs your philanthropy, infusing every action and decision with purpose. It makes what you do matter—for yourself, your family, and the communities and causes you support. Use this primer to help define the why of your philanthropy, including your motivations, values, principles, priorities, and giving style.
The Family Giving Lifecycle primers are available to NCFP Members and Network Partners.
Watch the Philanthropic Purpose Explainer Video
Related Resources
- 10 Questions to Help Start the Values Conversation
Facilitate a productive family dialogue using these 10 questions to guide you.
- Goals and Mission: Chapter 2 of “Splendid Legacy 2: Creating and Re-Creating Your Family Foundation”
This chapter will help you to simplify complex choices about where and how to give by identifying your motivations for giving and establishing a core mission and set of goals.
- Crafting Your Charitable Mission Statement: A Guide for Donors
Why and how you should create a charitable mission statement, and how often you should reassess it.
- Philanthropic Purpose in Action
What is philanthropic purpose and why does it matter?
For more resources on philanthropic purpose, please visit the resource library.