Today’s family donors have an array of models they can use to help them meet their goals. Ensuring that the form their operational models takes matches the function is vital to effectiveness. This guide helps funders who give as a family consider the role they’d like to play and the approach they’d like to take in their philanthropy and identify the operational model that will help them achieve their purpose.
By exploring the role of the funder, the degree of formalization of the philanthropy, and the philanthropy’s relationship with expertise, this guide offers four common operational archetypes: the agile funder, the versatile strategist, the structured steward, and the catalytic architect. Each of these archetypes is the result of deliberate choices, prioritization of options, and weighing of tradeoffs. Whether you are just getting started or thinking about the next chapter of your philanthropy, you can use this guide to reflect upon the options and to activate a model that will help you meet your philanthropy mission as a family.