The article covers how the family foundation worked with its board to not only evaluate their foundation's tradition in grantmaking but also discover new ways of working, with a keen focus on remaining responsive in their pursuit of equity.
How has place-based family philanthropy evolved over time? This resource is a study of place-based foundations and funds. A place-based foundation or fund is committed—often exclusively—to a particular geographic region of the country.
This report presents the full range of study findings, which are based on survey responses from 1,074 family foundations.
Next-Gen Philanthropy: Finding the Path Between Tradition and Innovation, consider a series of questions that every next-generation donor should carefully consider, as well as recommendations based on the past experiences of other next-generation donors.
The sector has evolved in the wake of COVID-19, racial injustice, partisan tension, and economic challenges. How have the events of 2020 altered the pace, method, and effectiveness of donor response?
The limited life approach in philanthropy has received increased attention in recent years. But across foundations, perpetuity is often still seen to be the default, and there is considerable uncertainty about the practice of spending down.
To learn more about limited life foundations’ decisions to spend down — and the ways in which they grapple with several important issues along their journey to pursuing their goals in a finite period of time — CEP conducted in-depth interviews with leaders of 11 limited life foundations.
Resulting from these interviews, this report illustrates the ways in which limited life foundations approach spending down in nine key areas, including investing, grantmaking and strategy, and communications. The research shows that most leaders of limited life foundations choose to spend down because of the belief that it will lead to greater impact. And though these foundations’ leaders wrestle with a similar set of issues in their work, our interviews revealed that there is no one way to spend down.
Accompanying the report is a companion publication of case studies of three of the foundations featured in the report: the Lenfest Foundation, the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, and Brainerd Foundation.
A collection of sample documents for Family Foundations
Board members and staff of philanthropic institutions regularly reach out to CMF to orient themselves to the unique legal regulations and best practices of private foundations. As a subset of 501(c)(3) organizations, private foundations have many similarities to public charities, but have additional rules and regulations that must be followed. This resource is intended to provide an orientation to private foundations, including their common areas of activity and key regulated spaces that both new and experienced staff and board members should be prepared to navigate in their work.
Federal law regarding conflicts of interest and self-dealing at foundations can be complex and confusing. Family foundation boards that are eager to comply with both the letter and spirit of the law should understand the legal definition of “disqualified persons” as well as the variety of rules for certain regulated activities. These rules prohibit the trustees themselves, certain family members, managers, and other “disqualified persons” from benefiting from the philanthropic activities of the foundation.
Although far-reaching and pervasive, the rules do permit certain activities, such as purchasing investment services from a disqualified person for a fair price. The rules discourage most other business and financial dealings between a private foundation and its disqualified persons, no matter how fair or reasonable. When in doubt, prudent trustees should always consult legal counsel.
These resource topics include:
