How Can a Focus on Family Foundation Governance Lead to Deeper Engagement and More Effective Philanthropy?
Family Foundation giving should be effective for communities, meaningful for trustees, and uplifting for all. Good governance is the key. But every family foundation is different, so how can they determine which governance practices are right for them? Giving Related is a research project exploring the practice, challenges, and promise of governance to promote inclusion, connection, and effective group work within family foundation boards – all in the name of better stewardship.
Giving Related is a project of the National Center for Family Philanthropy Fellows Program
Giving Related defines “governance” as the habits philanthropic families use to facilitate their work as a family board. In simple terms, governance amounts to the ways a family board engages in their work together over time. As governance habits take root and grow, they give rise to the foundation’s culture which forms the crucible for every philanthropic decision a family board makes. Therefore, optimizing governance for family foundations is critical.
Hi, I’m David Weitnauer. I’ve held leadership roles at several family foundations, and I’ve always been fascinated by how family members relate to one another while engaging in family philanthropy. As a Distinguished Fellow of the National Center for Family Philanthropy, I created the Giving Related research project to dive more deeply into what’s helpful, what’s hard, what works, and what doesn’t when it comes to “giving related.”
