I have news about Giving Related, my NCFP Fellows research project focused on family foundation governance!
For a reminder, here’s my core question: what factors are most helpful for fostering board engagement and productive group process for good stewardship and effective family philanthropy? Recognizing one size never fits all, I’m interviewing trustees and executives from 30 family foundations around the country to learn from experience in the field.
Interviews began in May 2025. With a target sample of 30 family foundations, I now have 23 foundations enrolled in the study based in 16 states from all parts of the country. They represent a mix of family, philanthropic, and community contexts. With 65 interviews in the books, the greatest joy has been meeting people across the country committed to doing philanthropy with their family, complexities and challenges therein notwithstanding.
I’m in the process of enrolling the final 7 family foundations to complete the sample. If you represent a family foundation that allocates a majority of grant funds as a group, I’d love to talk with you about participating. All interviews are confidential and participants will remain anonymous.
Interviews representing a full sample should be finished by the end of April. I’ll have more than 100 interviews to reflect upon during spring and early summer with a final report completed by fall. I don’t have preconceived notions about the final report and trust the process of sense making will point toward the most helpful structure. I’ll lean heavily on NCFP for advice and, of course, provide advance copies to participants.
I apologize for not sending an update sooner. My procrastination reflects, in part, my continued process of adjusting to this new phase of life. It’s been a year and a couple of months since I stepped down from my position at the Dobbs Foundation in Atlanta. It was a well-planned, patient succession process that took place across two years. But that didn’t relieve me of the need to adjust.
I learned quickly that engaging in purposeful work in a stage of life otherwise known as “retirement” has challenges. I’ve had to learn (read, still learning) to pick up purposeful engagement as a choice, ideally motivated by a genuine sense of call, conviction, and even joy. Part of it involves un-learning some now ill-fitting habits born of decades of fulfilling my sense of call by working on behalf of others.
There’s also the mysterious matter of finding balance: relaxing into the joys of family, friends, volunteer service, spirituality, and basically being present to a broader range of life when compared with my time as an employee.
In short, there’s a lot going on during this time of my life when, theoretically, there is less going on. On the Giving Related side, I’m happy to say the process is moving well. I remain excited about the project and look forward to bringing it home in the coming months.
