Are You Ready to Start Thinking About Being a Strategic Funder?

Being strategic about your philanthropy is a balance between focusing on each tree in the forest and seeing the forest for the trees. There are a number of important steps which will help you ensure that your philanthropy is focused and  managed in an organized and professional way. This may apply if you are first establishing a philanthropic fund or if you want to use an existing fund more strategically. The following steps will set you on your way to maximizing your philanthropy in a way that will be engaging and satisfying.  

 

Articulate your values, motivations and desired impacts

  • Identify and engage those in your family whom you wish to involve in your philanthropy
  • Explore your personal and group values and articulate how and where you want to make a difference in the world
  • Develop shared  vision and mission statements to guide you in your philanthropy 

 

Select the philanthropic fund vehicle that meets your needs

  • Review  the pros and cons of each philanthropic fund vehicle and consider which may be most appropriate for your particular circumstances
  • Establish the appropriate philanthropic fund vehicle

 

Develop your philanthropic strategy

  • Consider the best practices in philanthropy

  • Develop policies and procedures for grant making (including how and when decisions are made)

  • Develop grant proposal forms, report forms and template contracts to support your funding  strategy

 

Guide operations and governance

  • Develop guidelines and procedures for productive communication and family harmony

  • Develop plans for operations and board policies to support effective giving

 

Integrate the next generation

  • Discuss the goals of meaningful integration of the next generation

  • Develop functional plan to integrate next generation

 

Plan for succession 

  • Consider long term view for the philanthropic vehicle 

  • Prepare letters of donor intent to preserve founder’s vision 

  • Develop leadership succession ideas that consider founder’s long term goals and cultivate family cohesion and legacy.

 

As a philanthropy advisor, I  coach my clients through each step of their philanthropy journey. Going through these processes is engaging and rewarding in and of itself.  And - the outcome - strategic and impactful granting - is extremely gratifying.  Not only do donors make important improvements to communities and the world  and  enhancing the lives of others, they also enrich their lives and those of their family.  The forest and the trees are in alignment.

““Janice Loomer Margolis is an icon in planned giving.
Nobody even comes close to her knowledge.””
— Susanne Dubé, Senior Manager, Philanthropy and Legacy Giving, Pearson College
““I have found that among its other benefits,
giving liberates the soul of the giver.””
— Maya Angelou
““I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely
more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.””
— Andrew Carnegie
““Wealth is not new. Neither is charity. But the idea of using private
wealth imaginatively, constructively, and systematically to attack
the fundamental problems of mankind is new.””
— John Gardner
““My father used to say, ‘You can spend a lot of time making money.
The tough time comes when you have to give it away properly’
How to give something back, that’s the tough part in life.””
— Lee Iacocca
““Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.””
— Margaret Mead
““Think of giving not only as a duty but as a privilege.”

”
— John D. Rockefeller
““What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have
done for others and the world remains and is immortal.””
— Albert Pike
““You make a living by what you get. You
make a life by what you give.””
— Winston Churchill
“Phil-lan-thro-py – the practice of giving money and
time to help make life better for other people”
— Merriam-Webster Dictionary
““The process that you led was very important to me and we certainly came to a good outcome. We all enjoyed your company and you fit well into our situation.””
— EP - Client