Community Foundations and the Excellence in Family Philanthropy Initiative

Community Foundations and the Excellence in Family Philanthropy Initiative

In 1994, Joe traveled up and down the roads of Michigan with the Council of Michigan Foundations to help community foundations better realize their potential to reach and serve the new donor community created by the intergenerational transfer of wealth. In Community Foundations and the Coming Intergenerational Transfer of Wealth, co-authored with Kathryn Agard, Joe advocated for community foundations to serve as a catalyst for more and better philanthropy. He worked directly with many CFs over the years on strategic positioning, developing more focused giving programs and cultivating their capacity to better serve donors.  In 2004 at the Pocantico Conference Center, TPI partnered with the National Center for Family Philanthropy to host a national summit for community foundation CEO’s to explore the opportunities and challenges facing the field in working with family philanthropies. 

One of the key needs identified by the group was the development of training to help community foundation staff better understand and work with family donors.  The group also expressed its interest in creating opportunities for community foundations to share their experiences with and approaches to working with families. TPI crafted the Engaging Families Workshop in response to these stated needs and piloted the program in November 2005.  At the conclusion of the two-day workshop, hosted by the Columbus Foundation, the group recommended that TPI create an agenda for a project to further develop materials, training and best practices for community foundations working with families. 

TPI designed an initiative entitled Excellence in Family Philanthropy. Over the course of the last 18 months, a highly engaged group of staff from 19 community foundations have met three times for two-day opportunities to share and learn from each other and TPI. There have been regularly scheduled conference calls and thought papers on subjects ranging from Measuring Success to Working with Advisors and Family Dynamics. In addition, with support from three of the EFP participant foundations, Blueprint R & D is designing an evaluation tool for community foundations to track the impact of their family philanthropy practice. The initiative will complete its second year with the roll out of two levels of community foundation training for staff working with families.