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Making the most of your strengths.

Many foundations give out the approximately 5% of their assets each year.  If one was to review the purpose of the foundation set by its founder to its mission of today in most cases it has changed if the organization is older than 25 years. 

So there are two question to ask yourself when deciding to establish a foundation.

• Do I want to make the impact while as the donor I am alive or leave the impact to others to make on my behalf?
• Do I want to set a family legacy of philanthropic giving that lasts forever? 

Depending on your answer preserving cash or giving cash will be the key objective of the foundation that is established. 

According to the Foundation Center 2004 study limited-life foundations represent just over 10 % of the family foundations and has been growing.  I would agree with the likes of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates that today’s pressing issues should be ones focus.  Each year new family foundations are created with their own mission, vision and priorities that meet the concerns of the time. 

Is letting the Philanthropists of tomorrow resolve the problems of tomorrow and have the Philanthropists of today resolve the problems of today such a bad idea?

The economic crises of today has caused many foundations to cut back their issuing of grants or stop giving any grants to conserve cash.  This action provides clear evidence that a foundation is more interested in preserving itself than resolving the problems of today.  I would suggest that a Family Foundation close and move its funds to a Community Foundation.  Community Foundations are much better at keeping in touch with the pressing issues of the day and bringing new Philanthropist to the act of giving. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Corporate Giving, Volunteering, Fundraising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.