families
An estate is built up over the generations and the family grows larger. This source of diversity is not without its challenges: how do you forge a common identity to which everyone can relate? How do you learn to take decisions together while maintaining family harmony? Philanthropy makes it possible to gradually create a neutral sphere which promotes fruitful meetings for future exchanges.
- Families engage in philanthropy to give effective support to the beneficiaries or the causes close to their hearts, while seeking to strengthen the links which unit them in this common commitment.
- With the new generations, occasional, reactive donations often initiated by a single family member tend to change over time into more a proactive, continuous commitment.
- The impact of a family's philanthropic engagement is measured both by the results for the beneficiaries and also in terms of the involvement of the different members of the family.
- Integrating the younger generations into the philanthropic process helps promote a spirit of initiative and a desire to do something, as well as allowing them to gradually get to know the family estate.
- Learning, as a young giver, to take decisions with your family on philanthropical matters allows you to acquire a certain discipline and useful experiences for the future.
Reading
- Why others? Philanthropy as opportunity,
Etienne Eichenberger, Karin Jestin, Thierry Lombard, Maurice Machenbaum, Matthieu Ricard, John Ward, and Gabs, Geneva, September 2008.
- Generations of Giving,
Kelin E. Gersick, Washington DC, Lexington Books, 2006.
more- Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The next generation, Alison Goldberg, Karen Pittelman & Resource Generation, New York, Soft Skull Press, 2006.
Case Study
- Engaging the Next Generation in Family Philanthropy,
In: 21/64 Newsletters, Case Study No 1, New York, 2007
www.2164.net/2164resources.html - Family Philanthropy: the Wisdom of Giving Together,
Jon Aisbitt, In: Looking over the Horizon, SandAire’s Anniversary Book, London, 2007
www.sandaire.com/index.php?menuID=17...
«it is more difficult to give money away intelligently that it is to earn it in the first place»
- Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The next generation, Alison Goldberg, Karen Pittelman & Resource Generation, New York, Soft Skull Press, 2006.