National Center for Family Philanthropy

To this end the Center hosts programs and services in the form of webinars and peer networks to inform its members on new giving opportunities and strategies. It collects its advice and consultation on decision making into a system it calls “the Family Giving Lifecycle.” ¹ The Center also promotes the benefits of private philanthropy to the general public. ²

Its major partners and funders include many left-of-center foundations and donor networks. ^{3 4}

Background

The National Center for Family Philanthropy was founded in 1997 by a group of families with the idea that family philanthropy, the largest category of organized philanthropy in the United States, needed a separate center for support and encouragement. ²

Activities

Programs

One of the major practices of the Center is providing informational programs to its members and to the public. Its monthly “Fundamentals of Family Philanthropy” webinar series covers topics like grantmaking, succession, organizational governance, and motivation. It also hosts a series of webinars called “Community Conversations” where philanthropic “experts” offer strategies and recommendations to attending members. ⁵

Its Learning and Action Networks (LANs), educational courses on topics related to philanthropic giving, require attendees to commit to defined funding actions after the course is finished. Its “Salons” are similar, where members of family giving organizations meet to discuss central themes and concepts. ⁵

The Center offers a list of hands-on services where staff members consult with nonprofits and foundations on specific activities and granting initiatives. ⁵

The Family Giving Lifecycle

One of the main programs the Center hosts is the Family Giving Lifecycle. The Lifecycle boils down the key areas where philanthropies need to focus in order to successfully achieve their missions and objectives. It offers advice on governance, funding strategies, operations and management, and the promotion of younger family members to leading roles. ⁶

Partners

The Center additionally works to connect its family philanthropy members to its “Partners,” a group of over two dozen funding networks to help facilitate its members’ giving to the networks’ subsidiary nonprofit groups. Major partners include Arabella Advisors, the Bridgespan Group, Candid, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the Council on Foundations, Giving Compass, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and the Whitman Institute. ⁴

Funding

The National Center for Family Philanthropy claims to be supported by more than 350 foundations and groups these foundations into its “Learning Network” for philanthropic families. ³

Major funders include the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Duchossis Family Foundation, the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Libra Foundation, MacKenzie Scott (ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos), the McKnight Foundation, Schwab Charitable, the Surdna Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Wyncote Foundation. ³

In December 2004, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Policy and Advocacy division gave the National Center for Family Philanthropy a $400,000 grant to “support efforts to strengthen the structure of the philanthropic sector.” ⁷

The Center’s “Leadership Circle” includes several of the organizations and people listed above as well as the Oak Foundation, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and many others. ³

Leadership

Former president Virginia Esposito had previously been a vice president at the Council on Foundations. ²

Nick A. Tedesco became the president of the National Center for Family Philanthropy in December 2019. ⁸ Before joining the Center, Tedesco worked as a senior advisor in the J.P. Morgan Philanthropy Centre and a relationship manager at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he helped establish the Giving Pledge initiative. ⁹

Tom Lambeth, at the time the executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, was named the first chairman of the Center board. ² As of February 2022, the Center’s chair was occupied by Kelly Nowlin, a member of the Andrus family and longtime board member of the Surdna Foundation. ¹⁰