The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay offers customized family meetings to assist families in planning their charitable giving to leave a lasting legacy.
Because families vary where they are in their philanthropic journey, we begin the process by scheduling a 15-minute prep call with the lead donors (usually the matriarch and patriarch of the family) to discuss goals and desired outcomes.
The ideal duration of the meeting is between 60-90 minutes. Anything less and it’s hard to get through the content, anything more and it gets too long for most family members. Most families need a few initial meetings but then move on to once per year once they have a structure in place.
The meetings can be conducted in person or via ZOOM depending on preference.
Popular topics include:
- Explanation of the Family’s Foundation and how it works – an introductory, information session. It is basic but most heirs don’t know the mechanics, so it is a good place to start.
- Grantmaking review – we can review a comprehensive report that shows the total granting history so that the family can see trends and past funding priorities.
- Creating a “Group Agreement” or some governing parameters and how decisions will be made.
- Establishing a family’s mission statement, narrowing grantmaking focus to identified charitable areas of interests.
- Effective grantmaking techniques, best practices for evaluating impact.
- Discussing family values, storytelling and setting long-term vision and goals.
Some of the topics above can be combined into one meeting, for example, the first meeting can tackle topics one through three and the second meeting can take on items four and five, and so on.
The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay is a trusted resource to assist with your family’s philanthropic planning. Please contact me to set up your customized family meeting today.
Sheila Kinman, CAP®, Senior Vice President of Philanthropy, is a 21/64 Certified Advisor and has specialized knowledge and training on a multigenerational approach to family planning and collaboration.
