THE SIX SECRETS TO SUCCESS WHEN STARTING YOUR FAMILY FOUNDATION

You’ve taken the tremendous step of starting up a family fund for your philanthropic giving. Whether you plan to make cash gifts, start a 501c3 foundation, volunteer pro bono services, or direct giving from your community foundation donor-advised fund, you should start your operation off on the right foot. 

You can’t start a fire without a spark. -Bruce Springsteen.

Blackbird Philanthropy Advisors are experts to help you achieve success in philanthropy. You were smart enough to take the first step toward strategic giving. We can help you start on the right foot. 

Wouldn’t you say that in order to make an intelligent decision you need: 

1. Good access to the right information...
2. Expertise in order for you to evaluate...
3. And a reliable professional to help with management?

Blackbird can set strategy, manage giving requests, monitor partner accountability, and assess successes. Imagine yourself a year from now out visiting the new children’s theatre you just built through your matching gift challenge. Above the stage reads: “The Albert Jordan Family Children’s Theatre” -- You smile as you think about your father’s passion for theatre and remember all the fun, silly shows your family put on when you were kids. You feel a sense of pride, knowing his memory will be honored for decades to come.  

Blackbird knows the lay of the land. We monitor opportunities for giving that could match your goals and interests. Setting strategy is step one (...all the steps are below). You can do this exercise alone in the dark or with an advisor. It’s possible to accomplish either way and is up to you and your family to decide.

Our purpose is to operate as a micro-foundation for your new family fund. We offer the same services a large-scale foundation offers families who require a family office with multiple people on staff. We strongly recommend working with a professional to map out a plan for your hard-earned money. We’re sure you wouldn’t want to waste resources and time as you sort things out in real-time. 


STEP ONE: Assess your family’s values, beliefs, and aspirations. 

1. Ask: What do I really care about? What does your family truly care about? What do you want your children and grandchildren to grow up caring about?
2. Is it people? Certain places or geography? A philosophy or way of life? A problem? A pathway? You may decide your family is devoted to multiple issues, that’s fine. Just make sure there is clarity in how you will begin to address complex problems. 
3. Think about: When people think you, what values come to mind for them? How do you want people to see you and your family? This is something that is met through philanthropy. 
4. Use this “Identify Your Values” exercise from KeyChange to job your mind about what may be most important to you. This article from CEOSage might help you discover what your family’s core values are. 

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STEP TWO: Think about what success in philanthropy looks like to you.

1. Define success for your family fund and keep it at the forefront of all gifts you make and the projects you engage in through philanthropy. You may decide, “Success will be when we’ve stocked the Main Street Food Pantry for the entire year.” Or that, “Success will be when 90% of the kids in the tutoring program we fund improve one reading level or more within six months.” 
2. Then start to think about what it will take to achieve success. Will a take a ton of money and a ton of work? Or a little bit of money and not much work to pull off? Maybe something in between?
3. Do you have a big idea and hypothesis about how to create the change you want to see in the world? Do you know some ways to get your idea off the ground? Are there already nonprofits who can help push it into action with your support?   
4. This step is where you start to map out your resource commitments -- how much time, money, and influence are you willing to invest? And how much to each cause? Just like in business, resource allocation is where the pedal hits the metal

STEP THREE: Create a plan and stick to it so you can measure results. 

1. Imagine giving to a nonprofit year after year and feeling like you’re getting nothing in return? Or feeling like you’re not even sure what they’re spending the money on. When you set strategic goals for each gift you make, you’re holding both the nonprofit and your family accountable for reaching the success you’re looking for. Setting priorities will position you as a serious, strategic philanthropist who honors commitments. 
2. Determine what you’re able to bring to the table (time, money, influence, network, etc.). Then set goals for how many projects and organizations you can take on to reach your end goals. Think about what you’re willing to do, not just what’s possible. 
3. It’s great to hold yourself accountable and have a tight plan for giving. We recommend also allocating some funds for sporadic, one-time gifts that will allow you to meet some immediate needs or particularly innovative ideas that may arise randomly.
4. Determine your propensity for risk. Are you a family who is only interested in taking on small-scale but evidence-based, proven programs? Or are you interested in testing new concepts, knowing the project could eventually fail? No matter what you decide, make sure you’re always learning and adapting your strategy along the way. It’s not set in stone and entirely up to you!

 
STEP FOUR: Partner with experts to achieve your intended goals.

1. By this step, you should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish and what you’re willing to invest in. It’s now time to execute. 
2. Investigate nonprofits that match your values, who have the capacity to tackle the challenge you want to take on, and who have the right people who are ready to take your partnership seriously and respectfully. 
3. You may choose to hire someone to help you with this process. It can be a lot of work to research, interview, and survey prospective partners. You’re a family with a lot on your plate. You’ll have to decide if you have the time in your schedule to take on this phase of the process. If you choose to hire some professional help, look for someone you can trust who matches your speed, has excellent management ability, and nonprofit administration experience. This person may be meeting with stakeholders more frequently than you. You will need to feel that you can trust them to work on your behalf. Blackbird Philanthropy Advisors is especially equipped to offer high value services on a small scale not otherwise afforded to startup family funds. 

 
STEP FIVE: Form a genuine, mutually beneficial relationship with nonprofits. 

1. Through research, relationships, respected opinions, and requests, you should have a good idea of who you will fund in year one. You may consider looking to larger foundations as a roadmap of how they find partner relationships. 
2. With the intention of becoming a long-term partner with a nonprofit, you should take serious steps to build a genuine relationship with the nonprofits you fund. Just like building a relationship in your personal life or business, you start with a common interest and develops over time through regular interactions.
3. Seek to build a relationship so strong that you’re able to have candid conversations about how your priorities align, or don’t align, with their strategic vision as an organization as a whole.
4. If nonprofits do not appear to match the level of respect you’re willing you give them, you may re-consider continuing the relationship. However, you should try to mend the issues you have before you pull out entirely. It may be an easy fix made possible through a brief conversation. After all, it would be the people you’re aiming to help that could be hurt in the long run. 
5. Keep in mind, nonprofits are always strapped for resources. Many nonprofits are short-staffed or not adequately staffed. Be somewhat lenient but keep every interaction in mind to determine whether or not the nonprofit can take on the type of projects you’re interested in. 
6. If you do have to end a relationship, take the process seriously. Ideally, you should reduce funds gradually or create a multi-year plan to support in ancillary ways. For example, you may offer to pay for a consultant to help them ramp up their fundraising strategy in place of ongoing support from you. You should never leave a nonprofit abruptly without, in the very least, a conversation. They have likely come to rely on your contributions. 

 
STEP SIX: Continuously improve and adjust by monitoring results as you go. 

1. By staying in contact with the nonprofits you fund through personal communication and reporting, you should be able to gauge the progress you’re making toward your goals. Growth can also sometimes be measured through tracking statistics and usage rates of program performance. Some of these might include pre/post tests or demographic outreach figures. 
2. Find ways to stay in touch with the nonprofits you fund and ask them how they are doing too. You’ll be able to adjust funding or priorities along the way according to the direction the program is heading. An Executive Director may reveal the program isn’t doing too well due to staffing issues. At that point, you may be able to step in to leverage your influence and expertise to help them bulk up their HR department (a tactic unplanned for in your initial plan). Always be willing to learn and adjust. 
3. Stay informed! You have the power to make tremendous change in the world through philanthropy. Stay tuned into research, development in program delivery, and benchmark what organizations and other foundations are doing. Stay in touch with nonprofits and other foundations and philanthropists 
4. Eventually, you will learn what you’re good at and love to do, and what you’re not so interested in and will avoid altogether in the future. It’s an ongoing process to optimize. 

Ultimately, philanthropy is highly personal. It directly reflects who you are as a person. It’s up to you to decide how you want to be seen and who you’d like to become. 

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