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This paper highlights a number of approaches that may guide philanthropists in choosing their investments and in encouraging entrepreneurship. Alongside these examples, the paper features a series of case studies showing how philanthropists worldwide invest their wealth, their experience, and their skills to unlock entrepreneurial potential.

Clarifying donor intent at the outset of any conversation regarding charitable giving, and properly documenting that intent, will help both parties feel good about giving and receiving. To avoid confusion after a gift is made and to prevent costly proceedings when the intent of a gift is insufficiently documented, here are a few practical tips to g...

Philanthropically minded families are vulnerable to the misuse of the personal financial information contained in mandatory filings that become public. However, these families are not defenseless; by following the best practices in this paper, they can greatly reduce the likelihood of being victimized.

Businesses worldwide are increasingly using social media networks to advertise and communicate with potential customers and constituents. Regardless of whether a business is using social media, its employees certainly are. Here are four reasons to establish rules for how employees use social media sites.

This paper offers a practical look at how an individual or family might plot a successful road map that aligns and grows with their unique abilities, needs, and personality. The authors detail the steps in a philanthropic asset allocation process involving fact-finding, planning, and continuing assessment as seen through the eyes of three hypotheti...

Investors and advisors focused on wealth growth and preservation may see environment, social, and governance/socially responsible investing as taxing a portfolio's performance. This paper offers a framework with associated metrics for assessing ESG/SRI integration into the portfolio with the same rigor and discipline used in all other fiduciary dec...

Newsletter of the Synergos Institute dedicated to disseminating best practices and innovations in philanthropy and social investment around the world.

Selling the family-owned business is one of the most important financial decisions and transactions that any family will face. Business owners, their children and grandchildren will live with the results for a long time to come. Getting it right is important to maximize family wealth, and some basic advance planning — even several years in advance ...

Leadership succession and governance are important issues for every financial family. However, these issues are especially complex for business-owning families. To explore succession from an expert perspective, FOX spoke with Kelin Gersick, co-founder and senior partner of Lansberg, Gersick & Associates, a consulting and research firm specializing ...

Timing isn’t everything in year-end charitable giving — it’s the only thing. When considering year-end charitable gifts, donors should keep these simple steps in mind.

The family office is often called upon to organize and staff family charitable endeavors. Community foundations can be a resource for the family office by providing information, insight, technical know-how, and alternate means of funding and conducting a family's charitable activities.

Family giving can be wonderfully gratifying as well as a bit messy. That goes double when several generations with different agendas run the family foundation. At the FOX Fall Forum, family members and foundation executives engaged in a lively discussion on how to effectively address questions related to family philanthropy.

On April 25, Mario Morino, Chairman of the Morino Group and Venture Philanthropy Partners, spoke to the FOX Concepts in Strategic Philanthropy Special Interest Group.

Donors' charitable gifts to their family foundations are not always administered by successor trustees in the manner in which originally intended. Donors must carefully articulate a mission for the organization — their private foundation — that will be the repository of a significant portion of their wealth.

Our advice to anyone hesitating to bring about an intergenerational family foundation because the time does not seem right or there are too many family issues to confront is — just get started. There is no better time than now to have the satisfaction of helping others and, at the same time, to give your family the opportunity to grow and to disco...