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Legacy: Personal reflections from Sharilyn
Legacy is often associated with philanthropy, commonly in the context of financial largesse. However, legacy is more fully understood as the long-lasting impact of a person's life - and this is rarely summed up in dollars or named buildings. As a good colleague recently posted, we can't leave a legacy that we have not lived.
Legacy has taken on a deeper meaning for me, having lost both my parents in the last few months. While they had very little wealth, I have reflected on the richness of their individual and shared legacies that they lived and left for me, and my family. They touched deeply the corners of the world they moved through. They may be gone but their legacy remains in countless expressions.
In my work with families, we explore these more meaningful aspects of legacy. What have you inherited, or what are you leaving behind - other than wealth? Values, beliefs, histories, stories, cultures, and ways of being. These are the things that shape one's unique legacy (the good and the difficult) in life, and death. Probing this helps with sense-making, and provides a thread that connects those who come before and those to come. In life, and in philanthropy, understanding these gifts can help chart a more intentional way forward, make giving purposeful, and get to the heart of what really matters.
As I consider my legacy, I can only be grateful for what I have inherited. I invite you to reflect on your legacy as well, and what it might mean for your living and giving as you look ahead. I'd love to hear from you.
Sharilyn
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Getting good giving advice - for you or your clients
Good advice matters. And poor advice can cause harm. Including philanthropy.
In Better advice for thoughtful philanthropy, Sharilyn makes the case for the role independent professional philanthropy advisors play in the family wealth advisory eco-system, and the risks associated with philanthropy on the fly. Skilled philanthropy advisors drive a more fulsome approach to philanthropy, beyond technical and structural elements, or selecting charities. We scratch the itch many families have to explore issues of purpose, values, and community which serve as a wellspring for action.
Sharilyn further explored many of these considerations for families and family offices in a recent conversation with The Capital Club. Host Brian Adams, a philanthropist and volunteer in his own right, ended the engaging and good-humored conversation by asking Sharilyn what he asks all his guests, "do you have a daily practice that brings peace to your life?"
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Sharilyn joins the faculty of Blackwood
Watermark is pleased to partner with Blackwood Family Enterprise Services appointing Sharilyn as a faculty member for philanthropy and social impact. Blackwood helps enterprising families across Canada achieve major breakthroughs, become closer, and build their enterprises across generations. Blackwood's faculty includes leading independent experts and specialists able and at the ready to support Blackwood client families as their needs come into focus.
Blackwood understands the important role philanthropy has and can have in the lives of the families they support, and how conversations about giving can help families flourish in other spheres of their lives. Watermark looks forward to collaborating with the Blackwood team in this way.
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Sharing leadership: Navigating the Board/CEO relationship
Getting it right in the service of people, purpose and performance
Watermark's experience working with CEOs and boards in and outside Canada pinpoints that the Board/CEO relationship can be one of the most challenging in nonprofit and charitable communities. Confusion about roles, personality and power dynamics, and breakdowns in communication. When this relationship isn't healthy, neither is the organization.
If you are a foundation or charity CEO, or a volunteer director, board chair, or family member, join Sharilyn on February 9th for a quick dive into this critical relationship and how shared leadership offers a practical framework and actionable steps that prioritize people, purpose, and performance. Big thanks to Blumberg's Canadian Charity Law for the invitation.
Not available on February 9th, wrestling with board governance challenges, or want to take your governance performance to the next level? Connect with Sharilyn for a confidential conversation about how Watermark might help.
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Watermark clients and ripples of hope
"Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope." Robert Kennedy
Every year, we have the privilege to work with wealth creators, inheritors, families and rising gen leaders, and social purpose organizations to craft and support the relationships, strategies, project management and governance core to their giving and social impact. Watermark is grateful to all our clients in 2023 who trusted us with their vision and are sending forth ripples of hope and change in ways that transform lives and communities every day by:
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- building the philanthropic eco-system
- ensuring childhood nutrition and food security
- protecting intellectual freedom
- safeguarding democracy
- fighting anti-semitism
- supporting the well-being of seniors
- developing community leadership
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- creating opportunity for athletic excellence
- building financial literacy and prosperity
- deepening community resilience and inclusion
- advancing medical research
- celebrating visual arts and protecting cultural heritage
- conserving natural habitats
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In these times of uncertainty, this work keeps us hopeful about the future and our collective capacity for personal action, even as we question and tackle the structural issues at the root of our world's most pressing challenges. I invite you to consider a heartfelt article by my colleague and friend Dr. Amir Pasic about the grace of personal philanthropy in times of crisis.
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Sharilyn's Spring list
Resources to support givers, inheritors, and advisors
The super-rich are trying new approaches to philanthropy, The Economist, Jan 10, 2024.
It ain't what you give, it's the way that you give it, Caroline Fiennes, 2023.
Philanthropy & social impact trends and tools to move Wealth 3.0, UHNW Institute, Nov 2023.
Infectious Generosity: The ultimate idea worth spreading, Chris Anderson, Jan 2024.
The Wealth Shared Project
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YOUR PHILANTHROPY MATTERS.
Strategy - Family Engagement - Governance
Serving leading philanthropists, generous families, and social purpose organizations, Watermark offers customized expertise to help those who give, give well, engage their families, and channel their wealth and influence for good.
Contact Dr. Sharilyn Hale for a confidential exploration of your needs.
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