Key Steps to Discovering (or Refining) Your Family's Approach to Philanthropy

And how governance helps



In this new release of The Tamarind Learning Podcast Series, Sharilyn explores four steps for finding a philanthropic approach that meets a family's unique purpose and goals, and how governance can help create impactful giving efforts with the potential to engage the whole family. Relevant for families new to giving, and those with a long philanthropic tradition.

Special thanks to Cindy Radu of Tamarind Learning Canada, which is known for offering vital online education on family wealth topics to help affluent families, including their next-gen inheritors, in the stewardship of their wealth and family capital.

Using the four levels of giving to make an impact...

no matter where you give

Giving well doesn't have to be hard. There are models and frameworks that can help your philanthropic giving have the results communities need, whether in Canada or other parts of the world. For example, the four levels of giving demonstrate ways giving can intervene and make a difference:

1. Needs-based giving: solves immediate or recurring needs

(gift to a food bank)

2. Empowerment giving: enables individuals to care for themselves

(funding a community garden)

3. Capacity-building giving: deepens an organization's capacity for mission

(supporting a strategic planning retreat for a food security charity)

4. Systemic giving: helps develop systemic solutions to collective problems

(investing in research to advance policy advocacy on childhood nutrition)

You might focus on one level over the others, or integrate multiple levels in your giving for wrap-around effect, recognizing each level delivers different outcomes within varied time horizons. How many levels of giving are reflected in your philanthropy? What kind of giving does your community require?

Watermark has released a report on giving in the Caribbean, for example, with a call for more capacity-building and systemic giving. Learn more about giving well, and about the beautiful tapestry of Caribbean generosity.

Pizza anyone?

The funding conundrums faced by nonprofits around the world

Are you a philanthropist that is concerned a gift to fund a charity's operations isn't 'impactful' enough? Or do you work within a charitable organization and wish donors better understood what you needed to be successful?

Everyone deserves a fair slice is a tongue-in-cheek campaign that was developed by the Human Services Council in New York before the pandemic, to advocate for reasonable funding practices by donors and governments. It highlights - in humorous clarity - the challenges most nonprofits navigate in their funding relationships, and the impact on their ability to be effective.

To donors everywhere - be a help, not a hindrance!

Sharilyn's recommended Spring-getaway reads

New titles to support givers, inheritors, and advisors

The Art of Gathering: How we meet and why it matters. (2020); Priya Parker.

From Charity to Change: Inside the world of Canadian foundations (2022); Hillary Pearson.

I Am Enough: Emerging from the shadows into the sunlight of my true self (2022); Danielle Saputo.

The Myth of the Silver Spoon: Navigating family wealth and creating an impactful life (2023); Kristin Keffeler.



Wealth of Wisdom: Top practices for wealthy families and their advisors (2022): Tom McCullough & Keith Whitaker.