Subject category:
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Published by:
Harvard Kennedy School
Length: 10 pages
Topics:
Non-profit management
Share a link:
https://casecent.re/p/7009
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Abstract
When Michael Heisley, a billionaire investor and corporate turnaround specialist, decides in 1996 to start a family foundation, he, like many such founders, envisions a vehicle that will both use his fortune for philanthropic ends and serve to bring and keep his family together. He designates his wife and five children as members of the foundation board. Heisley, however, takes an unusual step in establishing the foundation: he endows it, at first, with less than a million dollars and does not specify the purposes to which any gifts it makes should go. He hopes, rather, that his children will take up the challenge of defining the nature of the foundation and make the first, small grants-before he directs a significant part of his fortune to it. This case describes the discussion and debates among members of the Heisley family as to how the Heisley Family Foundation should go about its work. Among the issues considered: whether the founder should be asked to provide a statement of "donor intent"; whether a family foundation is preferable to directing gifts to established charities and institutions; whether non-family members and spouses of board members should be invited to participate in decision-making. The case provides a point of departure for discussion of key issues which are likely to arise in the early days of any new family foundation and can serve as a way for those concerned with nonprofit management-and family foundations themselves-to discuss those issues. Written with the support of the National Council on Family Philanthropy.
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Abstract
When Michael Heisley, a billionaire investor and corporate turnaround specialist, decides in 1996 to start a family foundation, he, like many such founders, envisions a vehicle that will both use his fortune for philanthropic ends and serve to bring and keep his family together. He designates his wife and five children as members of the foundation board. Heisley, however, takes an unusual step in establishing the foundation: he endows it, at first, with less than a million dollars and does not specify the purposes to which any gifts it makes should go. He hopes, rather, that his children will take up the challenge of defining the nature of the foundation and make the first, small grants-before he directs a significant part of his fortune to it. This case describes the discussion and debates among members of the Heisley family as to how the Heisley Family Foundation should go about its work. Among the issues considered: whether the founder should be asked to provide a statement of "donor intent"; whether a family foundation is preferable to directing gifts to established charities and institutions; whether non-family members and spouses of board members should be invited to participate in decision-making. The case provides a point of departure for discussion of key issues which are likely to arise in the early days of any new family foundation and can serve as a way for those concerned with nonprofit management-and family foundations themselves-to discuss those issues. Written with the support of the National Council on Family Philanthropy.