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Family Foundations

Live your values, engage your family, and enhance your impact in the world

Many of our clients consider philanthropy and social impact as critical components of their family enterprise. 

Some families choose to coordinate these activities strategically through a family foundation, while others utilize vehicles like donor advised funds or individual giving in order to provide targeted philanthropic support to organizations and communities. 

The limitless possibilities afforded by private philanthropy, coupled with the challenges of measuring results in the social sector, means that there can be different — and at times competing — visions for the family’s philanthropy. This can both limit social impact and generate complex family dynamics. 

LGA helps families achieve greater impact and support their legacy by [same links for the bullets that repeat from Family Businesses]:

  • Educating owners and leaders on the unique role of family philanthropy in a family enterprise and the requirements for long-term success
  • Clarifying a shared purpose and values to guide the family’s philanthropic priorities
  • Launching or redesigning family philanthropies — including private foundations, funds, and giving programs – in alignment with these priorities
  • Ensuring governance and execution of any shared philanthropies are coordinated with the rest of the family’s operational, investment and estate planning activities
  • Assessing and developing leaders and leadership teams
  • Designing efforts to educate, involve, and transition leadership to the next generation
  • Facilitating more productive relationships between family members and professional staff

Featured services

continuity audit

Continuity Audit

Build a comprehensive action plan to support the long-term success of your family enterprise.

Featured Insights

Want to learn more about our support for Family Foundations?







-Articles

Why It Took Me Three Years to Finish HBO’s Succession and What It Teaches Us About How Not to Run a Family Enterprise

I tried to watch the award-winning HBO series on numerous occasions, stopping repeatedly, not because it wasn’t brilliant, but because it was brutal. The cynicism, humiliation, and constant power games felt too extreme. For anyone working closely with multi-generational family enterprises, this world of perpetual chaos and zero-sum power felt not only far removed from our reality, but was also a painful mirror reflecting everything that causes a family enterprise to fail.

-Podcasts

Can Families Find Purpose by Giving Together?

In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse podcast, host Tim Yeung interviews Ashley Blanchard, a Partner at LGA and an expert in family philanthropy. Drawing on her co-authored study with Wendy Ulaszek for the National Center for Family Philanthropy, Ashley shares insights on how families can successfully engage the next generation, balance individual interests with collective purpose, and navigate the journey of professionalizing their philanthropic efforts.

-Podcasts

Can Worry Actually Work for You to Parent with Purpose?

In this episode of the LGA Lighthouse Podcast, host Tim Yeung speaks with psychotherapist and author Dr. Dana Dorfman about her book, When Worry Works: How to Harness Your Parenting Stress and Guide Your Teen to Success. They discuss how parents, especially those in successful family enterprises, can transform their achievement-driven anxiety into intentional, values-based parenting.

Newsletter

LGA Insights – October 2025

These last few months have been filled with activity, as we’ve expanded our global footprint through the addition of new team members, and increased our presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Later this summer, we will begin publishing episodes for the second season of our LGA Lighthouse Podcast, and will continue sharing fresh insights through a variety of articles, interviews, and other thoughtful content generated by our global advisory team.

Within that context, we’re thrilled to share with you the latest reflections from our Partner, Fernanda Jaramillo. In this edition of LGA Insights, Fernanda describes the importance for enterprising families of establishing and maintaining a shared vision to ensure continuity and legacy—particularly in moments of generational transition.

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-Articles

Jobs vs. Wealth

Family leaders must have the courage and stamina to create an inclusive, participative, and results-driven culture in the family and business, supported by the right policies and systems. Such a foundation will set the stage for a family legacy which both sustains across multiple future generations, and grows along the way with each group driving growth and diversification and making its own mark.

Featured advisors