Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies Featured in Study on Limited Life Foundations
Most leaders of limited-life foundations say the opportunity to achieve greater impact is the key driver for the decision to spend down, a report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy finds.
Based on interviews with leaders of eleven limited-life foundations, the report, A Date Certain: Lessons From Limited Life Foundations (50 pages, PDF), highlights the practitioners' perspectives in nine key areas — why spend down, investing, staffing, grantmaking and strategy, what the foundation owes to grantees, collaboration, communications, evaluation, and archiving knowledge. Funded by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, which plans to spend down by 2020, the study found that often a donor's expressed desire to see greater impact during his or her lifetime was a key driver behind the decision to spend down and that, once the decision was made, many leaders felt a sense of focus and urgency to be strategic...