Practical Paths to Meaningful Engagement: Meeting Next-Gen Family Members Where They Are

By: Olivia R. Zale, Advisor

“I want to get my kids involved with the foundation, but they don’t seem interested.”

As advisors, we hear this a lot. Whether or not you’ve been leading your foundation for years or decades, eventually a time comes when it’s necessary to start cycling your next generation into board seats, especially as our society navigates the historic multi-trillion-dollar wealth transfer over the coming decades. 

The question becomes: how do you create the opportunities that your children and grandchildren will embrace and step into willingly? 

If your foundation’s goal is to exist in perpetuity, or even for at least 20 more years, engaging with your next generation, onboarding them thoughtfully and strategically, and cultivating a strong family culture that helps them feel connected and committed to the family endeavor, are all critically important.

It is also important to make sure that your conversations around next gen engagement are grounded in reality—the reality of their lives. Consider that they might not have as much available free time as you, while they are building their careers and families, and therefore might not be able to slot themselves easily into your existing structure. 

In my work with GPA’s clients—as well as sitting on my own family’s foundation board—I’ve seen firsthand that successful engagement happens when foundations build roles around real lives and clear goals.

Clarify Your Motivations

Before working on an engagement strategy, it is important to have an open conversation as a board about why you want to engage your next generation right now. Many families feel a desire to start engaging their next generation, but rarely dedicate board time or tailored structures to doing it effectively. 

Is there a time-driven necessity for engagement? For example, are you, or any of your board members, looking to step back and retire from the board? (If so, reviewing best practices for succession planning for family foundations can help clarify your timeline.)

Does it seem like your children or grandchildren aren’t interested in participating in the family foundation? For example, have you invited them to attend a board meeting or a site visit but they’ve rebuffed your invitation? 

While recent NCFP Trends research shows that 86% of family foundations encourage next-gen participation, only a fraction dedicate explicit board time to shaping flexible entry points. 

If the primary goal of engagement right now is to train your next generation to succeed you in a leadership role, and to fall into the current governance and grantmaking structures, there are educational building blocks you might want to put into place.

• “Your Foundation 101” Curriculum: Map out a multi-month learning path with different board members presenting different topics (e.g., history of the foundation, governance overview, funding focus areas, and grantmaking processes).

• Trustee Shadowing: Invite them to shadow another trustee for a year or two to learn what it’s like to be a steward of the family foundation. 
• Site Visit Prep & Debrief: Include them in site visits, planning brief prep and debrief sessions to help them gain comfort representing the foundation in the community and meeting grantee partners. 

Or, if you’re looking to refresh your approach to philanthropy and are willing to ask for input, you might choose a more participatory path—engaging the next generation with agency:

• Matching Grants Program: Establish a matching grants program where your next gen contributes money to an organization that the foundation matches at an enticing ratio (e.g., matching $50 with a 1:3 ratio so it becomes $150).
• Junior Board Allocation: Establish a junior board with an allocated budget. Let them work together on their own timeline to conduct due diligence and reach consensus on a grant recipient.

Whatever structures or opportunities you put into place, ground them in your overarching purpose—as outlined in NCFP’s guide on Philanthropy in Complex, Multigenerational Families. When you know what you want to accomplish, and by when, you’ll be better prepared to identify strategies and opportunities to incorporate your future successors.

Reality Check!

When creating pathways to participation for your next generation, be realistic about where they are in their lives and how much time they have to contribute right now. 

When we speak with groups of family advisors or foundation leaders and are asked about best practices to bring the rising generation into the fold, we always remind the audience that the next generation is not a monolith. 

Research like Generation Impact reminds us that younger generations often view giving through different tactical lenses than their predecessors. Depending on how old your children or grandchildren (or great-grandchildren!) are, you will need to tailor opportunities to them. While still in school, building a career, or starting a family, their time is precious. 

• Instead of monthly in-person meetings in the family business boardroom, try quarterly virtual calls. 
• Instead of requiring perfect attendance at live meetings, try asynchronous reading materials, recorded virtual site visits, and voting via a simple Google Form. 

If you’re trying to figure out how much time your next generation can commit, ask them directly. Clear communication and shared expectations pay massive dividends in building trust and shared confidence.

Opt-In Involvement

When starting to create opportunities for your rising generation to get involved, be careful about outsized expectations and be sensitive to implicit pressures. Participation in the foundation should not serve as a litmus test for family loyalty or belonging.

Family members might choose not to participate in their family philanthropy for reasons that are both banal and benign.

• Capacity: Early adulthood demands enormous time and energy; they simply may not have the capacity right now.
• Alignment: They might not feel personally connected to the foundation’s primary focus areas yet, choosing instead to give independently or through their family branch’s discretionary allocation.

A welcoming and inclusive family dynamic encourages members to recognize their own bandwidth and boundaries. The family foundation is not a stand in for your family’s system or culture. Your niece is still your niece, even if she is in law school with zero time for extra-curriculars!

By respecting their capacity, you make it far more likely that they will step up in a meaningful way when the timing is right. 

It’s Not Just About Filling Seats

When the time comes to consider succession planning, be mindful of creating pathways that match the capacity and interests of your next generation while also meeting board goals. Pushing your rising generation to join the board before they’re ready can lead to resentment and guilt.

Include your children and grandchildren early in conversations so that they feel part of the process, invested in the outcome, and inspired to carry forward the legacy that you’ve so carefully built. 

Navigating intergenerational governance and family dynamics requires balancing structure with empathy. If your family foundation is exploring how to thoughtfully engage your next generation, I’d be delighted to consult with you. Contact me at olivia@grantphilanthropy.com to set up a conversation. 

About Grant Philanthropic Advisors:
We’re an independent firm helping clients to focus and maximize their philanthropy—in turn, strengthening the fabric of our communities. Founded in 2019, we help donors move from responsive patterns of giving by assisting clients to identify values and become more strategic in their philanthropy. Our goal is to help donors to become more effective as change-makers. We work with foundations (large and small staff teams), donor advised fund holders, multi generational families, individuals, philanthropy supporting organizations and corporations to design philanthropic strategies.