Being entrusted with a family foundation by one’s parents elicits a multitude of feelings. Like many things in life, foundation trusteeship decisions are rarely black and white. It can be challenging to honor the founding donor’s wishes when there are questions that were left unanswered. Join NCFP president Ginny Esposito as she interviews Susan Packard Orr about her forthcoming Passages Issue Brief, “Seven Things I Wish My Parents Had Told Me.” Susan will address the seven keys things she wishes her parents would have told her about their philanthropic work in hopes that other families may see the value in discussing these issues while the founders are still present.
Featured speakers
Virginia M. Esposito is the founder and president of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. For 35 years, Ginny has worked to advance private philanthropy through research, writing and education. For 25 of those years, she has focused on the family philanthropic experience, promoting values, vision and excellence across generations of donor families. Ginny served as the editor and principal author of Splendid Legacy: The Guide to Creating Your Family Foundation and the forthcoming (winter 2015) Splendid Legacy 2: The Guide to Creating and Re-Creating Your Family Foundation. To mark the Center’s Tenth Anniversary, she conducted an interview project that resulted in her publication: The Power to Produce Wonders: The Value of Family in Philanthropy. She also edited and served as principal author of the four-volume Family Foundation Library Series (1998). She has written numerous issue papers and articles for and about family giving. Ginny has actively sought to embrace new audiences and diverse traditions in her work advancing ethical and effective family philanthropy, and has presented at hundreds of conferences on family giving throughout North America and on four other continents. Read Ginny's complete bio here.
Susan Packard Orr is the chair of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and founder and CEO of Telosa Software, a company started in 1986 to provide fundraising and other software to nonprofit organizations. Prior to starting Telosa, Susan worked as a programmer at Health Computer Services at the University of Minnesota and as an economist at the National Institutes of Health. Susan currently serves as a trustee of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Packard Humanities Institute and previously served as a trustee of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. She served for seven years on the board of the Hewlett Packard Company.