Philanthropy takes many unique forms—and that is certainly the case with family philanthropy. The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI) opened its doors in 1989 to help individual donors, families, companies, and other funders increase the impact of their philanthropy. While every family and approach to family philanthropy is unique, we know that the philanthropic journey often follows certain patterns and pathways.

To reflect these patterns in a useful way, TPI developed the TPI Philanthropic Curve, which we offer as a tool to help families and other funders assess where they are, where they want to go, and what will help them to progress.

Source: The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI)

What Is the TPI Philanthropic Curve?

The TPI Philanthropic Curve has six levels.

• Level One: Becoming a Donor

  If you sit at level one, you regularly or sporadically receive requests from nonprofit organizations and fundraising events. Requests come from your college, friends, neighbors, and business associates, or the schools, activities, and programs in which your children participate. From time to time, you make a gift because you are moved by an experience or a need in the community. For some people, charitable giving is familiar ground—it's something that is expected by your place of worship, for example, or something your parents did. For others, it is a new experience. Giving has become part of your life, part of who you are, and one of the roles you play in the community in which you live.

• Level Two: Getting Organized

  Moving into level two, your capacity to give has increased and that fact is now known by others. The number of requests you receive and gifts you make has increased, and it is a challenge to manage the process. You decide to get organized, perhaps for tax reasons as well. You establish a donor-advised fund, or if warranted, you create a private foundation. These mechanisms help somewhat, but they do not solve the problem of receiving constant requests that require a response. You begin to try to prioritize your giving, learning better how to say yes or no. But at the end of the year there may still be a struggle to deal with the numerous requests for gifts.

• Level Three: Becoming More Strategic

  In level three, you conclude that your giving is not satisfying. It is “an inch deep and a mile wide”, and has more to do with being asked to give than reflecting your own values and passions. You take a step back, become more proactive, more purposeful, and strategic. You sort out which organizations, programs, and issues really interest you and focus more of your time and money on them. You make a distinction between those gifts that reflect personal and community responsibilities and those that you care very deeply about. Your philanthropy now has goals and objectives, and it has taken on a different role in your life.

• Level Four: Focusing on Issues and Results

  Shifting into the top half of the curve, you still do not know as much as you would like about the complex issues that you wish to address. So, you set out to learn about best practices and discover who is at the leading edge of the work. You go deeper, gaining greater clarity in the process, and you may work with organizations to establish goals, metrics, and indicators of success. You may explore ways to increase the capacity of organizations to do the work better or to go to scale. Your goal is to achieve impact and results, so you begin to use measurement and evaluation as tools to determine if you have made a difference.

• Level Five: Leveraging

  In level five, you realize even more than ever that you cannot do important social change work alone and that collaboration with others is essential. You build or join a community of interest around the issues you care about, find or create networks of other donors, and, where appropriate, advocate for government and business investment or structural changes that can lead to much greater impact in the future. You have become a knowledge center for others.

• Level Six: Achieving High Impact

  Landing in level six, you have become a donor-leader. Philanthropy is among the most satisfying aspects of your life, and you have learned to use your wealth, your passions, and your skills to make the world a better place.

Family Self-Assessment

For many families, simply engaging in a discussion about where they are along the Curve and how they might move to the next level can be illuminating. To encourage and support these conversations, we offer a series of discussion questions that focus on three overarching questions: Where are we? Where are we going? How do we get there?

Potential Outcomes and Next Steps

The exercise of locating your family on the TPI Philanthropic Curve can be simple and enlightening. Engaging in the discussion itself can inspire family members to lift their sights and aspire to accomplish more with their philanthropic resources.

Some 15 years ago, several family members found themselves named as trustees of a foundation created by a beloved aunt (they found themselves at level one on the curve). In their first year of grantmaking, they began to get organized (level two), and each trustee suggested giving grants to one or two nonprofit organizations where they had some connection. The result was a mix of grants with little in common. Though the trustees did not know about the Curve at that time, a trusted advisor helped them quickly realize they could achieve much more impact if they could become more purposeful and focused (moving to level three).

They engaged TPI to lead them through a planning process, which resulted in a clear focus and strategy built around the compelling legacy of their aunt, who had some extraordinary qualities. Over time, they have refined their philanthropic goals and strategies, become increasingly results-oriented, and employed a variety of leveraging strategies to increase the impact of their grants (graduating to levels four and five). They have created strong partnerships with their grantee partners and continue to evolve and seek greater impact (aspiring to reach level six).

Regardless of whether your family has started down the path toward greater philanthropic impact or how far it has evolved on its own philanthropic journey, we encourage you to take a few minutes at your next family gathering or family foundation meeting to talk about where you are on the TPI Philanthropic Curve and open a dialogue about how you might go further. You may be pleasantly surprised by where this conversation leads you and your family.

Additional Resources

1. Strategic Philanthropy: A Primer on Roles and Strategies (Boston, MA: The Philanthropic Initiative, n.d.).
2. Exponent Philanthropy, The Trustee Handbook (Washington, DC: Author), https://www.exponentphilanthropy.org/publication/the-trustee-handbook-the-essentials-for-an-effective-board-member/.
3. National Center for Family Philanthropy, The Family Governance Pyramid: Enhancing and Guiding Your Family Philanthropy (Angus, 2021), https://www.ncfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/The-Family-Governance-Pyramid-Angus-NCFP-2021-1.pdf.
4. GrantCraft, Mapping Change Using a Theory of Change to Guide Planning and Evaluation, Candid. Learning, https://grantcraft.org/content/guides/mapping-change/.

Biography

Leslie Pine, managing partner of The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), started with TPI at its founding by Peter Karoff, who also developed the TPI Philanthropic Curve. Leslie has been the principal architect of TPI's creative approach to program design and strategy, overseeing research, design, implementation, and evaluation of philanthropic strategies. This work has transformed the concept of strategic philanthropy into high-impact philanthropic action, helping funders develop effective approaches to the issues that concern them.

Prior to joining TPI when it opened its doors in 1989, Leslie worked in the academic and government sectors. She is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and received a Master of Science degree in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health.