Leading with Clarity and Impact: Philanthropic Planning & Blueprints

Leading with Clarity and Impact: Philanthropic Planning & Blueprints
All Impact Stories

Design a Visionary Roadmap

An intentional philanthropic plan provides clear and focused direction for navigating a vast number of worthy issues, organizations, and community needs. To develop these plans, Hirsch Philanthropy Partners works with philanthropists at all stages: new philanthropists to identify core beliefs and interests; established philanthropists to align giving with key areas of concern; and generations of families to create individual and shared family priorities. 

Our process is grounded in years of experience and informed by effective methods of organizational development and strategic planning to facilitate personal and professional reflection. Using research and data, individual interviews and surveys, family meetings and other tools, we serve as a trusted guide to develop your mission, areas of focus, and operating structure. The result is a customized Philanthropic Blueprint that provides a roadmap to strategically direct your funds.

Clarify Vision and Values

We partner with you to discover the factors that drive decision-making by delving into past giving, desired levels of involvement, and personal passions. One family foundation we work with made sizable annual contributions to a handful of worthy organizations for more than 20 years and wanted to go deeper into the efficacy and legacy of their giving. The founders asked for our partnership to design a comprehensive strategy, deliberately assess impact, and engage their adult children in the process. 

Our team conducted extensive background research before meeting individually with each family member. We asked a broad range of questions about short and long term interests and levels of involvement before identifying several themes that centered around climate change, disaster preparedness and crisis response, and building resilient communities. We then facilitated a family discussion, presented our recommendations and got their feedback in an iterative process. The resulting Philanthropic Blueprint captured their mission, vision, values, and priority areas, and laid out a formal approach informed by a set of common values. The family was thrilled that our work together established a clear direction for their grantmaking — informing giving for both individuals and family members, and bringing more satisfaction and meaning to their philanthropy.  

“Working with Hirsch has made my giving more effective, inspiring, and results-oriented. It’s refreshing and gratifying to have a guidepost that describes the ways I want to help and the change I want to see in the world.” – Established Bay Area Philanthropist

Create Focused and Impactful Results

Hirsch’s Philanthropic Blueprints are more than a tool; they’re a set of organizing principles to focus giving now and in the future. They identify concrete ways for philanthropists to drive effective community change. As living documents, they are adaptable over time to shifting priorities, portfolio size, and levels of desired involvement. Grant portfolios become more thoughtful and ambitious, and philanthropists report renewed commitment and confidence in how and where to direct resources. 

In Focus
One of our clients, a San Francisco woman in her forties, wanted to re-evaluate her giving priorities. She cared deeply about women’s issues and mental health and had given sporadically for several years to local and national organizations addressing these areas. Now she wanted to consider how her philanthropy leveled up to something bigger. The Hirsch team delved into what inspired her and then created a custom blueprint that articulated her goals and vision and allowed her to laser-focus on the organizations and issues that would best drive change. She was excited to have increased focus and take the next steps toward effectively implementing a vision for women’s mental health and well-being.