Metro Detroit’s philanthropic families used to have a plan for sitting on foundation boards: You serve until you physically cannot, and then the role passes on to the next generation. By the time that next generation gets tapped, they are already up in age. And while that model has worked for decades, it has meant that younger people don’t get their chance to have a say in where the money goes.
That model is changing to the betterment of all.
Crain’s senior reporter Sherri Welch delved into why in this year’s Giving Guide package. She spoke to young philanthropists who are stepping up to serve on boards, how established nonprofits can attract younger donors and explored ways that some prominent metro Detroit families have paved the way for the younger generation to serve.
It’s important because millennials and Gen Xers are more likely than their elders to want to be directly involved in nonprofits — they want to see that the money is getting to the intended target and doing what it was meant to do.
Their desire to get involved in social impact now, at a much younger age, through volunteerism, board service and philanthropy, is one of the key traits experts say will make them the most significant philanthropists in U.S. history.
Nowhere is this shift more pronounced than with the Fisher family. The Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation was started in 1955 and was endowed in 2005 after businessman and philanthropist Max Fisher’s death. With focus areas on Jewish causes, childhood, arts and culture and impact investing, the foundation has become one of the most significant in Detroit.
But a seat on the board is not a given if you’re a family member. Instead, you have to apply and go through a rigorous vetting process to make sure you are the right person for the job. It’s this level of scrutiny and accountability that sets the Fisher Foundation apart and allows them to adapt more easily to the changing needs of the community they serve while bringing in the younger generation.
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