Foundation Management: Making Philanthropy Fun

The Wagner Foundation supports Local nonprofit groups in Oklahoma City area. We focused mainly on human services. We do a lot with special needs. The foundation had been set up with an attorney. Everything had been taken care of by the attorney and really not so much with family involvement. He would say, you need to give to this and this and this. And they just sign off on it. They didn't like that. They wanted to be more involved. We work with all size foundations. We have foundations that are 150 million. We have foundations that are less than 5 million. And we do whatever it takes to meet their needs and to satisfy their board members and to meet the needs of their clients. We make Philanthropy Fun by just really taking care of all of the little things where we come in and serve as I would put it very simply, their staff. We provide back office services. We do compliance. We do accounting. We do grant management. We've got an online portal and we do meeting planning. We play psychiatrist. We try to make it as fun as possible. The grant making process is so much better, it is easier, more streamlined. We now have an online portal and the board members can go on and come up with their own questions before the actual meeting. Then when we have our meeting, it is so much more productive. I often hear from clients that we wouldn't be able to do this without you. You know, the attention to detail and just the time that it takes to pull people together. And I always feel happy and proud to hear those comments. Foundation management really takes the stress off of our shoulders. They do all the administrative and behind the scenes work, allowing us to focus on the grants that we actually get to make and getting to know those people personally. We get to do regular site visits throughout the year and see where our dollars are really making an impact in our community. I think one of the things that we're really good at is listening to what our clients want to do and then make sure that it reflects their values and it reflects what they care the most about. After working with foundation management, I realized how little we were involved beforehand. Frank and Kerry and his group. Their passion is for us to be successful. Foundation management has been instrumental in continuing on the legacy of the foundation through multi generations. There has been a point where we've had three generations serving on the board at one time. They have really made the younger generation come in and help us to be comfortable serving. We help our clients with generational hand offs and it is a big deal. Kids that want to be involved will stay involved and that the parents feel like the foundation is in good hands. And they always have given us a voice since the get go. And I always feel like my voice has been heard. And one of the things I think we're able to do is to help families really think through how to make a meaningful impact in their community. While also really maintaining a close relationship with the rest of their family. It's exciting and fun work. I don't think that you'll find anybody who has more expertise in this area and will truly take the time to listen to you, but to also figure out what your goal is and to help you reach that goal. Financially, it was one of the best decisions that we have actually made. The business that we're really in, people we help people do good. They want to do good with what they've been blessed with. And we want to help them do that.