A Governance-Based Typology of Family Foundations: The Effect of Generation Stage and Governance Structure on Family Philanthropic Activities

This article brings together research on philanthropy, family business, and governance to examine patterns of giving by U.S. family versus nonfamily independent foundations. The authors use a sample comprising the 200 largest U.S. independent foundations in 2007 to show that family foundations are more focused in their grantmaking than nonfamily foundations. Board size moderates this relationship. They also offer a new typology of family foundations to show that the generation stage of the family and the foundation board's composition are associated with different levels of grantmaking diversity in family foundations but in dissimilar ways. Scholarly and practical implications are discussed.