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Our Philanthropic Advisors share how 21/64 training helps them support family giving.

Talking about money with family isn’t always easy, even when it’s about giving to causes one cares about. It’s often easier to avoid the conversation, which is why it can be beneficial to have a trusted thought partner to explore how values, interests and family dynamics might play into your giving plan.

At the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, our philanthropic advisors have deep experience in working with families to navigate their giving. Each advisor’s experience is augmented with a 21/64 certification, which provides additional training and expertise related to multigenerational philanthropy.

The name 21/64 stems from a multigenerational approach to family collaboration. ‘21’ symbolizes the time when young people come of age, while ‘64’ represents the age people typically think about their legacies. There are five adult generations in American society today, and our philanthropic advisors are able to work with them individually and within family groups.

What Do You Want to Accomplish?

We know no two families are alike.

When working with multigenerational families, the first step we take is to determine what the family wants to accomplish, both near and longer-term. We then work with fund advisors to identify whom they consider as their family and discuss how they might like to engage that family in giving.

Having Conversations Through Family Meetings

One of the ways that families can come together to have open conversations about values, money and giving is through facilitated family meetings, which our philanthropic advisors are trained to provide. Since each family is different, each meeting is customized to the family.

Some of the topics we might explore include:

How is money talked about in your family?
What are your values, both as individual family members and as a family unit?
How do those values translate into giving interests? Where is there commonality or difference among family members?
What might a family giving plan look like?
How does your family think about legacy? How might that influence your current or future giving?

To complement these discussions, we also provide online and in-person tools such as our donor toolkit, as well as other resources to help families determine their philanthropic vision.

How Families Benefit

Utilizing the 21/64 approach has given fund advisors confidence to have conversations around money and charitable giving.

According to Director of Philanthropic Services Aurea Gerard, the tools were just what one fund advisor needed to spark conversation with his family.

“I had a donor who wanted to involve his kids in their thirties in giving,” said Aurea. “Thanks to 21/64 I was able to tailor questions to help him and his family get comfortable with money. I shared webinars, books and articles, all which allowed him to have a conversation with the kids and utilize me as needed.”

21/64 training also helped Philanthropic Advisor Mala Thao work with her fund advisors to engage their next generations in giving.

“I have a fund advisor who was interested in involving his adult children in giving,” said Mala. “He talked to his kids to ensure that they were interested in this, and then he and I talked about his options for doing that. Ultimately, he decided to open donor advised funds for each of his children.”

Learn More

Working with families to develop and refine their giving is just one of the services that the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation provides to our fundholders.

To learn more about engaging your family in your giving, contact our Philanthropic Services team to start the conversation.

Contact our Philanthropic Services team

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