PHILANTHROPY
Families run their businesses by rules they never apply to their giving
Nicholas Tedesco, President and CEO of the National Center for Family Philanthropy, identified three pillars where family philanthropy must transform: purpose, governance and legacy. Writing after the Brazilian Philanthropy Forum in August 2026, he observed that many Brazilian families hold explicit, mature governance structures for their family business, yet the same frameworks do not govern their giving, leaving family members without agency.
The gap he describes is one of direction. A family enterprise defines who decides and against which expectations, while the philanthropic arm often responds to whatever demand arrives loudest. Tedesco frames purpose as something that shifts with generational transitions and geopolitical change, and legacy as co-created with a next generation entering during the great wealth transfer with its own questions about what is to be achieved, and when.
Source: Alliance Magazine · September 16, 2026