People, Policies & Practice: Governance Guardrails For Private Foundations

Private foundations offer tremendous benefits and flexibility, but they also come with important legal and ethical responsibilities. Join two seasoned philanthropic experts Gillian Howell and Miki Akimoto for an insightful webinar that will provide a practical introduction to private foundation governance. Board members and staff will leave the session with a better understanding of the key rules, how to avoid common pitfalls, and why putting the right people, policies and practices into place can protect their foundation today—and support future growth and planning. Whether you’re new to foundation leadership or looking to strengthen governance practices, this conversation will cover the essentials.

Key takeaways from this discussion include:

  • People: Determining who will be the decision makers, what skillsets to look for, community voice representation, diversity, succession planning for family and non-family members, involving the next generation, and how decisions will be made from end-to-end. 
  • Policies: Familiarizing yourself with the core concepts needed in governance and why it requires revisiting.
  • Practice: As a board, how are you thinking about managing conflict, succession, next-generation engagement and the practices you’re putting in place to revisit core concepts and bylaws?

Yes, I Want to Register!

Presented By:

Gillian Howell

National Philanthropy Executive
Foundation Source

Gillian Howell is the National Philanthropy Executive and a member of the Foundation Source leadership team. Ms. Howell brings more than 35 years of executive and philanthropic management experience to Foundation Source where she is responsible for overseeing and expanding the Philanthropic Advisory Services function. In this role, she leads a team of specialists as they help individuals, families and companies achieve their charitable objectives with greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Ms. Howell is also tasked with increasing the visibility of our in-house expertise in the national philanthropic and wealth management markets. In this capacity, she advocates for Foundation Source clients as well as philanthropic individuals, families and companies, nonprofits, and school and universities to ensure a complete and competitive total service solution from a broad set of available offerings.

Previously, Ms. Howell served in multiple philanthropic leadership roles for Bank of America, most recently as Managing Director and Philanthropic Market Executive for New England. Her earlier roles include heading up the Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund and National Private Philanthropy Executive, a role in which she was a top-producing leader of the private philanthropic sales and relationship management team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. During her 31-year tenure at Bank of America and its predecessor organizations, she collaborated with high-net-worth donors, private foundations, donor-advised funds and nonprofits on strategic planning, donor development, mission advancement, next-generation engagement and board governance, as well as philanthropic investments and fiduciary and risk management.

Ms. Howell is a native of Ireland and a long-time resident of Hartford, Conn., where she is active in its local nonprofit community. She is a board member and sits on the investment committee for the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. She also serves as Chair of the Board for Everyday Democracy, an organization focused on building multiracial democracies within the local community. She is also a longtime member of the board and past-President of the Trustees of the Colt Bequest Inc., that provides a residence and support for senior women in Hartford and surrounding areas of Connecticut.

Miki Akimoto

Philanthropic Consultant

 

Miki Akimoto is an independent philanthropic consultant supporting families, foundations, and philanthropy-serving organizations in a range of work including governance review and refresh, engaging senior philanthropic leaders, and convenings.

Previously she was the Chief Impact Officer at the National Center for Family Philanthropy where she oversaw the major external functions of the organization including programming, signature national events, sector partnerships, and community engagement. 

Other roles have included serving as a Senior Philanthropic Strategist at Bank of America’s Private Bank. In that role, she provided consultation and support to families, foundations, and major nonprofits about their governance, grantmaking, and impact strategies. Prior to joining the Bank of America, Miki was Vice President and then Acting President of Philanthropy Massachusetts, the regional association of foundations, corporate givers, and other key donors in Massachusetts and (at the time) New Hampshire. She also served as the first Director of Grants Management for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and as a program officer at the Corporation for National Service/AmeriCorps.  

She is actively involved in the philanthropic community nationally and locally. She is president of the board of Third Sector Holdings, and is a member of the board of TSNE. Prior board experiences include chairing the boards of the Full Frame Initiative and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and serving on the boards of YWCA Boston, the Boston Foundation for Architecture, and the Forum of Regional Associations of Grant Makers. She was a co-founder of the Saffron Circle, the first Asian Giving Circle in Massachusetts.

She holds a Bachelor of Political Science degree from Stanford University, and lives in Medford, Massachusetts. In her spare time, she bakes, reads, and travels to far flung places whenever she can.