7th July 2026
‘Next generation philanthropy’ and ‘intergenerational giving’ are two of the most talked-about phrases in wealth management right now. But they don’t mean quite the same thing. Understanding the difference matters when you’re thinking about how to advise your clients.
Next generation philanthropy is about preparing younger family members, children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews to become thoughtful donors. It’s about building in values, habits and confidence that will shape how they give in the future.
Intergenerational giving is about the giving itself: structuring philanthropy so that multiple generations of a family are involved together. This could be a shared fund, a family grant-making committee, or regular conversations about where money goes and why.
In practice, the two are closely linked. Most families who care about one end up thinking hard about the other. Understanding how a high-net-worth family wants to involve the next generation helps advisors recommend the right structure and the right pace.
At Prism our client’s structure these in different ways; some allocate an amount to younger children each year, others run a family style board Donor Advised Fund (DAF) where they make the decisions together about what to fund.
Here Charlotte Milner-Barry, senior relationship manager shares her previous experience of guiding families and helping advisors introduce these conversations .
What I learned advising high-profile philanthropists
Before joining Prism, I spent nearly a decade in California working with high-profile donors and family foundations, including Jane Fonda’s Climate PAC, Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. Across that work, I saw the same question come up again and again: how do you bring the next generation of your family into your giving?
A pattern I saw with many of the families I worked with was their pride at having built their own wealth, and that translated directly into how they thought about their children. They wanted their children to inherit a sense that wealth carries responsibility.
At Prism, we now oversee a number of intergenerational Donor Advised Funds, where we take care of the administration and work closely with charities collating information so that donors and their families can see the impact of their giving clearly. That operational groundwork is what makes it possible for families to focus on the conversations that actually matter to them.
Helping clients make giving a family affair
If you’re a private client advisor working with someone who wants their giving to involve their family, a good starting point is to get your clients to ask the right questions. The answers shape everything, from whether a shared DAF makes sense to how quickly (or slowly) to bring younger members in.
There’s no perfect age or timeline for bringing children, siblings, or wider family into a giving structure. The questions below are prompts designed to help a family work out what feels right for them.
Practical questions to consider
1. What role do you want philanthropy to play in your family?
For some families, giving becomes a reason to gather and have meaningful conversations.
For others, it’s a way to honour the legacy of a parent, grandparent or loved one.
Where individuals have their own allocations, it can also become a way to learn about each other’s interests and priorities.
2. What feels age-appropriate right now?
For younger children, this might look like volunteering together, talking openly about community needs, or encouraging small acts of generosity.
For teenagers and young adults, it might mean researching charities, joining family discussions, recommending grants, or managing a smaller philanthropic allocation of their own.
3. Do you hope your children will continue your current giving priorities, or would you be open to them exploring their own?
Some families care deeply about preserving a long-term commitment to a particular issue or institution. Others want younger members to bring fresh perspectives, even within a shared issue area. There’s no right answer, but clarity early on helps avoid friction later.
Bigger picture questions
4. What do you hope your children inherit from you beyond financial assets?
Values? Curiosity? Responsibility? Compassion?
5. What would success look like twenty years from now?
Children who feel confident stewarding wealth? Children who know how to ask difficult moral questions? The answer will look different for every family.
A starting point for younger children and teens
For families wanting a gentle way in, I recommend two books:
Too Many Mangos – a lovely story about abundance, neighbours, and the joy of sharing what you have.
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults – thoughtful reflections on reciprocity and our responsibilities to one another and the natural world.
A Donor Advised Fund is a flexible and efficient tool that can be adapted as the next generation get involved and grow. At Prism we handle admin, due diligence and compliance behind the scenes so the whole family can focus on the joy of giving.
Get in touch with [email protected] if you’d like to talk through what this could look like for your clients’ giving.
