Family foundations let rich leave legacy

STEPHANIE Cordes, a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has a present from her father, Ron, that she treasures. It's a handmade pink scrapbook, titled, "5 Life Lessons From Dad." Inside are whimsical photos of her with friends and family alongside typed pages containing his simple guidance. The chapters are: "Seek your passion." "Do your best." "Good enough is never good enough." "No excuses." "Make a difference." "Go for it." She was moved. But what really touched her was a letter he wrote to her last fall, which concluded with: "You are my legacy." And she is, in more ways than one.

In mid-January, Ms Cordes, 24, quit what she had called her dream job, working at Conde Nast as an advertising sales assistant, to work full-time for the Cordes Foundation, the non-profit family foundation her father created when he and his two partners sold their firm, AssetMark Investment Services, to Genworth Financial in 2006 for US$230 million.

"I am going to be the legacy of the foundation," said Ms Cordes, who is an only child. "It is really important that I am involved because it is going to be mine eventually." According to the most recent statistics, the number of family foundations like the Cordes Foundation has exploded since 2001. There are now more than 40,000 family foundations in the US, making grants totalling more than US$21.3 billion a year, up from about 3,200 family foundations doling out US$6.8 billion in 2001, according to the Foundation Center in Washington.