Family Philanthropy Tools: Life Legacy Conversations

Have you heard of an ethical will? Ethical wills are simply a personal legacy letter that shares your values, blessings, life lessons, hopes and dreams for the future. They serve as love letters, not legal documents, and are intended to live beyond your lifetime, but the process can seem overwhelming to begin. 

Our Life Legacy Conversations tool can help. This tool guides you through the process of creating your ethical will by helping you:

1. Uncover your stories: Initiate the experience of finding and sharing stories, naturally encouraging reflections and connections.

2. Explore meaning and values: Bring the stories into a larger context and highlight the values and visions that personal experiences reveal.

3. Put vision into action: Engage the underlying values affirmed in the stories to envision how to make a lasting positive difference in the lives of others. 

This is a beautiful way to connect your life stories to the values you hold close to your heart. Then to think about moving those values into action for you, or your family, in how you spend your time, treasure, talent, and ties in your philanthropic vision. This tool is free for all donor-advised fundholders through The Center for Family Philanthropy. Our staff can guide you through the process individually or as a family. 

For more information, contact Karen Hrdlicka, director of The Center for Family Philanthropy, at khrdlicka@akroncf.org or 330-436-5640.