I was twenty years old when I received my first inheritance of $10,000 from my grandmother. I’ve never felt so wealthy, before or since. It only took me six months to blow it all on well-meaning but ultimately foolish investments and unpaid loans. By the time the next and far larger inheritance came along, I was better prepared.

I come from a family of philanthropists; I am the fourth generation. My great aunt helped to make a huge difference in the success of the Nature Conservancy by enabling them to think bigger about their mission. She granted them enough resources to set aside an entire prairie land, which became their first large scale preservation project. Like my aunt before me, although on a smaller scale, I love to seed NGO organizations and help them shift into higher gears.

I currently use three donor advised accounts at different public foundations to make grants to the larger community. For almost twenty years I have given funds through charitable lead trusts established by my parents to pass capital to me and my siblings while also benefiting non-profits. Since the money for giving has mostly been dispersed and I’m eager to be able to continue giving in the future, I am investing in for-profit ventures with the intention of gifting no less than fifty percent of my gains back to charity. I will also establish charitable lead trusts for my children. Someday soon they will become the fifth generation of philanthropists in my family.