Working Internally - Whole Family Guide

This section of the guide includes resources for internal engagement, with tools and references for boards and staff.

Vision & Mission Alignment

This tool assists funders and foundations in understanding if and how Whole Family work might fit with thier vision and mission.

Does Whole Family Fit Your Foundation?

Three board/staff exercises to help identify if and how incorporating and investing in Whole Family strategies will further your foundation’s vision and mission.

Strategic Planning for Whole Family

Questions and considerations that can expand your thinking and analysis for strategic planning, and ultimately improve your outcomes.

Incorporating Whole Family into Strategy

A range of strategies—pilots, programs, intermediary role, policy – and mechanisms for investing—are included here.

Job Descriptions & Roles

Working with Focus Groups

Protocols, questions, and results for parent focus groups on Whole Family strategies and principals.

Communicating with Donors

A conversation among funders about their experiences talking with donors about Whole Family work.

Developing Cross-Sector Partnerships

A set of resources offering how to develop partnerships from a range of sectors and thought leaders.

Sample RFPs, Contracts, Agreements

This section offers examples that can be adapted by foundations focused on Whole Family approaches and programs.

Metrics for Evaluating Impact

A set of resources offering sample metrics and approaches to evaluating Whole Family work.

Assessment & Evaluation Tools

A set of resources and tools providing guidance on how to identify family outcomes; build partnerships to collect data; and package results of Whole Family approaches.

A Word About Language

Whole family, multi-generational approaches meet the needs of and provide opportunities for children and the adults in their lives together. These approaches are highly contextual, and may be called “whole family,” “two-generation or two-gen,” and “multi-generational” approaches in some organizations, communities, and contexts. Particularly for Indigenous communities, an approach that supports multiple generations within a home or family is important. The goal of a whole family, multigenerational approach is to ensure economic, educational, and health stability and mobility for the whole family, using mechanisms and strategies that give both generations in the family a balloon, and not one a dead weight.

This guide uses “whole family” for consistency and ease of reading; and encompasses the meanings of these other terms.

This guide also uses “parents,” which includes caregivers, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and others who are in the lives of children. Families are defined by the families themselves in our view, rather than by an outside agency, and the guide reflects this as well.