Giving Compass' Take:

• Elizabeth and Kevin Phillips provide a millennial perspective at their family foundation and look for game-changing opportunities.

• The article discusses the Phillips' desire to leverage larger grants. How can this strategy be more impactful?

• Read about why some philanthropists think that giving and investing are two different practices altogether.

As wealth transfers, the rising generation of Millennial leaders are disrupting the once ubiquitous conventional wisdom that generating competitive financial returns and achieving social impact are mutually exclusive.

Phillips Foundation Executive Director Elizabeth Phillips and her husband, Phillips Management Group Managing Partner Kevin Phillips, are two such leaders who are showing the industry how the Millennial perspective can unlock a wealth of high impact possibilities.

Since assuming leadership of the family business and foundation in 2011, Elizabeth and Kevin have been at the forefront of philanthropic innovation, working with the local community to identify “game-changer, once-in-a-generation opportunities” for investment and activating the bulk of the Phillips Foundation’s assets for social impact. Their approach has been so revolutionary that it initially encountered some resistance, especially from their financial advisors. “We had to go a little rogue,” Elizabeth says.

The Phillips’ youth and fresh perspective quickly proved to be an asset. Up to that point, the Phillips Foundation had operated fairly conventionally, with smaller grants scattered across the books.  Elizabeth quickly realized that a more strategic approach, leveraging larger grants, would be required to maximize the impact of their investments in the community.

Years later, the results of the Phillips Foundation’s investments speak to the untapped potential of the Millennial approach to philanthropy. One initiative, Housing First, decreased county-level chronic homelessness by 98% in three years. Another supported the construction of a performing arts center and greenway that have revitalized Greensboro’s historic downtown.

As the family worked through the grant-making process, they also began to raise a crucial new issue: 95% of the Foundation’s assets were not reviewed for social impact.  Kevin and Elizabeth realized that while the Foundation’s grants were carefully crafted to maximize impact, the majority of their assets were at risk of supporting investments contrary to their mission and values.

Read the full article about disruptive philanthropy by Katheryn Tokle at Forbes.