The Golden Age of Philanthropy Begins Today

Welcome to Day One. The historic “Golden Age of Philanthropy” and impact work begins today!

With the election of President Trump, each of us must now start voting with our time and money for the causes we care about. We will stop relying on our government to fund our missions. We will own our purpose and our destiny. We know that the political landscape flip-flops every few years, but we are mission-driven leaders. We will stay focused on solving the world’s biggest problems for decades! Nobody can stop us from caring and working tirelessly for what we believe in. We know what we were put on this Earth to do.

If I can help you, just contact me. My brand new company Amphibian focuses on partnering, consulting, and building diverse solutions that deepen our connection with nature. My nonprofit organization Regrow helps at-risk children have joyful, fulfilling lives.

So, take a deep breath, and let’s get started. We’ve got this!

Philanthropists of all levels:

Today is your day. If you’ve been waiting for a rainy day to ramp up your giving, take a look at the sky… a storm is here. The causes you care about are struggling. The world would love your help right now.

If you don’t know how to get started or to ramp up to the next level of giving, ask your friends or your wealth advisor. Or ask me, since I helped start a very large foundation for ocean conservation based on the principles I learned at Google X.

If you’re already giving at a comfortable level, are you giving as effectively as possible? Do you have a mix of grants and impact investments? Are you using your money as a catalyst to help a project reach a proof-of-concept so that risk-averse donors or investors will get involved? That’s the real power of giving… catalytic philanthropy!

If you have money in a Donor Advised Fund (DAF), just remember that it’s not actually your money anymore, you just control it. So start using it! You can be more creative with this than you think. Get your children involved. Teach them. Showing them how to effectively give away money to help humanity and the environment is the best holiday gift you can possibly give them.

Look at your investment portfolio. If you’re invested in diversified index funds, you are almost certainly holding stock in companies whose businesses contradict your mission and values. Don’t be a big climate donor while holding stock in oil companies. Don’t fund wildlife conservation efforts while holding stock in irresponsible mining companies. Tell your wealth advisor to audit your portfolio and get you out of specific companies and industries.

The saying goes that it’s easy to give away a million dollars but very hard to give away $100M or a billion. If you’re fortunate enough to have this problem, start by hiring the absolute best people out there. Pay them what they’ve been making. Yes, compete with Google and other top-of-market employers. Be known as the best place to work. Excellent employees are at least 10x more effective than good employees, so don’t ask people to give up a big chunk of their income to come work for you. That is by far the number one thing keeping great people from joining your cause right now. I promise you that.

When you have a lot of money to give away, the easiest thing to do is write a very large check to a very large nonprofit organization. But easy isn’t the path to maximum impact. Large NGOs are critical for many things, but dollar-for-dollar, you’ll often have far more impact by funding a diversified portfolio of small and mid-sized nonprofit organizations. This isn’t just about overhead rates (which is overblown), but about their ability to be innovative, nimble, flexible, and disruptive. Once you’ve funded a bunch of organizations, you’ll learn very quickly and start to see patterns. You’ll become an expert, a networker, a bridge-builder, and a powerful convener for your cause. You’ll 10x your impact.

Use a similar approach with your impact investment portfolio. You can write a big check to a great fund manager if you find one aligned with your cause. Just make sure you learn alongside them. Meet with their portfolio companies. This will help you see gaps and ways to improve your giving. 

But don’t just focus on venture-backed startups. There are countless traditional businesses working on your cause. “Family-owned business” or “lifestyle business” shouldn’t be curse words. What’s wrong with entrepreneurs who enjoy their lives while also running a sustainable business that consistently delivers significant impact and profits? Invest in small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Help them grow. Help them get a loan to buy their office building to have long-term stability. Just be careful that, if you’re providing concessionary capital, you’re not distorting the market and harming their competitors (who may also be working on the mission you care about).

Most of the nonprofit organizations I’ve advised need a far more ambitious vision to attract larger donors. But, they may need your help to figure that out and fund the first steps. Incremental thinking won’t get us where we need to go. Help them think bigger!

If you’re NOT a philanthropist:

Your time and skills are urgently needed. Don’t love your job? Then go work for a mission-driven company or nonprofit org. Or start your own. If you can’t leave your job, then volunteer or consult.

But, don’t forget, “If you won’t give a dime out of a dollar, you’ll never give a million out of ten million.” Start giving or impact investing today. Learn how to do this effectively now so you’ll be better at it when you’re much wealthier someday.

If you work in tech, there’s a massive and painful gap in technical talent in the nonprofit sector. Your skills will enable those organizations to leverage technology effectively and raise far more grant funding. Funders justifiably reject great proposals because the team doesn’t have enough of the required technical or business expertise.

If you believe in market-based solutions, there are countless for-profit businesses working on the causes you care about. Don’t just look at startups. Silicon Valley focuses way too much on venture capital. Many great companies do it the old-fashioned way: they make a profit. The hockey-stick-or-die model is destructive for many impact-focused companies. If you’re an entrepreneur seeking double-bottom-line impact, consider other sources of funding for your idea.

And, most importantly, be emotionally, spiritually, and physically connected to your cause. I can’t tell you how many tech people I’ve mentored who wanted to change careers to work on climate or nature, but who hadn’t been spending much time outdoors. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t burn out. Working on AI for climate change, for example, won’t make you feel any better if you’re not hiking, mountain biking, camping, surfing, kayaking, etc.

Conclusion

We voted. The 2024 election is over. Maybe it didn’t go your way. Maybe it did. If your candidates won this time, someday they won’t.

Regardless, exactly zero politicians will ever care about your mission as much as you do. Governments change.

Your mission is yours. So, take things into your own hands and get to work.

Today is Day One.