Emerging Opportunities to Solve Climate Change through Sustainable Finance
Last fall, record-setting fires here in California provided a small glimpse of what climate change has in store for us. Hundreds of thousands evacuated. Smoke darkened skies glowed an eerie orange for days. Health experts recommended staying indoors for weeks to avoid dangerously polluted air; but, of course, not everyone...
Changing Models for a Changing Landscape
As we all make our way through what has been an unprecedented year for so many around the world, I am struck by the way my experiences in philanthropy have shaped my understanding of the pandemic, clarified my sense of priorities, and inspired my sense of hope at the road...
Lessons Learned From Funding During 2020
I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad” year. As an individual funder, there are an infinite number of worthy funding opportunities. During the spring and early summer, I had trouble holding “a north star” as the funding landscape became increasingly volatile. I...
Democracy on the Brink: Coming Together to Reimagine our Grand Experiment
We are at a moment of reckoning around race and power that could change our society forever. The question now is whether we will change for the better or for the worse. On the one hand, there is much more public awareness of racial equity issues and how the country’s...
Question Everything
Sometimes the universe compels us to revisit our assumptions, motivations, and plans. This is surely one of those times. If you established a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) or a foundation, at some point, you made the choice to dedicate significant sums to the public good, and to cede some control...
You put a Black Lives Matter sign in your window and celebrated Juneteenth. What happens next?
As the protests that swept the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder begin to wane, we’ve been asking ourselves what we can do to ensure that lasting change comes to America. Like many white people who consider ourselves allies, we marched, we put a “Black Lives Matter” sign...
The Road to 2021
Nurturing the growth of our Philanthropy Innovation Summit community has been one of the greatest honors of my time at the helm of Stanford PACS. This cadre of changemakers united by their participation in our Summit series is a remarkable group of philanthropists who are hungry to engage with peers...
Hope on the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day
The current pandemic highlights how vulnerable society is to a single perturbation. Climate change threatens multiple simultaneous disruptions. That’s why climate change is often called the greatest challenge of our time. This April marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. We have made remarkable progress on the problems of our...
Early Childhood Philanthropy = Smart Funding + Racial and Social Justice + Women’s Rights + Children’s Rights
In philanthropy there’s no better place to begin than at the beginning. Experienced philanthropists recognize the value of addressing problems early on, before they become intractable. Embracing upstream solutions and root causes is their credo. Many also place a premium on supporting foundational areas of work that radiate beyond a...
The Case for Self – Reflection
Here at Stanford PACS, we often refer to philanthropy as a journey—a journey with both anticipated and unexpected experiences and great opportunities for learning. Over time, you will almost surely explore new focus areas and find new opportunities within existing ones. More fundamentally, you will develop new skills, more confidence,...