We've made donations to various charities, but been frustrated by an inability to point at any tangible results from our donations.
It just kind of....goes into the abyss...
We want our philanthropy to have a sense of purpose and to be able to know with confidence we are making tangible change.
Who'd have thought giving money away would be hard?
1. Donate to large charities (no sense that you really made an impact, no way to point to any specific results).
2. Do it yourself and hire a team to vet individual opportunities (which is expensive and eats into amount you can give).
We call it The Tiny Foundation :-)
A few that are top of mind include funding science, journalism, social justice, and child protection.
We realize that hiring experts in all those areas to ensure we were giving money away effectively would cost a fortune...
So, we decided to do something really simple:
Just give money to people we admired and let them decide.
It could be their own project. A colleague's. Something random they think is important. Anything that does good.
It's that simple.
Our friend Dr. Rhonda Patrick (@foundmyfitness) is an accomplished scientist and educator (and one of the smartest people we know).
We literally just texted her and said "Hey, we want to give you $100,000 to donate. You can fund anything you want."
That's it.
So, now we're funding a really cool study at UCSF by @DrAshleyMason around using whole body hyperthermia (using sauna) to treat clinical depression.
While most of our grants will be one-time donations to universities, researchers, and individuals causes and charities, we will also be making investments in for-profit entities that sustainably promote social good.
But we also worry that a donor model will result in organizations that are reliant on constant inflows from wealthy philanthropists like us.
Most just don't realize it yet.
So we want to build some examples for everyone to look to...
Our goal is to support 20+ independent Canadian news organizations over the next decade.
We also get zero influence over the organizations we invest in (non-voting shares, no editorial influence).
I'm excited to announce that the Tiny Journalism Fund just made its first investment of $1,000,000 into @Canadaland.
Since 2013 they have been covering the Canadian media with a critical eye and broken many national stories.
Most impressively: they have done it on a shoe-string budget, profitably supported by advertising and audience support.
itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1…
We could not be more excited to help @CANADALAND get to the next level and give Canadian journalism a badly needed boost.
Here's a few areas we are focused on:
- Independent Journalism (especially in Canada)
- Social Justice
- Child Protection
- Medical Research
But open to anything.
Learn more at tiny.foundation