We are very excited to re-launch our new website. In the redesign process, we strove to make it clearer and more vibrant, to better highlight the fabulous work the organizations we support are doing. As new philanthropists, it’s been quite a journey over the past decade to hone our mission, but with time, amazing help, and reflection, we have better clarity than ever on where we’re headed. Hopefully, you will be able to see that in the new website.
We spent a lot of time with our grantees, other foundations and thought leaders to see what they do. Because we strive to continually learn and adapt, and because we want to put our grants to the highest and best use possible, we took an in-depth look at our giving since our founding to ask ourselves, “Does our actual giving reflect our mission to provide under-resourced children education opportunities?”
As a result of our reflection, we improved our operations and grant making processes to help us identify sustainable, impactful organizations. We also fine-tuned our portfolio. This unfortunately meant closing several grants that, while all fantastic organizations, were not in our sweet spot. On the upside, we embraced new grantees such as Year Up, Juma Ventures, and Breakthrough Collaborative into our family, and welcomed back KIPP Bay Area, Spark, Summer Search, and Silicon Valley Children’s Fund. As we have learned more, we have become astutely aware of the great need out there. We feel very fortunate to be able to serve, in our small way, those institutions addressing these concerns.
Over the next decade, we will continue to listen to and learn from thought leaders, the organizations we back, and the young people they help, and continue to hone how we want to make our impact. More importantly, we will continue seeking organizations supporting children who demonstrate the ambition, work ethic, integrity, and resilience to one day be successful and give back to the world, but lack the resources and opportunities to create a path for themselves. To find those kids who have a will, but just don’t have a way . . . Yet.
We thank all those that have helped us in our journey thus far, especially our grantees who have been patient and invaluable in our learning process. We are excited and humbled by our recipients and all those providing opportunities for today’s youth to succeed.