Honing our focus
Our first blog post highlighted some of the first questions we sought to answer, like our guiding values. Once we had those narrowed down, we had to tackle the looming question: “What issue areas do we want to focus on?” There are thousands of issues out there that need help and are important. There is no right or wrong decision when it comes to creating impact. And that has been part of what had been so challenging for us.
But knowing that, like any family foundation, we have limited resources, we wanted to ensure our list was broad enough to go where our hearts called us and was limited enough that we could build our conviction over time and have a tangible impact on the causes we chose to support.
As we embarked on this process, we found it immensely valuable to keep our mission statement close at hand:
To unlock human potential while making the planet a more beautiful and sustainable place.
Together with our guiding values, it made it a little easier to see if an issue area fits within these parameters or not.
For the moment, we’ve decided to focus on six core areas:
Protecting the Environment
Bridging the education and opportunity gap for young people in the Bay Area
Criminal justice innovation and second chance employment
Empowering Women and Children
Supporting a Thriving Democracy
Effective Altruism
You might be thinking, “the above list is your honed list of issues areas?” We admit, these are broad, complicated issue areas. We could spend a lifetime investing in a small area of a single one, but for us, the idea of seeking out organizations that had diverse, innovative, interconnected solutions really resonated. And we believe that in order to create truly systemic change, you need to look beyond a single issue area into how other issues impact each other.
Seeking out the diamonds in the rough
With a strong foundation in place, it was time to start sourcing new organizations to consider. In order to further focus our efforts, we articulated a few characteristics for our ‘ideal candidates’.
Emerging organizations with bold ambitions and exceptional leadership: We sought out up and coming organizations that are being led by innovative, dedicated individuals who bring unique expertise to their issue area. We like thinking big long term, but stayed focused on execution in the short term. We are not afraid to take risk in the early stages of an organizations development, in fact we prefer it.
Differentiated approach with a partnership & ecosystem focus: We know that many of the issues we are tackling are incredibly complex and, as a result, will require many players to work together to succeed. We believe focus matters. We want to support organizations that are attacking an issue from a unique angle and perspective, but that are open and interested in working with others to achieve their end goals.
Measurable, Impact-driven organizations that can scale and be sustainable: We seek out organizations that have a clear intention and understanding of the impact they are creating and a desire to measure it and constantly improve (and to have 3rd parties validate it). We want them to have bold aspirations and over time to be able to achieve significant and sustainable impact at scale. We look for opportunities that ideally have a model that can be sustainable and not overly dependent on philanthropy in the long run.
Grants that matter: We want our grants to have a meaningful impact on the organization’s goals or can help catalyze a new initiative. We want to be a difference maker in helping unlock potential impact.
Even though we are only beginning, we are already incredibly excited about the remarkable people and organizations we are identifying to support and the cumulative impact this year’s giving will have. In the months ahead, we’ll be posting about our progress and results in issue areas and the organizations we’ve chosen to support. In the meantime, we hope that sharing our journey might inspire you to begin your own.
Photo courtesy of the Yalda Hakim Foundation