Philanthropic Issue Funds: 5 Ways to Get Started

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Philanthropic Issue Funds Giving Compass

Are Philanthropic Issue Funds Right For You?

Wouldn’t you like to maximize the power of your giving? Now you can. Even an ambitious donor can be forgiven for looking at the world’s most intractable problems, like poverty, climate change, or global conservation with confusion and trepidation. These issues are extraordinarily complex, hard to understand, and are being tackled on all sides (to varying degrees of success) by a complicated knot of agencies, charities, foundations, and other nonprofits. Which approaches are most promising? Which organizations are the most competent? Where would a dollar today do the most good?

Interested in learning more about Impact Philanthropy? Other readers at Giving Compass found the following articles helpful for impact giving related to Impact Philanthropy.

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America Plagued By Rising Epidemic

Giving Compass' Take: • The opioid epidemic is still a serious issue that needs to be addressed by policymakers. The author examines key populations in specific states that are affected more by this epidemic than others. • How can philanthropists participate in funding solutions to battle this epidemic? • Read about the community framework for addressing the opioid epidemic. Last March, the Maryland governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency. Heroin and fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, had killed 1,468 Maryland residents in the first nine months of 2016, up 62% from the same period in 2015. Speaking at a command center of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency near Baltimore, the governor announced additional funding to strengthen law enforcement, prevention, and treatment services. "The reality is that this threat is rapidly escalating," Hogan said. An estimated 2.5 million Americans abuse or are addicted to opioids — a class of highly addictive drugs that includes Percocet, Vicodin, OxyContin, and heroin. Most experts believe this is an undercount, and all agree that the casualty rate is unprecedented. The roots of the crisis can be traced to the early 1990s when physicians began to prescribe opioid painkillers more liberally. In parallel, overdose deaths from painkillers rose until about 2011. Since then, heroin and synthetic opioids have briskly driven opioid-overdose deaths; they now account for over two-thirds of victims. Synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, are made mainly in China, shipped to Mexico, and trafficked here. Their menace cannot be overstated. Fentanyl is 50 times as potent as heroin and can kill instantly. People have been found dead with needles dangling from their arms, the syringe barrels still partly full of fentanyl-containing liquid. One fentanyl analog, carfentanil, is a big-game tranquilizer that's a staggering 5,000 times more powerful than heroin. At least at this point, if not for the duration of this crisis, we need to allow medical professionals, law-enforcement officials, community organizations, and the loved ones of those affected to attempt different, even radical, solutions and evaluate their effectiveness. Policymakers should support such experimentation, and fund it, but must resist the urge to pretend that better funding alone will end the scourge of opioids. Read the full article about the opioid crisis by Sally Satel at National Affairs

We are determined to create a structure for all donors – giving $10, $10 million, and everything in between – to take advantage of the same expertise already trusted by the world’s leading philanthropists and foundations.

It’s no wonder the world’s wealthiest and most influential philanthropists – billionaires like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg – hire large staffs of advisors to decide how to most impactfully give their money towards social causes. These leaders realize that if they want to be as good philanthropists as they are entrepreneurs, they can’t just rely on their intuition. Every dollar counts, which means every dollar needs to be spent as impactfully as possible. That requires (usually expensive) expert help.

But why should only billionaires be able to do their philanthropy with such proficiency? At Bright Funds Foundation, we are determined to create a structure for all donors – giving $10, $10 million, and everything in between – to take advantage of the same expertise already trusted by the world’s leading philanthropists and foundations. You, too, can give with the confidence of a billionaire, without all the work.

About Philanthropic Issue Funds

Like an investment fund, Philanthropic Issue Funds are managed by expert Fund Managers who construct a portfolio of philanthropic investments in nonprofits all aimed at solving a particular social or environmental issue. Issue Fund Managers make their decisions based on the best available evidence of which bets will have the most likely impact per dollar spent on the problem to which the Fund is dedicated to solving – like climate change or poverty in New York City.

The result is an easy way for donors to learn about and fund a collection of vetted organizations, projects, and social impact initiatives that offer a holistic and diversified approach to making a real, positive difference in the world.

Beyond that, Issue Funds help forge a relationship between donors and the entire issue, rather than any particular organization. In this sense, Fund Managers and donors can be thought of as fellow travelers on a journey together – a partnership in which Fund Managers help donors not only understand a problem but also the most promising strategies best positioned to solve it. Of course, this involves getting to know the work of nonprofits on the ground as well, but it helps to have a trusted guide put everything in context.

Vetted Philanthropic Issue Funds

Bright Funds Foundation is partnering with Giving Compass to launch a suite of five inaugural Philanthropic Issue Funds managed by the world’s leading issue experts. We are excited to share these offerings with you here in our shared quest to make the most of donors’ generosity. We all care about giving with impact and hope you consider these funds as high-impact giving opportunities.

Conservation Fund: The goal of this Fund is to reduce the degradation of the world’s natural land and ocean ecosystems and improve biodiversity with a focus on wildlife

Bay Area Poverty Fund: The goal of this Fund is to alleviate and prevent poverty in San Francisco and provide a pathway to self-sufficiency

New York Poverty Fund: The goal of this Fund is to alleviate and eliminate poverty in New York City

US Education Fund: The goal of this Fund is to create pathways for all children to thrive as productive and civically literate adults

Climate Fund: The goal of this Fund is to mitigate global climate change

Looking for a way to get involved?

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