Marie's Viewpoint

When I first started as a philanthropist a few years ago, I was a complete novice. Having funds available to redistribute wasn’t a position I expected to find myself in, so I had no experience at all. I thought it was something reserved for large organizations like the Gates Foundation. What I discovered was quite different.

My first step was meeting Matti Navellou of ICONIQ Capital. ICONIQ became my ‘team’ because I didn’t have anyone else working on this and didn’t want the complications of hiring others directly, when I was just learning myself. Matti asked me many questions about my strategy for giving, which I wasn’t able to answer well initially. I learn by doing, so I jumped in, set up The Patchwork Collective as a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), and we figured it out as we went along.

I discovered early on that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, because there are a lot of people out there who are very willing to help guide and educate. ICONIQ was instrumental in introducing me to many of them. Those networks of experienced philanthropists, along with the rabbit hole of the internet, were my initial education and continue to be. Over that first year I took on board what aligned with my own values and left what didn’t. Just as importantly – if not more so - as our grantee partner connections expanded I gained critical learnings from conversations with them. It’s a continuing process of education that I enjoy. 

A key learning for me was how broken much of the traditional funding systems become when they don’t actively speak with the people involved at the other end of the funding, those working in the NGOs and the people they serve. The result can be wasted effort that might show positive metrics but miss the true needs altogether. I’d seen this for myself in Honduras when I was a nurse, rooms full of medical equipment with no one in that area who actually knew how to use them. So I wanted to be sure our approach included deep conversations with the people on the front line. That led me to learn more about Trust Based Philanthropy and its various iterations.

The Patchwork Collective’s initial funding efforts were part of Collaborative Funding programs ICONIQ had created, and the Audacious Project in which I was invited to participate. These entities, along with regrantors, made it incredibly easy to participate in programs of proven impact, right out of the gate, even as only one person. Many of them involve a significant opportunity to learn about the complexities of the areas being funded. I also began to fund other organizations introduced to me by my growing network of philanthropists and grantee partners. 

I think one of the reasons I found it easy to start funding quickly, and quite expansively, was my belief that there was no ‘wrong’ way to redistribute money. It simply had to be done, and although impact may vary, it’s all to the good. There’s no real risk that someone is going to run away with the money or even grossly misuse it, because all of our grantee organizations have already been vetted many times over by other philanthropists. So I was never slowed down by any fear of risk, or feeling that I had to be careful and hang on to this money that could be doing good somewhere other than in our hands.

As our funding approach evolves, I’m increasingly concerned with making sure we stand by not only trust-based practices, but decolonizing the redistribution of wealth. For us, that means we’re particularly interested in locally-led, global initiatives that are underserved, underfunded, don’t necessarily operate in English, or are just starting their programs and need catalytic funding to get off the ground. There’s a lot of talk in philanthropy about giving large grants to help organizations scale up. It’s a very corporate mentality; scaling isn’t always the best way to create impact against a problem. For The Patchwork Collective, we’re not looking for impressive statistics from our grantees, although we often get them. We want to see the human impact, even if it’s one life improved.

We’re able to get to those smaller players through the networks of our fellow philanthropists and our many grantees who recommend others to us. Our trusted regrantors are key to this, too. Through them we can reach more programs, without the need for a formalized advisory board.

At this point we’re now three family principals and a communications specialist. It’s a team but a small and mighty one, to share responsibilities and allow us to do more. Because we operate lean, we can still make decisions on funding within days, not months, after a conversation with a potential grantee. We don’t ever ask for onerous proposals or reporting. We have a conversation, literally. Along with whatever existing documentation they have on hand from proposals to other funders, that’s it. If we feel aligned coming out of that conversation, we’ll go ahead, always with unrestricted and typically multi-year grants.

We keep reporting simple by having ongoing conversations with our grantees in a timeframe that makes sense for the work being funded. How is it going, what’s the progress or what obstacles have arisen, how else can we support beyond funding? That’s what we need to know. Not a ten page report to our own idea of success metrics. We can’t possibly define relevant success as accurately as those we’re funding can, with their vast knowledge and feet on the ground, so we don’t try.

Throughout these few years I’ve been continually blown away by the groups we’ve funded. These people who are doing the hard work to make the world better on so many fronts are incredibly inspiring. I feel it’s my duty to support them with the means I have at my disposal, because they are literally working for the good of us all.

It’s really so easy. I hope more people in a position to support will just do it.

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