Transcript Apple Presentation Template Supplement

The Emerging Role of
Entrepreneurial
Philanthropy
Steve Kirsch
Kirsch Foundation
Agenda
• About the Kirsch Foundation
• Kirsch Foundation programs
• Principles of entrepreneurial philanthropy
About Kirsch Foundation
• Supporting organization of local community
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foundation
$50M endowment
Gave out $8M last year, 135 grants
6 full time staff people
Goals
-Ensure world safety
-Cure all major diseases
-Restore the environment
-Reform politics
-Reform education
-Support the local community
Why give?
• “Enlightened self interest”
- To benefit everyone (including ourselves)
• Results oriented
- Grants are made to achieve goals, not pure
ROI optimization (asteroids)
• Our motivation is not:
- Noblesse oblige/“payback” or “proper”
- Increased social status
- Public recognition/image
- Fun
Why give publicly?
• Those who give anonymously because it proves
they are altruistic are focusing on the wrong benefit
• There is no benefit to giving anonymously
• Two exceptions
- A controversial cause that may cause more questions
than answers,
Example: if I donate to gay rights, will people spend all their
time wondering whether there is a hidden agenda?
- You are totally proactive in your giving, have no staff,
and find that you are spending too much time
responding to requests for money
Our enemies
• Mother nature (disease)
• US government
- Seems to make decisions that result in fewer
lives being saved
Abortion funding
Stem cell funding
…
• BBC TV shows: The Weakest Link, …
Kirsch Investigators
• Invest in people like HHMI
• Unique target: mid-career scientists
• $540K grants over 3 years (includes
overhead)
• Individuals proposed by 10 institutions
• 8 member Scientific Advisory Board evaluates
applications
Collaborative Funding
Model (CFM)
• Example: Our partnership with Glaucoma Research
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Foundation (GRF)
Based on success achieved in spinal cord research
and Huntingdon’s Disease (our innovation is
partnering with another foundation)
Goal: Applicable to areas where progress has
stalled (e.g., glaucoma) but where breakthroughs in
other areas (e.g., neuroscience) may be applicable
Narrow majority of people on panel and researchers
are from outside the field
5 member panel picks 3-5 researchers who agree to
work together and meet 2x/yr
Min 3 year, min $1M grants
Targesome
• Objective: diagnose and cure cancers as small as
1mm
• Approach: attach ligands or antibodies for
angiogenisis to a large molecule along with In
(imaging) or Yt (therapy)
• For-profit startup; $3.5M invested in equity
• Couldn’t get funding because VC’s were all
investing in Internet startups
• Astonishing results in animals
• I sit on the board; I bring a sense of urgency
Key principles
• Adopt best practices
• Experiment
• Encourage collaboration
• Make a long term commitment
• Expand your options
• Be proactive
• Bet on people
• Be flexible
• Capitalize on market opportunities
• Get personally involved
Adopt best practices
• See what works best and copy it
• It’s so simple, but ignored so often, e.g., US
education
• Examples:
- KI program was inspired by HHMI
- CFM program is an incremental improvement
on existing successful programs
Experiment
• Insanity is doing the same thing over and
over and expecting different results
• Take risks/try a new approach
• Example:
- CFM has collaboration both between
foundations and researchers
- Most of the people are from outside the field to
bring a new perspective
Encourage collaboration
• Scientists tend to be “competitive” rather than
“collaborative”
• Solution
- Be careful choosing research groups
- Interdisciplinary collaboration is much easier
- Reward/require collaboration
• Example:
- CFM fosters collaborations between
foundations as well as between researchers
Make a long term
commitment
• Medical research doesn’t respect a 12 month
cycle
• 3 to 5 years is a more practical timeframe
• Examples:
- KI and CFM are both at least 3 year programs
Expand your options
• Explore all options available
• Example: Consider PRIs
• PRIs are “have your cake and eat it too”,
especially for individual investors
- Worst case: superior tax deduction
- Best case: cure a disease AND make a lot of
money to use for next disease
• Example:
- Targesome wouldn’t have been funded if I
hadn’t stepped up
Be proactive
• Set ambitious long-term goals
• Develop annual strategies and tactics
• Example:
- Our goals and strategies are posted on our
website
- Staff pay is tied to achievement of goals
Bet on people
• If we were smarter than the people we fund,
we’d fund ourselves
• Given that they are smarter than we are, why
not trust them to do the right thing?
• Hold them accountable; if they don’t do what
they said they would, they must renegotiate
• Example:
- CFM, KI bet on people, not specific projects
Be flexible
• Don’t always play by your own rules
• Example:
- United Way of Santa Clara County Emergency
Fund
Capitalize on market
opportunities
• Look for “funding gaps”
• Example:
- Stem cell research
- KI program focuses on mid-career researchers
- Targesome got caught in the Internet bubble
Get personally involved
• It’s more than writing checks.
• Take a trip out to visit the people you fund
• Do some research yourself!
• Examples:
- EV1 car
- ZEV stickers
- Education reform
- Dan Case
Summary
• Adopt best practices
• Experiment
• Encourage collaboration
• Make a long term commitment
• Expand your options
• Be proactive
• Bet on people
• Be flexible
• Capitalize on market opportunities
• Get personally involved