Mission Statement:

Our mission is to change lives by assisting people to achieve greater self-sufficiency for themselves and their families, providing them with tools to help them help themselves.

In fulfilling our mission, we seek to bring business discipline to the non profit sector, to be creative and entrepreneurial in all our activities, and to follow an investment approach in all our decisions, seeking always to achieve the highest social return for each grant, PRI or social impact bond we undertake.

As well as achieving our mission objectives, we hope that each of our social investments touches something in our hearts.

We believe that:

1. As a small foundation, we probably can do little to solve national problems, but we can make significant contributions to societal improvements in specific geographic areas where we have a presence, which are currently North Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and North Carolina.

2. Nonprofit organizations can benefit from the application of business discipline, business approaches, and a focus on customer service. Program-related investments and social impact bonds are effective means of achieving this discipline.

3. Incentives influence choices and behaviors. Effective social programs must carefully align incentives with positive outcomes. Too often well-intended nonprofit and government programs create unintended and/or counterproductive consequences that diminish self-sufficiency, rather than enhance it.

4. The best investments for us are in people: to equip them to advance economically, to achieve their full, human potential, and to provide for themselves and their families.

5. In almost all cases, optimal decisions about individual welfare can be made by individuals themselves. People, families, and small businesses are better equipped to make decisions about their resource allocation than governments or other large bureaucracies. Therefore, we aim to channel resources ultimately to individuals and small organizations, focusing on bottoms up solutions to social problems rather than tops down solutions.

6. Expanding access to high-quality education is fundamental to the continuance of the American democracy and our technological creativity.

7. The encouragement of entrepreneurship is the best regional economic development policy.

8. Other things being equal, competition improves resource allocation and service delivery.

9. Integrity, honesty, kindness, and open interaction are fundamental to building the trust necessary to accomplish positive social change. Moreover, by upholding true diversity and inclusion, we believe we will access more expansive and varied ideas, information, and perspectives, making us more creative, informed investors.

10. While we seek excellence in all our activities, we believe there is always room for improvement. For that reason, we both solicit and welcome feedback on how we can do a better job or be more effective or efficient.

11. Environmental sustainability and minimal detrimental environmental impact are important considerations for us in any activity we undertake.

12. Those who have received from society have an obligation to give back to it.

13. An apolitical, empirical, and pragmatic approach to social problems is best for achieving positive outcomes. We eschew political philosophies and focus on supporting beneficial life improvements for individuals. We welcome working with those from all political perspectives who share this conviction.

Read more about our investment strategies and funding guidelines.