Uplevel Your Philanthropic Passion

It takes time and thought to discover what social causes and nonprofit missions most inspire you and extra-special dedication and leadership to execute on those missions in ways that make an impact. Three philanthropic leaders shared their experiences and advice with us, including how they pinpointed their focus areas, defined their personal missions, and founded organizations and companies to create meaningful change.

Pinpointing What “Upsets You Most”

Navyn Salem, Founder and CEO, Edesia
In 2007, Navyn Salem, a mother of four from Rhode Island, was watching a “60 Minutes” segment when she learned about Plumpy’Nut, a fortified peanut paste the World Health Organization endorsed as a cure for acute malnutrition.¹ When she heard 8,000 children die every day due to malnutrition (today it’s 10,000),² it was a statistic that continually plagued her.

Malnutrition is an ongoing global health crisis that increases with refugee situations, war zones, and extreme climate change, but what Navyn couldn’t reconcile was that these children were lost due to something preventable.

Doing your research
She decided to learn as much as she could on research trips to her father’s home country, Tanzania, and in 2010 she founded Edesia, a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to feeding the world’s most vulnerable populations. Although hard to convey in a few simple sentences, those three years of research and her initial years founding Edesia were challenging, frustrating, stressful, and full of setbacks. Here’s her advice for navigating those difficult stages of growth. 

“Find something that resonates with you personally, because it takes a lot of effort to stay with it,” said Navyn. “There are many problems [in the world], so find the one that upsets you the most and dig deep to see what you can do to solve it.”

Operating profitably while contributing to the greater good
That connection fueled Navyn’s commitment and her passion for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit social enterprise model. During a visit to a mosquito netting factory in Tanzania, she saw how a business could operate profitably while contributing to the greater good, and adopted a similar business model.

She opened a factory in Rhode Island that operates 24-5, producing more than a million packets of Plumpy’Nut a day, the same nutrient-rich meal replacement product she saw on “60 Minutes.” Her team then sells 95% of the output to United Nations International Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, and the United States Agency for International Development, with 5% going to traditional fundraising and in-kind donations to smaller non-governmental organizations. With these partnerships, Edesia has helped feed more than 17 million children across 60 countries.³

This unique balance of serving a need in the market with a more traditional nonprofit mission has helped Navyn create jobs, empower mothers and families with nutritional solutions, and sustain the next generation of healthy children.

Streamlining Nonprofits

Sevetri Wilson, Founder and CEO, Resilia
Sevetri Wilson’s experience as a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Millennium Scholar while attending college at Louisiana State University inspired her to pursue a career in the nonprofit sector. As a Gates Scholar, she remembers a Virginia retreat where the leader instilled in them “how important it was for us to not only do well, but also do good.”

How did she go from a college graduate to raising $14 million in venture capital? It started with her first job in philanthropy and advocacy work, when colleagues in the industry started asking her for ideas on how nonprofits could operate more efficiently and economically. She saw the need for better technical assistance to help foundations boost fundraising initiatives, maximize data to predict trends, and become more digitally enabled.


Helping nonprofits increase their impact
This opening in the tech market inspired her to take entrepreneurial action, founding her corporation Resilia in 2016, a software-as-a-service platform that helps nonprofits and foundations make more data-driven decisions, coordinate grant management and fundraising systems, and infuse technology into day-to-day operations.

The software also allows funders to go beyond grants with technical assistance and coaching to maximize advocacy efforts. With the increased digitization of all industry sectors due to COVID-19, Sevetri said investors have an increased interest in technology for charitable solutions, where a few years earlier, raising capital was more of a hurdle.

She recommended building a self-advisory board with colleagues, neighbors, and people experienced in nonprofit management to help guide your vision. Choosing who’s at your “philanthropic table” builds up your network and ensures you consider fresh ideas and different perspectives.

Something as simple as writing down your organization’s mission and consistently revisiting that statement is also an intentional act of organizational awareness and acknowledges the natural evolution of the venture while remaining focused on your long-term goals.

Sevetri received the Nobel Prize for public service in 2010, and Resilia now works with 12,000 nonprofits with more than 40 funders on the platform.⁴

Increasing Equality

Lindsey Pluimer, Founder and CEO, With My Own Two Hands Foundation
On a trip to Kenya, former WNBA Washington Mystics player Lindsey Pluimer saw how access to natural resources could positively or negatively impact the health and wellness of communities, and it inspired her to envision a more equitable world through the lenses of water and agriculture.  

She started studying how international development, inequality, gender bias, and climate change impact drinking water sources, since women are often the community members tasked with collecting water from distant natural sources. This long daily journey was often dangerous and made it more difficult for girls to attend school.

Improving access to vital resources
Lindsey wanted to find a way to help the children and women she met during her trip, and in 2011, at the age of 24, she started the nonprofit foundation With My Own Two Hands. Its mission is to provide remote communities with access to clean water to improve the lives of women and children. When developing a philanthropic endeavor and encouraging donors to become involved, she recommended doing site visits for a boots-on-the-ground view of where your dollars are going.

“Experiencing the work firsthand helps you develop a love of the cause and become invested in making a greater impact,” she said.

Redefining ROI
Recently, she became involved with trust-based philanthropy, with the goal of literally increasing donor and public trust in nonprofit management. She has taken on new roles in her foundation, from the philanthropic to the operational.

Comparing philanthropy with business investments, Lindsey explained, “When we invest in businesses, we typically trust the CEO or founder to make the best decisions to give you an ROI, so my job as a nonprofit founder is to give you the ROI but in terms of lives impacted.”

Learning From Leaders

Considering unrestricted versus restricted giving
From the donor’s point of view, the question of donating without restrictions versus earmarking what your dollars should specifically support at a nonprofit is an ongoing conversation.  

Navyn said restricted funds can help a new donor develop trust with a new organization while they give. New donors will sometimes request to support Edesia’s efforts in specific countries, so she doesn’t recommend restricted funds to support somebody’s passion or personal tie to the area.

“There’s a delicate balance between the two types of funds, so you can start narrow and go broader as trust builds,” Navyn said.

From their experiences, both Sevetri and Lindsey prefer unrestricted giving, and “the data shows organizations that get more unrestricted gifts are financially better positioned,” said Sevetri.

Taking the next step
Learning firsthand how these women turned philanthropic inspiration and ideas into businesses can be valuable if you’re looking to start your own foundation or to uplevel philanthropy. Please reach out to your Goldman Sachs advisor for more information about donations, foundations, and donor-advised funds.