May 20, 2025 • 33 mins
Ellie Bertani, CEO of GitLab Foundation, revolutionizes philanthropy with a data-driven approach that puts measurable economic impact at the center of every grant decision. This eye-opening conversation reveals how GitLab Foundation aims to generate at least $100 in increased earnings for every dollar they invest – a "North Star 100X goal" that guides their work across the United States, Colombia, and Kenya.
What happens when you apply financial modeling to philanthropy? Bertani explains how her foundation builds ROI projections for every potential grant, allowing them to identify high-impact opportunities that might otherwise go unfunded. This approach enables GitLab Foundation to take calculated risks on innovative, sometimes "crazy" ideas that more conservative funders might avoid – precisely the role philanthropy should play in our ecosystem.
The conversation explores GitLab's unique partnerships, including their collaboration with OpenAI and the Balmer Group on an AI for Economic Opportunity Fund. These partnerships amplify their impact while ensuring emerging technologies benefit those who need them most. As Bertani notes, historically, technological advances haven't immediately helped lower-income communities – a pattern she's determined to break.
Against the backdrop of political uncertainty and growing scrutiny of philanthropy, Bertani shares why GitLab's focus on measurable outcomes and economic mobility for Americans remains vital. Her journey from early-career nonprofit work to the Gates Foundation to leading frontline workforce initiatives at Walmart and Wells Fargo uniquely positions her to bridge sectors and maximize impact.
For foundation leaders, nonprofit professionals, and anyone interested in evidence-based approaches to creating opportunity, this conversation offers practical insights on measuring what matters. How can philanthropic dollars drive real economic change? What does true partnership between funders, grantees, and industry look like? Listen now to discover how data-driven giving can transform lives.
https://www.gitlabfoundation.org/
eloy@4leggedmedia.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hi, this is Eloy Ortiz-Oakley and welcome back to
the Rant podcast, the podcastwhere we pull back the curtain
and break down the people, thepolicies and the politics of our
higher education system.
In this episode, I get to sitdown with my friend and
colleague, ellie Bertani.
Ellie is the CEO of GitLabFoundation and we talk about how
(00:32):
her foundation is focused onreturn on investment and
supporting innovation in thefield to improve access to
opportunity through increasedearnings and economic mobility.
We also talk about howfoundations at large are
supporting innovation in thefield and improving outcomes
(00:52):
through their grantees andthrough their investments on the
ground.
But before I get into myconversation with Ellie, I do
want to take a moment just tohighlight the several things
that have occurred since ourlast podcast.
Things continue to change inWashington DC, whether it's the
(01:12):
tariff derby that's happeningright now or the impacts of the
Department of Education.
But recently there's been anattack on 501c3s, whether it's
the attacks on HarvardUniversity's non-profit status
or questions about whether ornot non-profits throughout the
country are supporting terroristorganizations.
Now, speaking for my foundation, the College Futures Foundation
(01:35):
, we support Americans,americans underground in
California, helping them improveeconomic mobility through a
better return on investment fortheir education.
There is nothing anti-Americanagainst that.
As a matter of fact, it's thecomplete opposite.
We are improving outcomes, weare improving the efficiency of
government and other forms ofinvestments in institutions that
(01:59):
support learning, and I applaudGitLab Foundation, gates
Foundation and many of our othersister organizations who are
doing just that supportingpeople on the ground, improving
the lives of people who aresometimes forgotten by our
governments local, state andnational government and so the
work of nonprofits reallysupports the American dream,
(02:21):
supports efforts in America toensure that everybody has equal
access to opportunity.
Those are things that we shouldbe supporting because it gets
to people on all sides of theaisle on the left, on the right,
everything in between.
There is a non-profit theresupporting those efforts.
So the non-profit ecosystem isreally there to support gaining
(02:45):
access to the American dreams inall of its forms.
So I hope that theadministration backs off on some
of those efforts.
Certainly there are policydebates that should be had, and
certainly the administrationshould be driving down on
institutions and organizationsto improve the efficiency of
government and improve theefficiency of the supports that
(03:06):
go to help people in everydaycommunities across this country.
So I know for our part atCollege Futures Foundation.
We will continue to double downon our efforts to improve
economic mobility, to improveaccess to the California dream,
to take what we learn here inCalifornia and echo it across
the country and help shapefederal policy.
(03:27):
That's what foundations do.
They support those efforts,they give voice to great ideas,
they mitigate the risk forinnovation and they help support
their states and theircommunities in this country
moving forward.
So I hope the administration andCongress see the value of the
nonprofit ecosystem and findways to continue to support
(03:51):
their efforts, not to underminetheir efforts.
I get that sometimes theydisagree with the positions of
some nonprofits, but we can'tpick and choose.
This sort cuts both ways.
So let's maintain support for501c3s and maintain support for
organizations that aresupporting innovation on the
ground and improving theefficiency of government, of
(04:14):
bureaucracies and of putting thepeople first.
So with that backdrop, pleaseenjoy my conversation with Ellie
Bertani, ceo of GitLabFoundation.
Ellie, welcome to the Rantpodcast.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
It's great to see you, Eli.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It's great to see you too.
Thank you for taking the timeout of your busy schedule to
join us here on the Rant.
I know there's a lot going onin your world, a lot going on
with your organization, so let'sjump right into it.
So, elliot, you lead arelatively new foundation, the
GitLab Foundation, and you'refocused on improving lifetime
(04:59):
earnings through access toopportunity, and I know we're
all talking about opportunitythese days.
Tell us about the foundation,its origins and its mission.
Let's start there.
Tell us a little bit aboutGitLab.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Wonderful.
Well, thanks again for havingme.
It's always a pleasure to seeyou and to be able to talk a
little bit about our work but,more importantly, the great work
that our grantees are doing allacross the US, as well as in
Colombia and Kenya, which aretwo other markets we operate in.
So, as you said, our focus isentirely on economic mobility
(05:34):
and helping people increasetheir lifetime earnings.
We think about that fairlybroadly.
We invest in areas that includeworkforce development, but also
technology innovations that canhelp nonprofits and our
grantees really extend the reachof their services and the depth
of their impact in helpingpeople increase their wages to
(05:56):
above a living wage.
But what makes us somewhatunique is our approach to
grantmaking.
So we take a very return oninvestment centric approach when
we think about projects that wewant to fund.
For every grant that weconsider, we actually build a
financial model, if you canbelieve it, that helps us
(06:18):
estimate what we think theimpact on people's paychecks or
wallets will be over time.
And we do it because we want tohave the maximum impact with
every dollar that we think wecan.
For us, that means we'd like todrive at least $100 in
increased income for everydollar that we invest.
We call that our North Star 100Xgoal and when we started two
(06:42):
and a half years ago we didn'tactually know if that was even
an attainable goal, if we'd beable to find projects like that,
if grantees would be able andwilling to share their data with
us in a way where we could makethese estimations and support
measuring these outcomes on thetail end.
But we've been really fortunateand pleased to see that we have
(07:03):
been able to find these kindsof investments.
We have made over 120 grants inour first two years and our
portfolio is really deliveringon these results and we've been
really excited to share theseprojects and these grantees with
other funders that want toinvest in high ROI type of work.
(07:23):
So we're really looking toextend our impact in the future.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Well, I'm glad to hear that you are focused on
impact and focused on economicmobility.
That's certainly something thatresonates with me in my day job
at College Futures.
We're also focused on economicmobility, so this seems to be a
very important focus fororganizations like yours these
days, which I think is the rightfocus.
How do you actually think about, in your grant making, moving
(07:55):
the needle on economic mobilitywith your grantees in the work
that they do?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So we try to be a really grantee-centric partner
in everything we do.
So even though probably what Idescribed sounds a little bit
complicated and maybe burdensomefor grantees and how we think
about evaluating grants, we tryto make a relatively light touch
and take a what I would call arigorous but reasonable approach
.
So whenever we are looking fora project, looking for a
(08:22):
high-performing, excitingorganization, often we'll invite
several ideas from them andpart of our process is to
explore the potential return oninvestment of any idea that they
bring to the table.
We look at their businessmodels with them and say where
would an investment reallyturbocharge your growth or your
(08:43):
organization?
Or what is a new idea thatother funders haven't funded for
you but is a real moonshot?
One of the things that's veryfortunate about us is we are
able, because of our fundingstructure, to really take risks
with our money.
Some funders are able to dothat and take a more risk-averse
approach.
(09:03):
They want to fund proven andknown organizations or ideas.
We're very lucky to be able topush the envelope and try to
build and invest in new thingswith our grantees and we think
that's a really important rolefor philanthropy to play to
invest in demonstration projectsor somewhat crazy ideas that
could really change anorganization or change the
(09:26):
sector.
So we work closely withgrantees.
We explore their models, weexplore their creative, crazy
ideas.
We work with them to modelthese ideas and then when we
find something really innovativeand exciting, we both invest in
it and then work with granteesto build their capacity in
(09:46):
addition to measure theiroutcomes.
And we like to stay reallyclose to our grantees and be
supportive in a variety of ways.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm glad you mentioned this opportunity for
philanthropy to open up theappetite to risk in the field,
because I think that isphilanthropy's most important
role.
We have the opportunity,whether because of our resources
or our scope or reach, tocreate an opportunity for
grantees and people in the fieldto take risks, risks that they
(10:17):
can't otherwise afford to take.
I mean, I think that's exactlythe role philanthropy should
play, so applaud the GitLabFoundation for playing that role
.
Now you mentioned that youoperate in a couple of other
countries Colombia and Kenya.
Why those countries?
How did you get there?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I love this question because it does seem a little
bit random at face value.
When we decided to work ininternational markets, we
basically did an analysis of avariety of factors that we
thought would be important.
We wanted to look at incomedisparities because obviously
with our mission we want to tryto drive incomes as high as
(10:57):
possible and so that differencebetween the lowest income and
the highest income in a countrycan really matter.
We also looked at things likethe ease of doing business, for
philanthropy in a country canreally matter.
We also looked at things likethe ease of doing business for
philanthropy in a country.
Are there other successfulphilanthropies already there
that we could learn from?
Because we wanted to have itinterrupt as quickly as possible
.
We looked at things like howtransparent is the country, how
(11:22):
much data is available to helpus make good decisions, and then
, frankly, we saw sort ofclusters of interesting
potential markets we could workin in Latin America and in East
Africa.
So we chose one market at eachand have been learning on the
ground as we go and with a hopeand a desire to potentially grow
from those base countries inthe future.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Now let's talk about you and your journey to GitLab.
Tell us about what you weredoing before you got to the
foundation and also what drewyou to this mission and to this
organization.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Excellent Well, so I've had a bit of a wandering
path to get here, though inhindsight the pieces do seem to
fit together.
When I started my careerjourney I was very
mission-oriented and startedworking in the nonprofit sector
pretty early.
I started at a frontlinenonprofit and then had the great
(12:18):
opportunity to join a veryearly stage philanthropy, a
foundation based in Seattlewhere I'm from, and was the
second hire.
So I helped them build theirgrant-making program from
scratch, which was a greatprecursor for the role I'm in
today, since we two are a newfoundation.
I then had the opportunity tojoin the Bates Foundation.
I was there for three years intheir global health program and
(12:40):
that really opened my eyes tothe possibility of
cross-sectoral work.
So Gates and the Global HealthProgram was doing really
innovative work at the time onincentivizing private sector
companies to invest in neglecteddiseases and drug development
and vaccine developmentdiagnostics, and I was very
(13:01):
intrigued at how philanthropycould work with the private
sector and the public sector totackle these big issues.
So I learned a lot there.
I got very motivated and I saidI want to both study this more.
I went back to graduate schoolat that time, but eventually I
want to go on the private sectorand learn as much as I can
(13:23):
about that side of the fence.
So after grad school I was inthe private sector for 10 years.
In particular, I spent eightyears at Walmart.
There I was in charge offrontline workforce economic
opportunity so frontlineworkforce strategy and read and
invested in a number of programsto help Walmart frontline
workers achieve economicstability and mobility in their
(13:46):
jobs with Walmart.
It was a really exciting timeto be there because the
leadership team had really wasreally acknowledging Walmart's
challenges with the frontlineworkforce and really committed
to it.
So we did a lot of meaningfulwork there.
I then went to Wells Fargo anddid similar work for a few years
, did similar work for a fewyears and then had this sort of
(14:09):
amazing opportunity, landed byLAP, to start and build from
ground up a new foundationfocused on economic mobility
that really sort of was sort ofa capstone of all this work that
I had done over the prior 20years.
So I feel incredibly lucky tosit in this seat today and help
build this institution from theground up.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, I'm sure GitLab Foundation feels the same way.
They're lucky to have you buildit, particularly at this moment
in time.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthis moment in time.
When you started this journeywith GitLab, you were beginning
to focus on economic mobility.
I think you, like a lot of us,saw the challenges that, as you
mentioned, frontline workerswere facing post-COVID
(14:52):
struggling on the ground withtheir earnings, the cost of
living in communities throughoutthe country, the feeling
amongst many Americans thatthere was a lack of access to
opportunities.
So you began this journey wellbefore the last presidential
election.
How has the changes in politics, the changes in attitude right
(15:16):
now, affected the way you thinkabout your mission, or has that
just helped you double down onthe mission of improving
economic mobility?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Gosh, it's such a good question.
It's such an important andchallenging question to answer,
if only because it feels likeevery day there's a shift and
new news and new considerationsto take into account.
I assume, even once thispodcast is published, you know,
things will have dramaticallychanged.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It's already old.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Right now.
It's a risk we have, but I willsay, as with most areas in
industries, uncertainty makes itvery difficult to plan well for
this work.
We are seeing a lot of concernin our international markets.
Obviously, with the cut oninternational aid that's
affecting at least half of ourgrantees are impacted one way or
(16:08):
another, some verysignificantly, some less
significantly, but we've seen alot of organizations already
shutting down, which is, youknow, for people who care about
this kind of work, it's reallydisappointing.
Reactions may range fromdisappointed to horrified,
depending on the issue area.
I have worries that there mightbe targeting of the
(16:32):
philanthropic sector in and ofitself and 501c3s and tax-exempt
statuses, which would reallyaffect how donors think about
funding.
And then, of course, with theeconomy potentially on the brink
of recession, we know thathistorically, donors tend to
(16:55):
pull back Now.
So those are all the negativesI will say.
There are a few things that I'moptimistic about and hopeful
about.
I know already that there aredonors that are stepping up and
already vocally committing togiving more than they would have
otherwise given the number ofchallenges, and that is a great
sign.
And.
I hope that other funders anddonors do that.
One of our principal funders,sidsi Brandy, has stepped up and
(17:16):
increased his funding year overyear, and I think that's a
great.
It is the right thing to do inthis moment.
It is the right thing to do inthis moment.
I also think that you know wehave been on a journey as a
foundation to be highlyoutcomes-oriented, highly
ROI-focused, and I think we'refortunate to have that approach
(17:40):
because it means that in a worldof more limited resources, we
can have high confidence thatour dollars are pointed towards
the highest impact possible.
And I think we're on a missionto try to also convince other
philanthropies that it's greatto think about outcomes, to
think about return oninvestments, to adopt this
(18:01):
mindset so that all of us inthis difficult times can
maximize the impact of everydollar.
And so you know, hopefully,we've been talking to a lot of
funders about our methodology,about how we think about this,
we've been advising them on howthey might similarly think about
outcomes and ROI, and I'mhopeful that that is a useful
(18:22):
conversation to have at thismoment.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I hope so too.
A useful conversation to haveat this moment.
I hope so too.
I mean, if you think about thework that you're doing, it fits
exactly where the rhetoric isleading us towards.
So we've heard a lot aboutefficiency in government the
last couple of months.
So whether those are rhetoricalstatements or true statements
we'll see.
But we've heard about efficiency.
(18:44):
We've heard about creatinggreater opportunity for
low-income and working-classAmericans.
We've heard about the erosionin confidence in government in
other organizations.
So the work that you're leadingisn't some woke project.
The work that you're leading isactually aligning very well
(19:07):
with the need for more focusedinvestment in opportunity,
investments that people canactually see the return on their
investment appropriate missionright now than the mission you
(19:28):
have.
So the notion that the UnitedStates government or this
administration would even thinkabout going after an
organization, a philanthropicorganization like yours or the
one I lead or any of the otherones who are trying to create
greater opportunity for moreAmericans, is just beyond my
comprehension.
So I'm hopeful that that's justrhetoric at this point,
although, as of the time of thisrecording, harvard's nonprofit
(19:52):
status is under attack or atleast under threat.
So we'll see where this allgoes, but I certainly hope that
you and your organizationcontinue to show the leadership
that you're showing and thefocus on return on investment
that we need to see in everyorganization right now.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Well, I appreciate that.
Thank you for the kind wordsand I hope I, like you, hope
that my worst fears aren'trealized.
What a shame.
There's so much good thatphilanthropy does and the
nonprofit sector as a whole.
It fills so many gaps that thefederal government itself
otherwise would havetheoretically would have to fund
or support.
(20:32):
That's why we have thenonprofit sector in this country
, and part of the reason taxesare lower than in many other
countries is because it providesthis foundational support, and
so it would be a gross shame ifyou know the generosity of so
many Americans were impacted bysome strange turn of thought.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Now you've talked about your mission, and I think
it's a great mission,particularly for this moment in
time.
Tell us about your partners.
Who are your partners in thiswork?
And you talked a little bitabout return on investment.
What do you see success lookinglike in, say, five years?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
So on, partners.
So we actually think ofourselves.
One of our core values iscollaboration.
We think of ourselves as a andtalk about ourselves as a
partnerships first grant, maker,and that means a couple of
(21:37):
different things.
First, it means we are alwaysseeking to partner with other
foundations, individual donorsas well.
A couple examples in a minute.
But for us, again, trying toinspire others to invest in
these high ROI projects is apriority.
There are more projects than weourselves can possibly fund.
We have discovered that at thispoint, which is exciting, and
so where others want to, youknow, jump on board and help us
(22:00):
in delivering these high valueprojects, we're always excited.
An example of this is a coupleof years ago, we launched one of
the first funds related toeconomic mobility and AI in the
sector.
We call it our AI for EconomicOpportunity Fund and this last
year we were very fortunate tohave the Balmer Group join us in
(22:22):
a partnership around this.
So what Balmer liked about ourapproach is we move very fast,
as you might imagine, sincewe've had 120 grantees in two
years.
We're really focused on gettingcapital out the door and we
have a very streamlined at thispoint vetting process and we
leverage experts to help us makesome of these decisions.
So what Balmer committed to dowas we would fund effectively
(22:45):
the seed stage of 10 to 15different ideas through the fund
and they pre-committed toscaling as many of those
projects that showed success tothe tune of an additional $1 to
$3 million.
So we're putting in maybe$250,000, a small initial
investment running a cohortcourting these grantees for a
(23:06):
year and then after a yearthere's sort of a demo day.
They show the results and theBalmer team will select an
additional subset to fund as asecond stage.
Really exciting, novel way topartner.
Really good for the granteeorganizations.
It really helps us leverage upour dollars because ours are,
you know, significant but stillmuch less than Ballmer Groups.
(23:28):
We also look to partner withleading industry experts.
So in our AI fund we're one ofonly two social impact
(23:53):
organizations that's a formalpartnership with OpenAI.
Engineers actually for sixmonths advise and work with the
grantees to build their toolsand products, because we're
really trying to maximize thegrantees' success rates as well.
So funder partners and industrypartners very important to us,
but of course, our mostimportant partners are our
grantees and, as you've heard,we think about ways to invest in
grantees in other ways to helpthem maximize their impact and
effectiveness.
And one of the ways we do this,in addition to the examples I
(24:14):
just gave, is we have this veryunique Learning for Action Fund
that we launched last year andthis is a focus on helping
nonprofits build their internaldata management measurement
impact methodologies.
So in some cases this is givinggrants to organizations to help
(24:37):
them do end-user qualitativeresearch right so they can
survey their programparticipants, learn what's
working and what's not abouttheir services or their products
and then help them iterate andimprove their program design.
And another way is helping themquite literally track and
measure their impact over time,because when nonprofits can talk
(24:59):
about the return on theirinvestment or the actual impact
they're having on earningsOthers.
We believe other funders willcome in and get excited and
react to that, and more so.
Most funders don't fund in thisarea.
We think it's a uniquelyimportant place to support
grantees, and so we starteddoing more and more of that over
(25:19):
time.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, it sounds like you're filling a really
important space in philanthropyand helping philanthropy see
greater opportunities to focuson that return on investment.
Now you talked about yourrelationship with OpenAI.
Obviously, AI is dominatingconversations in education,
(25:41):
technology and in otherworkforce training spaces.
You and I both make the annualpilgrimage to ASU GSV and you
can't help, but I mean, thereisn't a topic or an organization
that doesn't have AI in thetitle somewhere.
How do you see AI helpingadvance economic mobility in
(26:04):
today's society?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I am cautiously optimistic is sort of my frame
of mind these days, but veryoptimistic in a few select areas
.
The caution, of course, isthere's a lot of downside risk,
as we all know.
That is concerning, trulyconcerning For the nonprofit
sector.
A couple things I believe to betrue.
First, I don't want to see thesector left behind, as has been
(26:31):
in many prior instances with theadvent of new technologies,
where the private sector andextractive companies have really
dominated the use and thetechnology and it has, you know,
a lot of.
The outcomes therefore havebeen either unintended negative
(26:51):
consequences or simply without asocial impact frame.
So, and face value, I think isimportant to invest in
nonprofits' ability to use thistechnology, work with this
technology, so they don't getleft behind.
I also think that there's realopportunity on two fronts as it
relates to economic opportunity.
(27:11):
The first is there are a lot ofvery exciting, interesting
tools that can be developed andare being developed by the
nonprofit sector to help attackproblems that have traditionally
been very difficult to attack.
So some examples include if I'mcoming out of, if I'm a high
schooler coming out of highschool and I care about being
able to, you know, have a livingwage support my family someday?
(27:33):
What are the best careers I canmove into?
What are the best trainingprograms or degrees or
credentials I should be pursuing?
That has traditionally beenvery, very opaque, very
difficult to navigate.
Very few professionals right,like you think of a high school,
600 people with one collegecounselor.
(27:54):
Right, there's big opportunitiesto expand access for people to
critical information to helpthem make great decisions.
That extends across many, manyareas, many tools you could
think of that help people accessgreat information to improve
their lives.
The second area that I think isreal potential is for
nonprofits to themselves be ableto become more cost efficient,
(28:16):
extend their services to morepeople.
You know grow because they cando more with less, and that's
you know.
You know grow because they cando more with less, and that's
you know AI 101, but I thinkmore and more nonprofits are
harnessing that potential andthere are more and more tools
that will help them do so overtime.
So I am bullish in those areas,with some real concerns about
(28:38):
other areas we haven't discussedyet today.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Certainly the speed at which things are moving and
our own history in humanity.
I can't say I've witnessed toomany periods of time where the
advance in technology hasdirectly benefited the lowest
income sections of our societyright off the bat.
So I'm hopeful that we candesign for that, that we can
(29:04):
focus on that, that we can focuson that and I think
philanthropy has an importantrole to play to ensure that, as
our grantees, as the field isleveraging technology to improve
things like economic mobilityor to improve educational
outcomes, that we design aroundthose who have the least access
to the technology first, that wedesign around those who have
(29:26):
the least access to thetechnology first, but we'll see
how this all shakes out.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I couldn't agree more and in a sense it's been really
take our partnership withOpenAI as an example and by
seeing the dozens of granteesand exciting projects that
really have a social impact,lens and intent that will help
(29:49):
OpenAI, as one example, thinkdifferently about how it wants
to advance its own work, howimportant it is to take into
account the common good, notjust the private good, as it's
doing the rest of its work aswell.
I'm hopeful.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Well, we'll trust your hope.
So, ellie, let me ask you onefinal question as we begin to
wrap up when do you see Get LabFoundation over the next five
years, and what impact do youhope?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
to see from your organization, boy.
So we've been talking a lotabout this internally over the
past few months and working on athree-year strategic plan.
You know, first and foremost,we want to continue to be the
best outcome-centric,collaborative grantmaker,
risk-tolerant grantmaker we canbe.
So always, we want to ensurethat we're doing high-quality
(30:42):
work, that we're learning fromthe best minds in the industry,
like yours, that we are getting,you know, are highly grantee
centric and moving capital asquickly as possible to
innovators who are doing reallyexcited work.
That, though, we're reallywe're seeing, as I mentioned
(31:06):
earlier, interest from otherfunders on how they themselves
can be more outcomes oriented.
We're starting to have a lot ofconversations We've had, you
know, 25 to 30 in the past yearalone and so we're thinking
about, you know, taking on moreformal advisory roles with some
of these philanthropies who arecoming to talk to us,
potentially doing some modelingon behalf of some of these other
organizations that have smallerstaff but want to take this
(31:27):
approach or to train up theirstaff on how to do this kind of
work.
I think if we can extend ourmission to really think about
the whole sector transformingand moving in this direction,
that's net positive and thatreally could extend our impact
and we're excited about thepotential to co-invest as always
(31:50):
, with other largephilanthropies in this space,
and anything we can do in thatregard will just extend the
potential for more and moreorganizations to have these high
return investments.
So those are the directionswe're heading in.
We are growing as a team,growing as an organization, and
(32:11):
I'm just really proud of thework that the team and the
grantees are delivering.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Well, we're also proud of your work.
I think you're a great exampleof what a philanthropy can do,
how it can use return oninvestment to really drive
measurement of philanthropy andto focus it on improving the
lives of people throughout thiscountry and, in your case,
throughout the world.
So, ellie, thank you for beingon the Rant podcast and thank
(32:39):
you for the work that you'releading.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Thank you, it's been a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
All right.
Well, thanks for joining us.
Everybody, you've beenlistening to my conversation
with Ellie Bertani, presidentand CEO of Get Left Foundation.
If you enjoyed thisconversation, please leave your
comments.
Leave me any questions that youmight have based on this
conversation and continue tofollow us on YouTube Hit,
subscribe and if you'relistening to us on audio,
(33:05):
continue to follow us on yourfavorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Thanks for joining us everybody, and we'll see you
all soon.
Hi, this is Eloy Ortiz-Oakley and welcome back to
the Rant podcast, the podcastwhere we pull back the curtain
and break down the people, thepolicies and the politics of our
higher education system.
In this episode, I get to sitdown with my friend and
colleague, ellie Bertani.
Ellie is the CEO of GitLabFoundation and we talk about how
(00:32):
her foundation is focused onreturn on investment and
supporting innovation in thefield to improve access to
opportunity through increasedearnings and economic mobility.
We also talk about howfoundations at large are
supporting innovation in thefield and improving outcomes
(00:52):
through their grantees andthrough their investments on the
ground.
But before I get into myconversation with Ellie, I do
want to take a moment just tohighlight the several things
that have occurred since ourlast podcast.
Things continue to change inWashington DC, whether it's the
(01:12):
tariff derby that's happeningright now or the impacts of the
Department of Education.
But recently there's been anattack on 501c3s, whether it's
the attacks on HarvardUniversity's non-profit status
or questions about whether ornot non-profits throughout the
country are supporting terroristorganizations.
Now, speaking for my foundation, the College Futures Foundation
(01:35):
, we support Americans,americans underground in
California, helping them improveeconomic mobility through a
better return on investment fortheir education.
There is nothing anti-Americanagainst that.
As a matter of fact, it's thecomplete opposite.
We are improving outcomes, weare improving the efficiency of
government and other forms ofinvestments in institutions that
(01:59):
support learning, and I applaudGitLab Foundation, gates
Foundation and many of our othersister organizations who are
doing just that supportingpeople on the ground, improving
the lives of people who aresometimes forgotten by our
governments local, state andnational government and so the
work of nonprofits reallysupports the American dream,
(02:21):
supports efforts in America toensure that everybody has equal
access to opportunity.
Those are things that we shouldbe supporting because it gets
to people on all sides of theaisle on the left, on the right,
everything in between.
There is a non-profit theresupporting those efforts.
So the non-profit ecosystem isreally there to support gaining
(02:45):
access to the American dreams inall of its forms.
So I hope that theadministration backs off on some
of those efforts.
Certainly there are policydebates that should be had, and
certainly the administrationshould be driving down on
institutions and organizationsto improve the efficiency of
government and improve theefficiency of the supports that
(03:06):
go to help people in everydaycommunities across this country.
So I know for our part atCollege Futures Foundation.
We will continue to double downon our efforts to improve
economic mobility, to improveaccess to the California dream,
to take what we learn here inCalifornia and echo it across
the country and help shapefederal policy.
(03:27):
That's what foundations do.
They support those efforts,they give voice to great ideas,
they mitigate the risk forinnovation and they help support
their states and theircommunities in this country
moving forward.
So I hope the administration andCongress see the value of the
nonprofit ecosystem and findways to continue to support
(03:51):
their efforts, not to underminetheir efforts.
I get that sometimes theydisagree with the positions of
some nonprofits, but we can'tpick and choose.
This sort cuts both ways.
So let's maintain support for501c3s and maintain support for
organizations that aresupporting innovation on the
ground and improving theefficiency of government, of
(04:14):
bureaucracies and of putting thepeople first.
So with that backdrop, pleaseenjoy my conversation with Ellie
Bertani, ceo of GitLabFoundation.
Ellie, welcome to the Rantpodcast.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
It's great to see you, Eli.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It's great to see you too.
Thank you for taking the timeout of your busy schedule to
join us here on the Rant.
I know there's a lot going onin your world, a lot going on
with your organization, so let'sjump right into it.
So, elliot, you lead arelatively new foundation, the
GitLab Foundation, and you'refocused on improving lifetime
(04:59):
earnings through access toopportunity, and I know we're
all talking about opportunitythese days.
Tell us about the foundation,its origins and its mission.
Let's start there.
Tell us a little bit aboutGitLab.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Wonderful.
Well, thanks again for havingme.
It's always a pleasure to seeyou and to be able to talk a
little bit about our work but,more importantly, the great work
that our grantees are doing allacross the US, as well as in
Colombia and Kenya, which aretwo other markets we operate in.
So, as you said, our focus isentirely on economic mobility
(05:34):
and helping people increasetheir lifetime earnings.
We think about that fairlybroadly.
We invest in areas that includeworkforce development, but also
technology innovations that canhelp nonprofits and our
grantees really extend the reachof their services and the depth
of their impact in helpingpeople increase their wages to
(05:56):
above a living wage.
But what makes us somewhatunique is our approach to
grantmaking.
So we take a very return oninvestment centric approach when
we think about projects that wewant to fund.
For every grant that weconsider, we actually build a
financial model, if you canbelieve it, that helps us
(06:18):
estimate what we think theimpact on people's paychecks or
wallets will be over time.
And we do it because we want tohave the maximum impact with
every dollar that we think wecan.
For us, that means we'd like todrive at least $100 in
increased income for everydollar that we invest.
We call that our North Star 100Xgoal and when we started two
(06:42):
and a half years ago we didn'tactually know if that was even
an attainable goal, if we'd beable to find projects like that,
if grantees would be able andwilling to share their data with
us in a way where we could makethese estimations and support
measuring these outcomes on thetail end.
But we've been really fortunateand pleased to see that we have
(07:03):
been able to find these kindsof investments.
We have made over 120 grants inour first two years and our
portfolio is really deliveringon these results and we've been
really excited to share theseprojects and these grantees with
other funders that want toinvest in high ROI type of work.
(07:23):
So we're really looking toextend our impact in the future.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Well, I'm glad to hear that you are focused on
impact and focused on economicmobility.
That's certainly something thatresonates with me in my day job
at College Futures.
We're also focused on economicmobility, so this seems to be a
very important focus fororganizations like yours these
days, which I think is the rightfocus.
How do you actually think about, in your grant making, moving
(07:55):
the needle on economic mobilitywith your grantees in the work
that they do?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So we try to be a really grantee-centric partner
in everything we do.
So even though probably what Idescribed sounds a little bit
complicated and maybe burdensomefor grantees and how we think
about evaluating grants, we tryto make a relatively light touch
and take a what I would call arigorous but reasonable approach
.
So whenever we are looking fora project, looking for a
(08:22):
high-performing, excitingorganization, often we'll invite
several ideas from them andpart of our process is to
explore the potential return oninvestment of any idea that they
bring to the table.
We look at their businessmodels with them and say where
would an investment reallyturbocharge your growth or your
(08:43):
organization?
Or what is a new idea thatother funders haven't funded for
you but is a real moonshot?
One of the things that's veryfortunate about us is we are
able, because of our fundingstructure, to really take risks
with our money.
Some funders are able to dothat and take a more risk-averse
approach.
(09:03):
They want to fund proven andknown organizations or ideas.
We're very lucky to be able topush the envelope and try to
build and invest in new thingswith our grantees and we think
that's a really important rolefor philanthropy to play to
invest in demonstration projectsor somewhat crazy ideas that
could really change anorganization or change the
(09:26):
sector.
So we work closely withgrantees.
We explore their models, weexplore their creative, crazy
ideas.
We work with them to modelthese ideas and then when we
find something really innovativeand exciting, we both invest in
it and then work with granteesto build their capacity in
(09:46):
addition to measure theiroutcomes.
And we like to stay reallyclose to our grantees and be
supportive in a variety of ways.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm glad you mentioned this opportunity for
philanthropy to open up theappetite to risk in the field,
because I think that isphilanthropy's most important
role.
We have the opportunity,whether because of our resources
or our scope or reach, tocreate an opportunity for
grantees and people in the fieldto take risks, risks that they
(10:17):
can't otherwise afford to take.
I mean, I think that's exactlythe role philanthropy should
play, so applaud the GitLabFoundation for playing that role
.
Now you mentioned that youoperate in a couple of other
countries Colombia and Kenya.
Why those countries?
How did you get there?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I love this question because it does seem a little
bit random at face value.
When we decided to work ininternational markets, we
basically did an analysis of avariety of factors that we
thought would be important.
We wanted to look at incomedisparities because obviously
with our mission we want to tryto drive incomes as high as
(10:57):
possible and so that differencebetween the lowest income and
the highest income in a countrycan really matter.
We also looked at things likethe ease of doing business, for
philanthropy in a country canreally matter.
We also looked at things likethe ease of doing business for
philanthropy in a country.
Are there other successfulphilanthropies already there
that we could learn from?
Because we wanted to have itinterrupt as quickly as possible
.
We looked at things like howtransparent is the country, how
(11:22):
much data is available to helpus make good decisions, and then
, frankly, we saw sort ofclusters of interesting
potential markets we could workin in Latin America and in East
Africa.
So we chose one market at eachand have been learning on the
ground as we go and with a hopeand a desire to potentially grow
from those base countries inthe future.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Now let's talk about you and your journey to GitLab.
Tell us about what you weredoing before you got to the
foundation and also what drewyou to this mission and to this
organization.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Excellent Well, so I've had a bit of a wandering
path to get here, though inhindsight the pieces do seem to
fit together.
When I started my careerjourney I was very
mission-oriented and startedworking in the nonprofit sector
pretty early.
I started at a frontlinenonprofit and then had the great
(12:18):
opportunity to join a veryearly stage philanthropy, a
foundation based in Seattlewhere I'm from, and was the
second hire.
So I helped them build theirgrant-making program from
scratch, which was a greatprecursor for the role I'm in
today, since we two are a newfoundation.
I then had the opportunity tojoin the Bates Foundation.
I was there for three years intheir global health program and
(12:40):
that really opened my eyes tothe possibility of
cross-sectoral work.
So Gates and the Global HealthProgram was doing really
innovative work at the time onincentivizing private sector
companies to invest in neglecteddiseases and drug development
and vaccine developmentdiagnostics, and I was very
(13:01):
intrigued at how philanthropycould work with the private
sector and the public sector totackle these big issues.
So I learned a lot there.
I got very motivated and I saidI want to both study this more.
I went back to graduate schoolat that time, but eventually I
want to go on the private sectorand learn as much as I can
(13:23):
about that side of the fence.
So after grad school I was inthe private sector for 10 years.
In particular, I spent eightyears at Walmart.
There I was in charge offrontline workforce economic
opportunity so frontlineworkforce strategy and read and
invested in a number of programsto help Walmart frontline
workers achieve economicstability and mobility in their
(13:46):
jobs with Walmart.
It was a really exciting timeto be there because the
leadership team had really wasreally acknowledging Walmart's
challenges with the frontlineworkforce and really committed
to it.
So we did a lot of meaningfulwork there.
I then went to Wells Fargo anddid similar work for a few years
, did similar work for a fewyears and then had this sort of
(14:09):
amazing opportunity, landed byLAP, to start and build from
ground up a new foundationfocused on economic mobility
that really sort of was sort ofa capstone of all this work that
I had done over the prior 20years.
So I feel incredibly lucky tosit in this seat today and help
build this institution from theground up.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, I'm sure GitLab Foundation feels the same way.
They're lucky to have you buildit, particularly at this moment
in time.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthis moment in time.
When you started this journeywith GitLab, you were beginning
to focus on economic mobility.
I think you, like a lot of us,saw the challenges that, as you
mentioned, frontline workerswere facing post-COVID
(14:52):
struggling on the ground withtheir earnings, the cost of
living in communities throughoutthe country, the feeling
amongst many Americans thatthere was a lack of access to
opportunities.
So you began this journey wellbefore the last presidential
election.
How has the changes in politics, the changes in attitude right
(15:16):
now, affected the way you thinkabout your mission, or has that
just helped you double down onthe mission of improving
economic mobility?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Gosh, it's such a good question.
It's such an important andchallenging question to answer,
if only because it feels likeevery day there's a shift and
new news and new considerationsto take into account.
I assume, even once thispodcast is published, you know,
things will have dramaticallychanged.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It's already old.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Right now.
It's a risk we have, but I willsay, as with most areas in
industries, uncertainty makes itvery difficult to plan well for
this work.
We are seeing a lot of concernin our international markets.
Obviously, with the cut oninternational aid that's
affecting at least half of ourgrantees are impacted one way or
(16:08):
another, some verysignificantly, some less
significantly, but we've seen alot of organizations already
shutting down, which is, youknow, for people who care about
this kind of work, it's reallydisappointing.
Reactions may range fromdisappointed to horrified,
depending on the issue area.
I have worries that there mightbe targeting of the
(16:32):
philanthropic sector in and ofitself and 501c3s and tax-exempt
statuses, which would reallyaffect how donors think about
funding.
And then, of course, with theeconomy potentially on the brink
of recession, we know thathistorically, donors tend to
(16:55):
pull back Now.
So those are all the negativesI will say.
There are a few things that I'moptimistic about and hopeful
about.
I know already that there aredonors that are stepping up and
already vocally committing togiving more than they would have
otherwise given the number ofchallenges, and that is a great
sign.
And.
I hope that other funders anddonors do that.
One of our principal funders,sidsi Brandy, has stepped up and
(17:16):
increased his funding year overyear, and I think that's a
great.
It is the right thing to do inthis moment.
It is the right thing to do inthis moment.
I also think that you know wehave been on a journey as a
foundation to be highlyoutcomes-oriented, highly
ROI-focused, and I think we'refortunate to have that approach
(17:40):
because it means that in a worldof more limited resources, we
can have high confidence thatour dollars are pointed towards
the highest impact possible.
And I think we're on a missionto try to also convince other
philanthropies that it's greatto think about outcomes, to
think about return oninvestments, to adopt this
(18:01):
mindset so that all of us inthis difficult times can
maximize the impact of everydollar.
And so you know, hopefully,we've been talking to a lot of
funders about our methodology,about how we think about this,
we've been advising them on howthey might similarly think about
outcomes and ROI, and I'mhopeful that that is a useful
(18:22):
conversation to have at thismoment.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I hope so too.
A useful conversation to haveat this moment.
I hope so too.
I mean, if you think about thework that you're doing, it fits
exactly where the rhetoric isleading us towards.
So we've heard a lot aboutefficiency in government the
last couple of months.
So whether those are rhetoricalstatements or true statements
we'll see.
But we've heard about efficiency.
(18:44):
We've heard about creatinggreater opportunity for
low-income and working-classAmericans.
We've heard about the erosionin confidence in government in
other organizations.
So the work that you're leadingisn't some woke project.
The work that you're leading isactually aligning very well
(19:07):
with the need for more focusedinvestment in opportunity,
investments that people canactually see the return on their
investment appropriate missionright now than the mission you
(19:28):
have.
So the notion that the UnitedStates government or this
administration would even thinkabout going after an
organization, a philanthropicorganization like yours or the
one I lead or any of the otherones who are trying to create
greater opportunity for moreAmericans, is just beyond my
comprehension.
So I'm hopeful that that's justrhetoric at this point,
although, as of the time of thisrecording, harvard's nonprofit
(19:52):
status is under attack or atleast under threat.
So we'll see where this allgoes, but I certainly hope that
you and your organizationcontinue to show the leadership
that you're showing and thefocus on return on investment
that we need to see in everyorganization right now.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Well, I appreciate that.
Thank you for the kind wordsand I hope I, like you, hope
that my worst fears aren'trealized.
What a shame.
There's so much good thatphilanthropy does and the
nonprofit sector as a whole.
It fills so many gaps that thefederal government itself
otherwise would havetheoretically would have to fund
or support.
(20:32):
That's why we have thenonprofit sector in this country
, and part of the reason taxesare lower than in many other
countries is because it providesthis foundational support, and
so it would be a gross shame ifyou know the generosity of so
many Americans were impacted bysome strange turn of thought.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Now you've talked about your mission, and I think
it's a great mission,particularly for this moment in
time.
Tell us about your partners.
Who are your partners in thiswork?
And you talked a little bitabout return on investment.
What do you see success lookinglike in, say, five years?
Speaker 3 (21:13):
So on, partners.
So we actually think ofourselves.
One of our core values iscollaboration.
We think of ourselves as a andtalk about ourselves as a
partnerships first grant, maker,and that means a couple of
(21:37):
different things.
First, it means we are alwaysseeking to partner with other
foundations, individual donorsas well.
A couple examples in a minute.
But for us, again, trying toinspire others to invest in
these high ROI projects is apriority.
There are more projects than weourselves can possibly fund.
We have discovered that at thispoint, which is exciting, and
so where others want to, youknow, jump on board and help us
(22:00):
in delivering these high valueprojects, we're always excited.
An example of this is a coupleof years ago, we launched one of
the first funds related toeconomic mobility and AI in the
sector.
We call it our AI for EconomicOpportunity Fund and this last
year we were very fortunate tohave the Balmer Group join us in
(22:22):
a partnership around this.
So what Balmer liked about ourapproach is we move very fast,
as you might imagine, sincewe've had 120 grantees in two
years.
We're really focused on gettingcapital out the door and we
have a very streamlined at thispoint vetting process and we
leverage experts to help us makesome of these decisions.
So what Balmer committed to dowas we would fund effectively
(22:45):
the seed stage of 10 to 15different ideas through the fund
and they pre-committed toscaling as many of those
projects that showed success tothe tune of an additional $1 to
$3 million.
So we're putting in maybe$250,000, a small initial
investment running a cohortcourting these grantees for a
(23:06):
year and then after a yearthere's sort of a demo day.
They show the results and theBalmer team will select an
additional subset to fund as asecond stage.
Really exciting, novel way topartner.
Really good for the granteeorganizations.
It really helps us leverage upour dollars because ours are,
you know, significant but stillmuch less than Ballmer Groups.
(23:28):
We also look to partner withleading industry experts.
So in our AI fund we're one ofonly two social impact
(23:53):
organizations that's a formalpartnership with OpenAI.
Engineers actually for sixmonths advise and work with the
grantees to build their toolsand products, because we're
really trying to maximize thegrantees' success rates as well.
So funder partners and industrypartners very important to us,
but of course, our mostimportant partners are our
grantees and, as you've heard,we think about ways to invest in
grantees in other ways to helpthem maximize their impact and
effectiveness.
And one of the ways we do this,in addition to the examples I
(24:14):
just gave, is we have this veryunique Learning for Action Fund
that we launched last year andthis is a focus on helping
nonprofits build their internaldata management measurement
impact methodologies.
So in some cases this is givinggrants to organizations to help
(24:37):
them do end-user qualitativeresearch right so they can
survey their programparticipants, learn what's
working and what's not abouttheir services or their products
and then help them iterate andimprove their program design.
And another way is helping themquite literally track and
measure their impact over time,because when nonprofits can talk
(24:59):
about the return on theirinvestment or the actual impact
they're having on earningsOthers.
We believe other funders willcome in and get excited and
react to that, and more so.
Most funders don't fund in thisarea.
We think it's a uniquelyimportant place to support
grantees, and so we starteddoing more and more of that over
(25:19):
time.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Well, it sounds like you're filling a really
important space in philanthropyand helping philanthropy see
greater opportunities to focuson that return on investment.
Now you talked about yourrelationship with OpenAI.
Obviously, AI is dominatingconversations in education,
(25:41):
technology and in otherworkforce training spaces.
You and I both make the annualpilgrimage to ASU GSV and you
can't help, but I mean, thereisn't a topic or an organization
that doesn't have AI in thetitle somewhere.
How do you see AI helpingadvance economic mobility in
(26:04):
today's society?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I am cautiously optimistic is sort of my frame
of mind these days, but veryoptimistic in a few select areas
.
The caution, of course, isthere's a lot of downside risk,
as we all know.
That is concerning, trulyconcerning For the nonprofit
sector.
A couple things I believe to betrue.
First, I don't want to see thesector left behind, as has been
(26:31):
in many prior instances with theadvent of new technologies,
where the private sector andextractive companies have really
dominated the use and thetechnology and it has, you know,
a lot of.
The outcomes therefore havebeen either unintended negative
(26:51):
consequences or simply without asocial impact frame.
So, and face value, I think isimportant to invest in
nonprofits' ability to use thistechnology, work with this
technology, so they don't getleft behind.
I also think that there's realopportunity on two fronts as it
relates to economic opportunity.
(27:11):
The first is there are a lot ofvery exciting, interesting
tools that can be developed andare being developed by the
nonprofit sector to help attackproblems that have traditionally
been very difficult to attack.
So some examples include if I'mcoming out of, if I'm a high
schooler coming out of highschool and I care about being
able to, you know, have a livingwage support my family someday?
(27:33):
What are the best careers I canmove into?
What are the best trainingprograms or degrees or
credentials I should be pursuing?
That has traditionally beenvery, very opaque, very
difficult to navigate.
Very few professionals right,like you think of a high school,
600 people with one collegecounselor.
(27:54):
Right, there's big opportunitiesto expand access for people to
critical information to helpthem make great decisions.
That extends across many, manyareas, many tools you could
think of that help people accessgreat information to improve
their lives.
The second area that I think isreal potential is for
nonprofits to themselves be ableto become more cost efficient,
(28:16):
extend their services to morepeople.
You know grow because they cando more with less, and that's
you know.
You know grow because they cando more with less, and that's
you know AI 101, but I thinkmore and more nonprofits are
harnessing that potential andthere are more and more tools
that will help them do so overtime.
So I am bullish in those areas,with some real concerns about
(28:38):
other areas we haven't discussedyet today.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Certainly the speed at which things are moving and
our own history in humanity.
I can't say I've witnessed toomany periods of time where the
advance in technology hasdirectly benefited the lowest
income sections of our societyright off the bat.
So I'm hopeful that we candesign for that, that we can
(29:04):
focus on that, that we can focuson that and I think
philanthropy has an importantrole to play to ensure that, as
our grantees, as the field isleveraging technology to improve
things like economic mobilityor to improve educational
outcomes, that we design aroundthose who have the least access
to the technology first, that wedesign around those who have
(29:26):
the least access to thetechnology first, but we'll see
how this all shakes out.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I couldn't agree more and in a sense it's been really
take our partnership withOpenAI as an example and by
seeing the dozens of granteesand exciting projects that
really have a social impact,lens and intent that will help
(29:49):
OpenAI, as one example, thinkdifferently about how it wants
to advance its own work, howimportant it is to take into
account the common good, notjust the private good, as it's
doing the rest of its work aswell.
I'm hopeful.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Well, we'll trust your hope.
So, ellie, let me ask you onefinal question as we begin to
wrap up when do you see Get LabFoundation over the next five
years, and what impact do youhope?
Speaker 3 (30:21):
to see from your organization, boy.
So we've been talking a lotabout this internally over the
past few months and working on athree-year strategic plan.
You know, first and foremost,we want to continue to be the
best outcome-centric,collaborative grantmaker,
risk-tolerant grantmaker we canbe.
So always, we want to ensurethat we're doing high-quality
(30:42):
work, that we're learning fromthe best minds in the industry,
like yours, that we are getting,you know, are highly grantee
centric and moving capital asquickly as possible to
innovators who are doing reallyexcited work.
That, though, we're reallywe're seeing, as I mentioned
(31:06):
earlier, interest from otherfunders on how they themselves
can be more outcomes oriented.
We're starting to have a lot ofconversations We've had, you
know, 25 to 30 in the past yearalone and so we're thinking
about, you know, taking on moreformal advisory roles with some
of these philanthropies who arecoming to talk to us,
potentially doing some modelingon behalf of some of these other
organizations that have smallerstaff but want to take this
(31:27):
approach or to train up theirstaff on how to do this kind of
work.
I think if we can extend ourmission to really think about
the whole sector transformingand moving in this direction,
that's net positive and thatreally could extend our impact
and we're excited about thepotential to co-invest as always
(31:50):
, with other largephilanthropies in this space,
and anything we can do in thatregard will just extend the
potential for more and moreorganizations to have these high
return investments.
So those are the directionswe're heading in.
We are growing as a team,growing as an organization, and
(32:11):
I'm just really proud of thework that the team and the
grantees are delivering.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Well, we're also proud of your work.
I think you're a great exampleof what a philanthropy can do,
how it can use return oninvestment to really drive
measurement of philanthropy andto focus it on improving the
lives of people throughout thiscountry and, in your case,
throughout the world.
So, ellie, thank you for beingon the Rant podcast and thank
(32:39):
you for the work that you'releading.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Thank you, it's been a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
All right.
Well, thanks for joining us.
Everybody, you've beenlistening to my conversation
with Ellie Bertani, presidentand CEO of Get Left Foundation.
If you enjoyed thisconversation, please leave your
comments.
Leave me any questions that youmight have based on this
conversation and continue tofollow us on YouTube Hit,
subscribe and if you'relistening to us on audio,
(33:05):
continue to follow us on yourfavorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Thanks for joining us everybody, and we'll see you
all soon.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.