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Can Donors Save Science?

2025/6/12
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ChinaTalk

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Kumar Garg: 我试图创建一个与众不同的慈善组织。大多数慈善机构为单一捐助者服务,而 Renaissance Philanthropy 旨在成为连接捐赠者和高质量研究的桥梁,模仿投资基金的模式运作。我们希望像投资基金一样,设定目标,招募领域领导者,并像对待有限合伙人一样对待捐赠者,将资金投入到科技领域。我们的目标是扩大慈善资金的规模,吸引新的捐赠者参与,并影响研发资金的未来。即使联邦政府的资助恢复到健康水平,研究人员也会以此为契机,思考如何构建更具弹性的研究组织。我们采取联邦制的政策制定模式,通过独特的科学技术研究形式,为政府提供创新案例。我们正在探索如何自动化内部流程,以提高效率,并对自己的工作负责,建立信任关系。我们希望将对话引导至一个方向,即在改革科学研究方式的同时,也要铭记对科学的投资议程对于其效用至关重要。 Kumar Garg: 我认为我们正处于一个能力过剩的时代,核心技术发展迅速,但将这些工具应用于实际社会难题的人、项目和工作总体数量仍然很少。在人工智能和教育领域,实际从事相关工作的人数少得惊人,因此有很大的发展空间。我们正在探索下一个人工智能和早期学习的结合点,是否可以构建一个通用筛查工具,通过学生对着设备说话来初步判断其早期语言发展是否偏离轨道。建立一个由机器学习专家组成的团队,他们同时具备教育背景,对于AI和教育领域的发展至关重要。Renaissance Philanthropy 的核心理念是为捐赠者提供更大的创新空间,并鼓励他们加大对技术领域的投资。我们专注于构建战略、招募团队和部署资金,因此不适合那些已经有明确想法并只想寻找执行伙伴的捐赠者。我们的模式让捐赠者可以自由选择参与程度,减轻了他们的压力,并鼓励他们更积极地参与慈善事业。 Kumar Garg: 我认为慈善组织往往会因为已经创建的项目而受到束缚,难以做出改变。捐赠者常常感到“投资组合遗憾”,即如果从今天开始,他们会选择与现在不同的项目组合。如果捐赠者像有限合伙人一样构建自己的组织,他们就可以在任何时候保持资金的新鲜度,避免团队成员因组织转型而感到不安。灵活性既是一种心态,也是一种结构。人们试图在表面上保持策略不变,同时在水下迅速调整内容,以适应当前的情况,这导致了很多概念上的混乱。慈善基金模式更清晰,可以更诚实地评估基金的成果,并为基金负责人提供职业发展机会。我们需要区分今天的捐赠者和潜在的捐赠者,潜在的捐赠者可能代表了实际可寻址宇宙的1%到2%。如果我们带来这种严谨性、赌博意识、精确性和目标性,我们实际上会吸引一类新的捐赠者吗?很多人对 Renaissance Philanthropy 的模式有潜在的需求。我们可能需要新的机构来应对系统性的变化。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Renaissance Philanthropy, a new player in the field, aims to revolutionize philanthropic funding for science and technology by operating more like an investment fund. It addresses the challenges of traditional models and the impact of funding cuts under the Trump administration. The organization's approach focuses on building resilience in research funding and fostering new models of scientific organization.
  • Renaissance Philanthropy catalyzed over $200 million in funding in its first year.
  • The organization operates as a philanthropic investment fund, recruiting donors and field leaders to work on specific scientific initiatives.
  • The model aims to address the limitations of traditional direct giving and attract new donors.
  • The organization considers policy advocacy and shaping the debate on R&D funding a key part of its work.

Shownotes Transcript

Renaissance Philanthropy — in my opinion, the most exciting S&T philanthropic venture in the US — is getting a one-year check-in. Kumar Garg) first appeared on the show) right before I went on paternity leave, and now we’re back for round two. Before founding Renaissance Philanthropy, Kumar worked in the Obama Office of Science and Technology Policy and spent time at Schmidt Futures.

We discuss…

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How Renaissance catalyzed) over $200 million in philanthropic funding in its first year,

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The goals of the organization and how it has responded to Trump’s S&T funding cuts,

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What sets Renaissance apart from traditional philanthropic organizations, and lessons for China-focused research foundations,

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AI applications in education, from tutoring to dyslexia screening,

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Donor psychology, “portfolio regret,” and how to build trust within a philanthropic network.

Thanks to ElevenLabs) for sponsoring this episode. Check out the ElevenReader text-to-speech app here).

Outro music: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy - Cannonball Adderley (YouTube Link))

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