Meeting the Moment: 2023-2033 Strategic Vision

Dear friends,

Ten years ago – after my years of service with the Chesonis Family Foundation and as I was wrapping up my research about our domestic philanthropy system at MIT – I felt simultaneously distraught by my observation that the most important climate solutions of our time were being left behind and flabbergasted that we in the philanthropy community had the right-fit tools to step in, but that none of us were yet using the tools of catalytic capital to advance domestic climate innovation. When I started down the path toward founding Prime to address these concerns, I wanted to know about the boundaries of what charitable capital could do, whether philanthropists could come together at a meaningful scale, how much influence philanthropists could have on outcomes of for-profit innovators as agents of climate impact, and whether we could collectively steer the massive forces of capitalism toward better outcomes for our climate and for humanity. 

Now, a decade later, as we officially mark the completion of Prime’s original 10-year strategic plan (18 months early!), 260 philanthropic partners have entrusted us with your catalytic capital and put impact first, together mobilizing over $300MM. So far, we’ve helped launch 30 early-stage companies, each with the potential to help transform our world. And today, we are delighted to announce the official launch of a $239MM catalytic climate fund: Azolla Ventures. 

Azolla invests in companies with significant potential to positively impact the climate, but which may be overlooked by conventional capital sources. The fund operates as an independent entity proudly bound to Prime’s impact and additionality goals. Read the full press release here, and visit this page for more details on Azolla.

This incredible milestone naturally sparked the question: what is Prime now positioned to do in the next 10 years? Our Board of Directors challenged us to consider how Prime might amplify its impact by 10-100x, compelled by the urgency and scale of climate change itself. Through 2022 and early 2023, our team drew from a long list of inputs to dream about our next decade guided by our vision of a world in which humanity thrives, without the threat of climate change. 

We ultimately landed on a strategic plan of 1) steering capital through the expansion of our own impact-first investment programs, and 2) influencing capital by working with others that also marshal climate capital. There is much, much more to share about our 10-year vision and 2-year adaptive plan, so please dig into the executive summary and final report linked above. 

I remain distraught by the many threats of climate change, but I’m now driven with even stronger conviction that charitable asset owners can and must use catalytic capital to do the things that others cannot. I am unendingly grateful to and inspired by everyone who has contributed to these incredible achievements at Prime, and to the climate movement as a whole. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if we can help you on your own catalytic capital or climate impact journey: impact@primecoalition.org. 

With gratitude,
Sarah

Sarah Kearney
Founder and Executive Director
Prime Coalition
July 13, 2023