Jonah Wittkamper is a biologist, technologist, social entrepreneur and startup founder. He works to organize young inheritors who want to get involved in activism and philanthropy.
“If organized, they can become a movement,” Wittkamper said. “For every family that gives away $1 million a year, there are 500 other families that could afford to do so but they haven’t started to figure out how.”
In 2011, Wittkamper and Rachel Cohen Gerrol founded NEXUS, a network of young investors, philanthropists, and social entrepreneurs. A client of The Giving Back Fund, NEXUS has approximately 6,000 members in 70 countries.
NEXUS members pursue issues such as equal justice, ethical fashion, animal welfare and biodiversity conservation, as well as programming involving energy innovation and environment.
In 2020, Wittkamper and colleagues from NEXUS founded the Amazon Investor Coalition, which also is a Giving Back Fund client.
“The Amazon Rainforest is at a critical tipping point,” Wittkamper said. “Because of deforestation, we’re just a few years away from the moment when drought could spread across the Amazon. That would release giga tons of carbon into the atmosphere and lead to the disruption of the global water cycle.”
The disruption would affect rain patterns around the world, dramatically lowering water tables and making major cities unlivable, Wittkamper said.
But stopping deforestation can be more profitable than activities that cause deforestation, Wittkamper said. Growing and harvesting guava trees or African mahogany can generate higher profits than raising cattle.
“So, if we just changed the economics in the Amazon region towards something that protects the forest or drives reforestation, it can create many new jobs, it can secure the ecological integrity of the region,” he said.
Another Giving Back Fund client created by Wittkamper is the Global Governance Philanthropy Network.
“Its purpose is to educate philanthropists about the shortcomings of our global governance system,” Wittkamper said. “There is no world law. And as a result, there’s no global tax on carbon. We do not adequately manage the global commons. The refugee problem is getting worse, not better over time. Ocean pollution is getting worse, not better over time. There are lots of opportunities for better management of global companies.”
Wittkamper said creating a nonprofit organization is a difficult process, but The Giving Back Fund takes on much of the work involved. “An institution like The Giving Back Fund can manage legal processes, insurance, finance and taxes, and reduce the burden on the organization in an extraordinary way,” he said.
For example, Wittkamper said The Giving Back Fund helps manage donations. “They help us keep track of the deadlines for reporting back to donors. They help us put out the letters to donors.”
The Giving Back Fund also provides accounting services. “Many big grant makers require an audited financial statement, so that they can qualify for funding,” Wittkamper said. “The Giving Back Fund takes care of that for us. It makes it easier for a founder like me to go to market quickly with a new nonprofit idea.”
The Giving Back Fund (GBF) is a national non-profit organization with global reach that facilitates philanthropic giving by providing consulting, management, and administrative services under a governance structure similar to a community foundation. With more than 500 years of combined world-class expertise, the GBF team of philanthropy professionals has helped its clients create more than 900 individual foundations and fiscally sponsored projects across the globe. GBF clients include athletes, entertainers, business entrepreneurs, corporations, and others – all with a common goal to make this a better world.
For more information, please see givingback.org
