January 2024 Newsletter
INSPIRE INTEL
Thoughts from Our Founder
Hello and welcome to the Inspire Access newsletter! Today marks an important milestone in Inspire Access’s history. I'm thrilled to share with you all that Inspire Access has officially launched. See our press release here.
As many of you know and others may be learning for the first time, Inspire has been a work in progress for several years now. I founded Inspire Access because I was frustrated, and frankly angry, about two critical issues. First, and most importantly, less than 3% of investment capital goes to women and people of color. Second, there is 200 billion charitable dollars sitting in Donor Advised Funds (DAF) in the U.S., most of which is invested in mutual funds and ETFs without any regard to impact. As a result, I was determined to find a way to put DAF dollars to work to help narrow the racial and gender investment gap. And that is what led to the creation of Inspire Access.
Inspire Access serves as a vehicle to mobilize complacent philanthropic dollars sitting in DAFs towards companies and funds led by female and diverse founders who have historically lacked investment capital. To learn more on how we do so, read this article on “How Inspire Access Works”.
While Inspire Access is not the first to do this work, we are certainly one of very few organizations tapping into DAFs in this way, and the first solely focused on racial and gender equity.
Today, I ask you to follow along our journey and sign up for our newsletter where we will be sharing updates on our impact, the founders we invest in, and more on the state of the racial and gender investment gap. Follow along by subscribing here.
Patrice Brickman
Inspire Access Founder + Managing Director
HOW WE FUND
Invest Your Philanthropic Capital
Through working capital loans, direct equity investments and limited partner positions, Inspire Access allows donors to make recommendations on how their charitable dollars will be invested and granted in order to advance racial and gender equity.
Why Inspire Access?
Inspire Access, founded to address gender and racial wealth disparities, aims to leverage the $234 billion unallocated in Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) and philanthropic capital to invest strategically in underfunded founders, allowing returns to flow back into charitable entities and advocating for a transformative shift in the use of philanthropic capital.
Patrice Brickman
Donor Advised Funds (DAF) 101
Inspire Access addresses the exponential growth of Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), with over 1,000 sponsors and nearly 2 million accounts holding $230 billion, by creating a platform that strategically invests DAF funds in underrepresented founders to bridge the racial and gender investment gap, allowing donors to direct their DAF dollars for impactful purposes and returns while rectifying the historical imbalance in capital flows.
Leah Brickman
Bridging the Investment Gap
Inspire Access addresses the pervasive racial and gender investment gap in the U.S., where only 2% of capital reaches women-founded companies and significant disparities exist in funding for founders of color, aiming to bridge these gaps and contribute to building a more equitable and thriving society.
Vonetta Young
