Our Approach

  • Unlocking Dormant Capital

    Transforming idle wealth into living impact.

    Billions of philanthropic dollars sit dormant in donor-advised funds and foundations. Traditional giving often ends with one-time grants—but your capital doesn’t have to sit still. At The Butterfly Effect Fund, we activate these dormant resources to support visionary founders through a portfolio of forty regenerative enterprises—ensuring your contribution not only sustains change, but multiplies it.

  • Reimagining Philanthropy: Where Strategic Capital Meets Human Potential

    We don’t just provide charity—we invest in transformation.

    By channeling patient capital into women-led enterprises, innovative mental health solutions, and Africa’s rising entrepreneurs, we help spark sustainable progress.

  • The Power Law: Evergreen Capital for Transformational Returns

    We don’t invest in averages—we invest in outliers.

    The Butterfly Effect Fund follows the Power Law principle: a few bold ventures will drive the majority of impact and returns. We back 40 promising founders, knowing that even one breakout success can reshape systems.
    With our evergreen model, every return is reinvested—compounding impact and fueling the next generation of change.

The Butterfly Effect Fund: Frequently Asked Questions

  • The Butterfly Effect Fund is a not-for-profit, community-advised fund that takes a portfolio approach to social impact. We support a dynamic ecosystem of for-profit and nonprofit founders who represent our three pillars: women-led enterprises, mental health and resilience, and Africa rising..

    Unlike traditional philanthropy, we use integrated capital—a mix of grants, recoverable grants, equity, and debt—to empower organizations at every stage of growth. As returns come back to the fund, they are recycled to support new founders, making the fund evergreen and regenerative.

    Rather than $1 of contribution = $1 of impact, your $1 contribution to The Butterfly Effect has no upper limit on how much impact that can be created.

  • The Butterfly Effect Fund was born from a long-held vision: to create an ecosystem of soulful support for impact-driven founders—and to amplify the transformational ripple effect of our Day to Breathe Incubator-Accelerator community.

    After serving over 200 founders through Day to Breathe, we began to see clear patterns emerge. These 200+ founders represent 140 mission-aligned organizations, and from there, curated a portfolio of 40 highly scalable for-profit and nonprofit ventures. Three powerful themes stood out amongst these 40 entities:

    • 75% are women-led initiatives

    • 25% are focused on mental health and resilience

    • 25% are Africa-focused

    This insight inspired a more intentional structure for long-term support and capital deployment.

    A catalytic turning point came when Rugged Elegance Foundation co-founders Timothy Fredel and Jennifer Carolyn King were invited by Forward Global to attend Catalyst Now in the UK. There, they met Reuben Hernandez of Full Spectrum Capital, and in a spirit of deep listening and aligned purpose, the concept of a pioneering, community-advised fund took root. Over the following months, the idea evolved through meaningful collaboration, imagination, and care.

    With the brilliance and partnership of Holly Ruxin of Montcalm, the team identified the ideal financial structure to bring the vision to life—one that could steward integrated capital (grants, recoverable grants, equity, and debt) in service of systemic impact.

    The Butterfly Effect Fund officially launched at the Forward Global Annual Summit in Los Angeles—marking not just the birth of a fund, but the rise of a movement.

    This is a collaborative effort beyond measure, grounded in trust, aligned values, and a shared belief in the power of purpose-driven people to change the world—together. The Butterfly Effect Fund is designed to be an open-source model for philanthropy that is fun, fulfilling, and regenerative—expanding the possibilities for what’s possible when capital meets community.

  • Many philanthropists—ourselves included—have found that while giving is deeply meaningful, it can also be time-consuming, isolating, and less effective than hoped. Measuring impact is hard. Vetting opportunities takes time. Staying engaged can feel overwhelming.

    We created The Butterfly Effect Fund to take the burden off individuals, offer deep due diligence, surround giving with community, and create a shared platform for joyful, effective philanthropy.

    If you're seeking more meaning, more connection, and more measurable outcomes with fellow philanthropists who have also been founders and investors, we invite you to consider allocating a portion of your DAF or private foundation into our innovative fund.

  • Traditional philanthropy often involves one-time grants with limited follow-up. The Butterfly Effect Fund takes a long-term, ecosystem approach:

    • We provide capital that fits the stage and strategy of each founder (not just grants).

    • We offer coaching, network access, and community to amplify founder success.

    • We track long-term wealth-building outcomes, not just outputs.

    We aim to build thriving ecosystems of change—not just fund individual projects.

  • Integrated capital means deploying the right kind of capital at the right time—from grants to recoverable grants, equity, or debt.

    For example:

    • A founder developing a mental health platform might receive a recoverable grant to build their MVP.

    • A nonprofit creating trauma-informed care programs might receive a multi-year grant.

    • A for-profit venture wishing to scale might received an equity investment.

    This approach supports organizations without overburdening them, while allowing financial returns to flow back into the fund, creating ongoing cycles of impact.

  • We measure what matters: long-term wealth and well-being within communities.

    Our primary metric is the collective net worth of the individuals served by our portfolio organizations. This shifts the focus from short-term outputs (e.g., jobs created) to the economic flourishing of people and communities over time.

    By tracking tangible, inclusive wealth creation, we can assess how well our ecosystem is working.

  • Yes, but you gain partnership, community, and purpose.

    While the funds are pooled to maximize collective impact, we offer multiple ways to stay engaged and informed, including:

    • Participating in curated events

    • Meeting founders

    • Giving input on emerging opportunities

    • Learning from peer philanthropists and advisors

    Think of it less as giving up control and more as joining a powerful soulful collective that brings more wisdom, scale, and joy to your giving.

    As John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, said:

    “Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack.”

  • The Butterfly Effect Fund is community-advised and led by an experienced team with deep backgrounds in entrepreneurship, philanthropy, investing, and systems change.

    Founders go through a curated experience called a “Day to Breathe,” followed by a selective application process. Each portfolio addition is vetted with care, values-alignment, and strategic insight.

    Contributors receive regular updates and opportunities to connect.

  • This fund is ideal for:

    • Individuals and couples with donor-advised funds or private foundations

    • Families seeking to engage in intergenerational giving

    • Values-aligned investors looking to support social entrepreneurs

    • People who want their giving to be more connective, measurable, and joyful

    Whether you’ve been giving for years or are just starting to explore, we welcome you intoThe Butterfly Effect community.