Steve Nasiri
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: lnvenSense
FUNDING AREAS: Education, Poverty, Healthcare, Non-Violence & Diplomacy
OVERVIEW: Steve Nasiri and family do their grantmaking through the Nasiri Foundation, which seeks to support innovative nonprofit organizations “that leverage technology to solve social issues.” Grantmaking supports organizations working in the fields of education, poverty alleviation, healthcare, conflict resolution and diplomacy.
BACKGROUND: Steve Nasiri emigrated from Iran in 1972 and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1977. He received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from San Jose State University and an MBA from Santa Clara University. Nasiri held various key positions as a co-founder and or executive of several startups, including SenSym, which was acquired by Honeywell and NovaSensor, which was acquired by General Electric. He went on to found the motion-tracking technology company lnvenSense, which went public in 2011 at a value of some $800 million.
THE NASIRI FOUNDATION: Steve Nasiri established the Nasiri Foundation to support innovative non-profit organizations that use technology to alleviate global social problems in the areas of education, poverty, healthcare, and to promote non-violence and diplomacy. The majority of the foundation’s partners are early-stage organizations that are based in the Bay Area. The foundation functions more as an angel investor than a traditional family foundation. Grantees have included Iranian Scholarship Foundation, the ACLU, Moms Against Poverty and Fast Forward, which “accelerates tech nonprofits by investing money, providing training and mentoring, and increasing the visibility of tech nonprofits to scale them to impact.”
LOOKING FORWARD: The Nasiri Foundation makes about $500,000 a year in grants and will likely continue to support nonprofits that use technology in innovative ways.
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