Bia-Echo Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Bia-Echo Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Nicole Shanahan, and via which she intends to give $100 million to philanthropy by 2024. The foundation focuses on women’s reproductive longevity and equality, criminal justice reform and the environment.
IP TAKE: This funder has a streamlined website that provides a lot of information without being very informative. It currently only supports a very small number of organizations within its few focus areas, and does not make it easy for new grantseekers to get in touch with requests for funding. However, this is a relatively new funder, and it is likely that grantmaking will pick up as Shanahan works to fulfill her funding promise over the next few years.
This is not an accessible funder, so getting on it’s radar will first require that you’re organization is established and doing innovative work in order to attract it’s funding attention. Reach out to it’s staff about learning more about how it chooses what to fund.
PROFILE: Established in 2019, The Bia-Echo Foundation was created by Nicole Shanahan, a California based attorney specializing in patent law and the legal issues surrounding artificial intelligence. The foundation seeks “to accelerate social change in order to establish a fair and equitable society for future generations to thrive.” Shanahan founded ClearAccessIP, a purpose-built solution for reducing the transaction costs associated with building, managing and distributing patents and patent rights. She is also a former fellow of CodeX, the Stanford Center of Legal Informatics, “where she launched the Smart Prosecution project, a multi-disciplinary effort applying data science to the prosecutorial process, involving partnerships with district attorneys and community organizations.” She is the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The foundation focuses on women’s reproductive longevity and equality, criminal justice reform, and the environment. It backs both organizations and individuals, and funding can take the form of either philanthropy or impact investing.
Grants for Science Research, Women and Girls
The Bia-Echo Foundation supports reproductive health and women’s reproductive longevity, a cause in which Shanahan has personal experience. It works to make “bold investments in medical advancements” to “extend women’s reproductive longevity, giving women greater freedom and choice in their reproductive health. An early grantee of Bia-Echo is the Buck Institute’s Center for Reproductive Longevity and Equality.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
Bia-Echo is also “committed to initiatives in support of an equal and fair justice system that is accessible to all, regardless of gender, race or socio-economic status.” The foundation has supported the Stanford Computational Policy Lab to drive social impact on criminal justice reform via data analysis and technical innovation. It has also given $5 million to Silicon Valley Community Foundation and $500,000 each to Edward Charles Foundation and Good Films Impact to support criminal justice reform and human rights initiatives.
Grants for Environment, Climate Change and Clean Energy
Bia-Echo’s environmental funding broadly focuses on climate change and averting climate disaster, as well as conservation efforts that support it’s climate change goals. The foundation has supported the San Francisco-based Planet Labs, a for-profit company that creates information images related to disaster and climate response, crop yield predictions and urban planning.
Important Grant Details:
Bia-Echo supports “individuals and organizations pioneering the most promising ideas and solutions” via philanthropy and impact investing. Much of its grantmaking funds capacity building in its partner organizations. The foundation is also willing to gamble on “high risk […] projects and organizations” that are working to make “an immense impact on the world.”
Currently, the Bia-Echo Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding, and it does not provide grantseekers with a clear way to get in touch.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
CONTACT:
1 Montgomery St, 3150
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 341-9300
