Anne Wojcicki
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Google, 23andMe
FUNDING AREAS: Medical Research, Science Research, Open Source Information, Education & Youth, Bay Area Community, TBD
OVERVIEW: Anne Wojcicki and her older sister Susan move philanthropy through the Anne Wojcicki Foundation, which gave away $11.25 million recently. Wojcicki previously co-headed the Brin Wojcicki Foundation with her former husband, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. When Anne and Sergey separated in 2015, they established their own foundations.
BACKGROUND: For more than 10 years, Wojcicki was an investment analyst, overseeing healthcare investments, and in 2006, co-founded 23andMe, a company that provides rapid genetic testing through a saliva-based personal genome test kit sold on the 23andMe website. The kit was Time magazine's 2008 Invention of the Year. Wojcicki has been on Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.
ISSUES:
MEDICAL RESEARCH: Wojcicki strongly supports the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, to which she has been granted at least $160 million through the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, which has also matched millions of dollars in other donations over several years. Wojcicki has also used 23andMe to combat Parkinson's, enrolling 10,000 people in a program that is looking for the genetic markers of the disease. She's also been involved in the funding for Call9, a telemedicine startup.
SCIENCE RESEARCH: In the fall of 2013, Wojcicki, along with Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Art Levinson and Yuri Milner, announced the foundation of the Breakthrough Prize, a $3 million prize awarded to one physics project and six life sciences projects annually, for a total of $21 million a year. For more information, see the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION: Wojcicki, through the Brin Wojcicki Foundation, has famously given smaller, but still substantial donations to the Wikimedia Foundation, and Creative Commons in support of their work.
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Wojcicki donated $1 million to fund a matching grant for Ashoka, which has a variety of programs that support entrepreneurs who are working to improve society.
EDUCATION & YOUTH: Via the Anne Wojcicki Foundation, the family has supported UCSF. Anne and Susan's middle sister, Janet, an anthropologist and epidemiologist, is an associate professor at UCSF.
LOOKING FORWARD: Though Wojcicki has primarily focused her giving toward Parkinson's research, it would not be surprising to see an expansion into other areas of medical research. Wojcicki has a wide variety of interests when it comes to philanthropy. The biggest factors seem to be innovative solutions, and a model that combines creating social benefit with a strong sustainable business model. And the Anne Wojcicki Foundation gave away $11.25 million in a recent year, with almost all of that money going to a donor-advised fund set up at Schwab Charitable Fund. Perhaps giving through this vehicle will be more open in the coming years.
CONTACT:
The Anne Wojcicki Foundation
110 First St.
Los Altos, CA 94022
LINK:
