A Letter From Our Founders 2023
As we look back on 2023, we reflect somberly on the many challenges our world faces. We believe that climate change will be the greatest test that humanity has ever confronted. At the same time, extreme poverty continues to characterize much of the world, especially in Africa and parts of Asia.
We are deeply proud of the King Philanthropies team and all that we have accomplished together as we fight these twin scourges of climate change and extreme poverty. To date, we have sequestered or avoided nearly 19.4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and we have made a meaningful difference in the lives of 22.5 million people who live in extreme poverty.
We are also thrilled to have welcomed climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe to our Board of Directors this year. You can engage with Katharine’s work here and subscribe to her newsletter here.
We have built an incredible, high-performing team that is laser focused on impact and our mission. This year, we were delighted to welcome to our team Vince Chang, Director of Finance; Midori Takasaki, Principal; Carrie Ward, Executive Assistant and Kate Lombardo, Associate.
Our portfolio organizations continue to inspire and awe us as they build their organizations and achieve tremendous impact. You can read about our grants portfolio here and our impact investing portfolio here.
We enjoyed hosting the freshman King Scholars at Dartmouth at our home in Maine for Thanksgiving.
Planning for the future is critical. As Yogi Bera wisely said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might end up someplace else.” We devoted considerable time in 2023 to strategic planning and we set audacious goals for 2024 and beyond.
As we look to the future, we are filled with gratitude. As Bob likes to say, “Problems are opportunities in overalls!” The whole King Philanthropies team is preparing for a 2024 in which we will view challenges as gifts, spurring us to solve problems creatively and seize new and exciting opportunities in service to our mission.
