Big Bets

I founded MertonMerton, Thomas in 2014 to help move large philanthropyPhilanthropy into solutions. The earlier days of my work consisted of building large-scaleScale growthGrowth plans for nonprofitsNonprofits, assuming (incorrectly) that if we built unique large-scaleScale plans, donors would fund the projects. I thought The Giving Pledge Bottleneck was mainly caused because the signers of The Giving Pledge, and others wanting to give away mega-gifts, just weren’t being offered opportunities to solve a whole challenge. While I found that those with the ability to finance the solutions to challenges were very interested in hearing about such an approach, getting them to commit funds was a demanding process requiring longer-term engagement and meaningful relationships.