This time of year, the days are longer and families often spend more time together traveling and soaking in some summer fun. It’s also the perfect opportunity to reconnect with your family about the things that matter to you most, and this edition of our Foundation Friday Series may just be the inspiration you’ve been looking for. We recently connected with our client Amy Dornbusch, Director of the Marks Family Foundation and Founder of AtlasDaughters, to discuss the significance of intergenerational philanthropy and the need for educational resources for children involved in charitable giving.
Can you tell us about the Marks Family Foundation?
The Marks Family Foundation was started by my parents, Michael and Carole Marks. We are a family of entrepreneurs passionate about innovation across technology, music, hospitality, food and wine, motorsports, and venture capital. We get inspired by passionate thinkers who have a unique perspective on how they can utilize their talents to catalyze change for a better world. We believe in the power of new ideas and we encourage risk taking and innovation. As early-stage investors, we empower our grantees with the tools and resources they need for success, providing pathways to diversified funding. We are committed to trust-based philanthropy and offer unrestricted funding, believing our grantees know best where to allocate resources for maximum impact.
Can you tell us about AtlasDaughters?
AtlasDaughters cultivates transformative journeys for mothers and their children to fuel philanthropy in innovative nonprofit work— inspiring giving and empowering the next generation of change agents. It is a social venture, which was born out of all my philanthropic work. We’re on a fearless mission to move significant capital into the hands of women who are leading innovative solutions for human and planetary health. We are dedicated to delivering impeccable trip curation, multi-generational learning, and high-end touches, while our nonprofit partners offer us unprecedented access to opportunities that will transform their regions once capital is unlocked.
How does the Marks Family Foundation support AtlasDaughters?
The foundation, which is managed by Foundation Source, gives grants to all of the AtlasDaughters non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, investing in these important projects while also educating the next generation about global impact. We use the Marks family Foundation to deliver grants to each of our NGO partners that AtlasDaughters works with because I feel strongly that giving is led by women. I’m the first to check in, and then I bring my daughter in and ask other families to join me. So, we invest in all those nonprofits as well, which are related to the foundation.
What inspired you to start AtlasDaughters?
It was inspired by a field journey I took to Zimbabwe with my daughter, Ruby, and my mother in the spring of 2023. I wanted to bring my daughter into my world of philanthropy, and I experienced her blossom into a global traveler who contemplates global challenges and her ability to contribute to meaningful change. Spending a day with her peer kindergarten class at a school in the middle of Harare was a transformational experience for her. She learned how solar electricity works, witnessed a birth in a rural health clinic, and even helped with a solar panel installation. When we returned, I sat in the back of a crowded room as I watched her give a 45-minute presentation to her school all by herself on her experience in Zimbabwe. She was 6 years old at the time. We revel almost weekly on the beautiful memories we created together and today, a philanthropist is emerging. She understands intrinsically the work that her mother does in philanthropy and she wants to be involved.
How does AtlasDaughters approach intergenerational philanthropy and why do you think it’s so important?
I’m so passionate about intergenerational philanthropy and how we can show up, create, and give back together as families. AtlasDaughters is dedicated to teaching the next generation of philanthropists and ensuring everyone has a spectacular experience along the way. We believe in you, your children, and our collective power to drive significant impact with the next generation of change agents and for families and communities around the world. I personally have so many peers of young moms with school-age children that are already exercising philanthropy in various ways and it’s no longer something people think about as a “legacy” and when they get older in life. I see so many people with school-age children and there’s just so many ways that they can create impact and do meaningful things together.
What gaps have you seen when it comes to fostering intergenerational philanthropy and how are you approaching this?
My role in the family foundation is self-taught. As I was educating myself and taking next-generation courses, I noticed that the educational resources available are really geared towards adults of wealthy families and not towards kids. So, I just knew I had to create something that would give kids a seat at the table. For instance, we have a whole curriculum on global impact, and I host workshops for families. I redeveloped all of this global impact and philanthropy work in a way that’s simplified and palatable for kids to understand because it didn’t exist.
What cause(s) are you passionate about?
The Marks Family Foundation was started by my parents and as the next generation, I run the foundation. Since we don’t have any staff, I have a lot of agency within my family to direct some of the issue areas and where we give. We also still offer some of the original interests of my parents, but for me personally, I feel strongly about investing through a gender lens with women and girls. Not as a giving area, but as a giving lens. We fund various causes around education, music in the arts, healthcare, and disease research. But whatever vertical it is, I’m always looking at that from a female lens and asking, well, how are women and girls inadvertently affected by these causes that we care about as a family, and are there specific areas that we can dive into and fund that will help close the gap?
In terms of your current projects and initiatives, do you have anything that you’re particularly excited about?
I’m looking forward to our inaugural AtlasDaughters trip to Samoa. We are collaborating with Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, on the Greater Good Diaper Project. The Marks Family Foundation founded the pilot for this project that focuses on eradicating plastic diapers, which account for nearly one third of plastic waste in the region by implementing a compostable diaper solution. This initiative not only addresses waste management but also creates employment opportunities for women in Samoa.
Can you tell us about a time when you were able to see the impact of your giving?
One that comes to mind is related to AtlasDaughters and my experience of getting involved with the family foundation and learning about philanthropy. My mom, my daughter, and I went to Zimbabwe to see the project work that we were doing with an organization based out of California called We Care Solar, which delivers life-saving electricity to rural birthing clinics across Africa. In some of these geographies, women would have to go with candles or kerosene to light their birth because there is no electricity. Imagine being in labor and walking three hours to the nearest birthing center, and then getting turned away because you don’t have a safe way to deliver your baby by providing your own light. Our family invested in bringing solar electricity to all of Zimbabwe. And we went there on a trip with my mom and daughter, there were three generations who were learning and seeing the impact of literally bringing light to every birthing center. We visited the communities that were celebrating light for the first time, and seeing the impact of what our foundation had done was a monumental moment for me and the inspiration for starting AtlasDaughters.
Do you have any advice for people who might be thinking about starting their own private foundation or maybe a social venture like you have?
Start. Just start. Some philanthropists are holding back their charitable intentions due to fear of making mistakes, but the moment to help is now. While we may be facing uncertain times, there is a lot of paralysis around spending and not getting it right, and the only way to figure out your philanthropic path is to find the causes that you like and the things that you care about and just start doing it. Start learning as much as you possibly can. You’ll make mistakes and that’s okay because you learn from them. Also, if you’re young and still working, there’s no reason to hold your money captive because they’ll be more down the line—you’ll continue to generate income and there’s never a better time than yesterday or now. Problems are not going to get easier to solve in the future. There’s just going to be new ones.
What has your experience been like working with Foundation Source?
Foundation Source has been immensely helpful to me because I’m a one-woman show managing the foundation. Just the administrative aspect of dealing with all the grants can be burdensome. I also run AtlasDaughters, have a venture fund, and three kids, so I’m just busy. Prior to Foundation Source, it had been difficult for me to figure out what I can and can’t do with the foundation, but now I feel supported with the team of resources. I feel like if there is a will, there is a way, and I feel supported!
We’d like to thank Amy for sharing her story with us! If you would like to learn more, visit the Marks Family Foundation at marksfamilyfdn.org and AtlasDaughters at atlasdaughters.com
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