wildside

Guiding Principles

Guiding Principles

To have the greatest impact, we need to embrace operational excellence. We have to get better, at all aspects of what we do, every single year. Which in turn, is what we expect from the teams we support.

Keep a small footprint.

We expect the teams we support to achieve as much as possible as efficiently as possible. That's crucial to ensure as high a percentage of every dollar invested has the greatest impact.

We operate Wildside in the same way. We don't have ostentatious offices. Or fancy letterhead. Or an expensive teams of helpers that help us each year.

We're scrappy, focused, and ambitious.

Think in decades.

In a world where it often feels hard to think one month out, we want to think in decades. Because we think operating with a focus 10 years out, or better yet 25-50 years out, is the right time scale.

That timeframe enables us to give through grants, as well as loans and investments that don't mature for a decade or more. It helps us approach our work as creatively as possible, giving to a broad range of organizations. Including:

  • Loans for farmers to convert their land from traditional to organic farming.

  • Grants to support nature connection to organizations like NOLS and NatureBridge.

  • Grants to support organic farming through Mad Capital.

  • Grants to support conservation to The Nature Conservancy.

  • Funding to organizations that further long-term thinking like Long Now and cross-discipline scientific exploration through Santa Fe Institute.

Keep it personal.

For us, this isn't a hobby. It’s an obsession.

Every year, every team members donates 40+ hours of their time. We give back by participating in everything from board meetings to trail restoration projects. You can trust that we have skin in the game—literally.

We think this is important because it means that what we do is personal. It’s not just something that we do, it’s something we are. Which we think improves our sense of ground truth, our focus, and our conviction in which teams are having the biggest impact within our focus areas.

All of which, helps us have the greatest positive impact.