With this blog post update, here’s a one-page PDF you can share.
Two years ago, Felix Kramer started talking about inspiring many of the 50,000 people in the SF Bay Area with assets over $10 million to respond to our climate emergency at the scope, scale, and speed it demands. That became We Can’t Wait (WeCW), with a model to invest AND donate more — AND now.
To spread this message, we’re assembling short videos from climate leaders who say “We Can’t Wait”. Jane Fonda just kicked this off.
Seeing synergy, we chose the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) as our non-profit fiscal sponsor. Incoming Executive Director Stuart Cowan has confirmed that alignment as he developed a Critical Path Commons, WeCW joined the BFI Design Lab, and together we initiated the Climate Invention Incentives Pool.
Now we’re collaborating closely on an audacious effort to hack philanthropy with BFI, and with Carl Page and his colleagues at the Anthropocene Institute and Next Generation Renewable Energy.
The pieces are coming together — and we’re aiming high! We’ll engage Marc & Lynne Benioff, John & Ann Doerr, Eric & Wendy Schmidt, and Tom Steyer & Kat Taylor — and their children — as high-profile, ultra-wealthy, “climate-concerned families” identified with Silicon Valley Innovation. Their actions echo our model!
We’ve just been joined in this effort by Henk Rogers, whose story of fierce determination is currently screening in Tetris. Working with Blue Planet Alliance, Blue Planet Foundation, and Blue Planet Energy, he supports the WeCW–BFI collaboration.
Our pitch to the four families for a win for corporate climate engagement includes investing in and advising Indigo Technologies with transformative SmartWheels as an opportunity to motivate two top international companies to become pioneers in climate tech, climate justice, and climate financing.
Also, watch our 50-minute February convening. We and those we work with have channeled almost $1M in donations to organizations addressing the global polycrisis that starts with climate change, biodiversity, inequality, and democracy.
Felix has also spread the word about and invested in cutting-edge climate startups with entities including AirMiners, Indigo Technologies, Nucleation Capital, RODA Group, and Starshot Capital.
We look forward to talking with you ASAP about how you and your network may assist as we reach out to the four families, as well as invite people at other levels of wealth to invest AND donate more — AND now!
Our colleagues are in conversations about channeling resources to the WeCW-BFI collaboration. Soon we hope to search for an Executive Director. You can donate through BFI, earmarked for WeCW.
Where are they now?
Here’s the latest from the We Can’t Wait Team:
Felix Kramer continues as Founder of WeCW. In his spare time, he’s catalyzed another outcome of his CalCars.org decade with: Arriving: Plug-in Electric Vehicles Archive at UC Davis. And his wife Rochelle Lefkowitz just organized a pilot climate-focused intergenerational book club between Ashby Village Elder Action and Women’s Environmental Network.
Kimberley D.C. Schroder continues as Co-Initiator at WeCW. She will soon start year two of the MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts. In August, she’ll marry Ben Rosenthal.
Mike Mielke continues to advise us and network on behalf of WeCW. He has become Chief Operating Officer at NosTerra Ventures.
Daisy Pistey-Lyhne continues to advise us and network on behalf of WeCW. She is working with New Energy Nexus toward “Lithium Valley” in Southern California.