Welcome And Quick Catch Up

Kelvin Crosby 0:06

Welcome to Investing in Accessibility, a Samaritan Partners podcast. We're not waiting for change. We're investing in it. Join us as we speak with entrepreneurs and thought leaders that are focused on creating a more accessible world. Hey, so good to see you, even though I can't see you. It's another beautiful day in the neighborhood, and I'm so excited that you're here at Investing in Accessibility. I'm your host, Kelvin Crosby, and here's my co-host, Chris Maher. How you doing, man?

Chris Maher 0:44

I'm good, Kelvin. It's good to see you, brother. How you doing?

Kelvin Crosby 0:47

Hey, I can't see you, man. What are you talking about?

Chris Maher 0:50

Yeah, I'm sorry. I usually say good to see you and to be with you. So I apologize. Nice of you to call that out in embarrassment. That's okay. But how are you, buddy?

Kelvin Crosby 1:00

I'm doing good, brother. I'm doing good. And uh just one of the like we're in the time of year where it just seems like everything's going 100 miles an hour, and you better have your schedule figured out and better be extremely organized, or you're gonna get left behind. Don't you agree?

Chris Maher 1:17

Absolutely. And and I was gonna say, and this time of year, springtime, when you get this kind of rejuvenation and all the flowers popping and the leaves coming back, but but you live in San Diego and it's perfect every day.

Kelvin Crosby 1:30

Oh yeah. I mean, I I have worn sandals and shorts and a t-shirt all all winter. Because there was no I mean, we've had maybe less than like a quarter of an inch of rain this whole season. Not not much at all.

Chris Maher 1:45

So I thanks for rubbing it in. Our winter was one of the more brutal winters we've had in a very, very long time here in the Northeast. Just absolutely brutal.

Kelvin Crosby 1:54

Yeah. I I well I pay for it though. I truly do pay for it. But yeah. Anyways, well, I'm really excited about today's guest. Because here's the thing. If I would have known about this guest probably about six years ago, I think my company would be looking at

Meet Matt And His Career Path

Kelvin Crosby 2:10

something a little bit different. So go ahead and introduce this to our guest and let's see where we go.

Chris Maher 2:15

You got it. Well, we've got a real treat today for our listeners. Um, our guest today is a gentleman named Matt Eldridge, who is the executive director of an organization called Realize Impact. Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt Eldridge 2:26

Hey, thanks so much, Chris and Kelvin. Great to connect with you both.

Chris Maher 2:31

Thank you. And Matt and I, full disclosure, we we work together, we do some business together. And Kelvin, you're 100% right. If I had not come across Matt and his organization probably about a year and a half ago now, I would have fewer investors in my fund. We're gonna get into all that. And so before we get into the details of Realize Impact, and at a high level, part of what Realize Impact does is they help to facilitate philanthropic capital into for-profit investments, whether that's directly into say a startup company or into a fund like Samaritan Partners. And we're gonna we're gonna unpack that.

Kelvin Crosby 3:12

Before you go far, let's make it easy for people that are not as smart like me, you know. But like we need we need to keep it simple. That was so complicated.

Chris Maher 3:21

And that's why I'm saying we're we're gonna break that down, and Matt's gonna put it into much simple simpler terms, but hopefully we've whet the appetite of our listeners that they'll want to continue to listen through to the end here. But before that, Matt, you've got a pretty fascinating background, and it really does feel like the different elements of your background over the years really kind of coalesced with what you're doing in leading Realize Impact. But let's start there. Let's just kind of go back to the beginning in terms of your career and that path you took to where now you're executive director of Realize Impact.

Matt Eldridge 3:54

Hey, thanks, Chris. Well, yeah, the the long story short is you know, I feel like my work at Realized Impact is really a dream job. And that's for a couple of reasons. First, I started off in the nonprofit sector back when the earth was new. I worked for an NGO that was based in Washington, D.C. And among other things, was staffing the first voter education campaign, nationwide voter education campaign in South Africa in the run-up to that country's first democratic elections in 1994. Was in the nonprofit sector for a bit and really always aspired to, you know, find work that was meaningful, that could make a difference in the world somehow. Went to business school, got inspired to about startups, and ended up after graduation co-founding a startup that I was with for about 10 years. It was in the government transparency space. And there was a point about the 10-year mark when I decided to pivot back to the nonprofit sector. And so that's where I've been ever since for about the last 16 years or so. And it's being back in impact that I think has really, you know, with with Realize Impact has has felt, like I said, like the best of both worlds. And so it's in in a sense, it's got the pace and the innovation of of startups, and at the same time, the heart and the mission of nonprofits. And that's that's what I love.

Kelvin Crosby 5:24

There is one thing that you missed. You did something earlier in the life that you didn't bring back, bring up. What about your acting?

Matt Eldridge 5:35

Oh, thanks, Kelvin. Yeah, thanks for calling that out. Yeah, I you know, high school, college, I was nearly a double major in in drama, and and and I sort of stopped at that point and decided to, you know, my my folks reminded me that it's it can be a tough, a tough pursuit, right? It's challenging for actors to make a go of it. So I didn't really do any acting for literally about 25 years, with the exception of I at one point in the late 90s, I co-founded an improv group in Seattle. But in about 2012 or so, we had recently relocated back from Amsterdam to the Seattle area, and I was inspired to give it another go. So since then, I've been really getting back into theater. Have done both some community theater and semi-professional theater and a few short films, a feature and some commercials. And it's it's truly been a joy to be able to you know find that kind of expression and and use that other other side of my brain.

Chris Maher 6:46

That's that's awesome. And and you certainly have the silky smooth voice for radio and and voiceover work as well. So I was gonna say that your background, it really does feel like all those different elements that that maybe at one time felt like a meandering path have all really come together

Realize Impact Mission And Programs

Chris Maher 7:05

with Realize Impact. So let's get into Realize Impact. At a high level, what what is Realize Impact and what do you do?

Matt Eldridge 7:14

Thanks. Thanks. So we're a public charity, we're a so-called 501c3 public charity. And our mission is to move capital into enterprises that are having some social or environmental impact in the world and that otherwise lack access to conventional financing. That's our job. That's our mission. And we do that through a few different programs that we'll dig more into at a really high level. One of those is philanthropic investment, where there's some expectation of financial return. Another is so-called fiscal sponsorship, which is a funky turn of phrase, but essentially is a pathway for providing traditional grants to support the charitable activities that entities are carrying out that don't have 501c3 status. So fiscal sponsorship, philanthropic investment, those are our two main programs.

Chris Maher 8:10

Gotcha. And then in terms of how the money flows there, right? Like how like how does that process work? And you can either use someone who is more on the nonprofit side but hasn't set up the the legal entity, or like for me, being a for-profit entity, a fund, or maybe it's a startup like this, like Kelvin's company. Like, how would that process actually work?

Matt Eldridge 8:35

Yeah, you mean on the on the fiscal sponsorship side?

Chris Maher 8:38

Sure, let's start there.

Matt Eldridge 8:39

Okay, great, great. So yeah, so our with our program, really the first step is that an entity that's doing impactful work in the world will submit an application to us and they'll propose here are the charitable activities that we are looking to carry out, that we're carrying out today or we're looking to carry out in the future. And like you said, Chris, that could be either, say, a state-chartered nonprofit that just doesn't have 501c3 status, maybe it's newly formed and they're on the path to that. But in the meantime, they need, you know, a so-called fiscal sponsor to help them be able to, you know, garner traditional grants and donations from foundations or issue tax receipts to donors, that sort of thing. So, first step is applying, outlining exactly what are the activities they propose carrying out, and then we evaluate those with respect to we we have to make sure that they are sufficiently charitable in nature. So that's that's one of the reasons why fiscal sponsorship is kosher in the eyes of the IRS. It needs to really align with the charitability of the activities, and then the the grants that we make ultimately to that entity are restricted for those specific purposes. So we can't just, you know, be a so-called pass-through for money that's gonna be spent on anything that somebody wants,

Turning DAF Grants Into Investments

Matt Eldridge 10:05

it has to be very squarely impactful.

Chris Maher 10:08

Gotcha. And then on the on the other side of what you do, and this is where I think we have a lot of listeners who are startups in the disability sector. And you probably know many of them because I've made a few referrals. But and and my fund, which is a for is a traditional venture capital fund, you've allowed me and my fund to take philanthropic dollars from high net worth individuals, families, foundations. Let's talk about that. Because I think that the bulk of our listeners are probably a lot of for-profit startups that are trying to figure out creative ways to tap into capital, other sources of capital. I think most of their understanding around philanthropic dollars is, oh, well, that would come in the form of a grant. So I've got to go through a grant application process. If you can get those, the nice thing is they can be non-dilutive, but there's a massive amount of philanthropic capital that they haven't thought about tapping into historically, but if they work with you, they can. So let's talk about that path.

Matt Eldridge 11:10

Great. Yeah, that is really where our philanthropic investment program comes into play. And basically what we do there is we provide, we offer what I would say is the easy button for entrepreneurs or fund managers to be able to really unlock that philanthropic capital and tap into it for their capital raises. And so, you know, it it it you're right that ordinarily somebody might think, oh, uh, you know, philanthropic capital, that's only available in the form of grants. And gee, there aren't a lot of grants that foundations or people with

Chris Maher 11:48

or it's money that's earmarked, honestly, just for charities and nonprofits.

Matt Eldridge 11:52

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And if somebody has philanthropic capital in the form of a family foundation or a so-called donor advice fund, that is really hard for them to make a grant to a for-profit startup. So we set about to solve that problem about six years ago. And the way that we are solving it is with our philanthropic investment program. And essentially, we we aim to make that kind of impact investing impact investing as easy as making a grant. And so the way we've structured it is, and with the the the guidance of our well-compensated attorneys, basically, a uh an investor donor will make a grant to Realize Impact as a public charity. They'll recommend the investment that we should make. We then go about diligencing and making the investment after our investment committee approves. And fast forward to when there are returns on that investment, we then make a grant typically back to the family foundation or donor advised fund that it came from in the first place. So it's grant money in, ultimately, it's grant money back, and in the meantime, we're doing the impact investing activity. And the reason that this is that we've structured it this way, and the reason that it is compliant with IRS regulations is because we're not an investment company, we're not a fiduciary. We are taking a grant that's coming with a recommendation, not a legal obligation to invest it where someone's recommending, but and we can't promise to invest it where they recommend. However, we do promise that if we're not going to make the investment, that we will return the grant to them. So there is a there's a safeguard there. As well as, you know, we're not over-promising or legally committing to act on these recommendations, but we but that in a sense is how donor advise funds work on a certain level. So we're making sure that it's a recommendation that's coming with a grant and also a recommendation on how they advise that we handle returns on that investment. And usually they say, please send it back to my family foundation or my DAF.

Chris Maher 14:14

Yeah, gotcha. No, thank you. That that was really well outlined. For our listeners who may not be familiar with a DAF, a donor advice fund. So that is a essentially a tax vehicle. So if I'm a person, typically the the world of high net worth individuals and families utilize DAFs. They may have some sort of transaction or a distribution from an investment. They sell a piece of land, they sell a company, they're getting a windfall, and they know that they're going to give away either some or all of that at some point in the future, but they don't want to get hit with a tax on it now when they get that distribution. So what they can do is divert some or all of that into this vehicle called the donor advice fund and get a tax benefit, a big tax write-off. The caveat is that money that goes into that eventually has to be given away to a nonprofit entity. But while it's sitting in the DAF, they can continue to grow it. And what Realize Impact can do is avail them to put those dollars into a for-profit investment that has social impact to it, retain their tax benefit, but it has to go back in the same, you know, in that same direction at the end. And hopefully, like for my investors that, and by the way, the process is very simple. I've got a number of investors who have invested through their DAFs. They have made the grant to Realize Impact. Realize Impact comes in technically as the legally as the investor, but hopefully when we give them a very nice multiple on their investment, we send it back to Realize Impact, who takes a very small fee, and then it goes back into that investor's DAF, and it just completes the chain and everything is is is legitimate legally and the tax benefits are retained, and it's a win-win-win. Matt, did I describe that well?

Matt Eldridge 16:01

You did. That was perfect.

Chris Maher 16:04

Kelvin, question on that before I jump into a couple more questions.

Kelvin Crosby 16:07

All right. So let's take my company, Smart Guider Inc., right? It's a for profit business, and I needed to raise funds. Well, I found a baseball owner, you know, and say, Hey, would you want to help me with my company? And he said, Well, I really only do grants. I don't do this. I said, Well, I have this opportunity where you can give the grant here and then you can get the investment later. And so we worked with Matt, and Matt is like, Yeah, we can take your money, put it here, and we'll transfer it over when someone sells his Smart Guider Inc., then sends it back to us, and then you have more money in your your DAF or in your grant or in your foundation that you have on that end, and it's just nice and clean. That makes sense.

Matt Eldridge 17:00

It does, yeah. And and and really it's it's the the important thing, and Chris, you touched on this, is that the capital always has to remain philanthropic. So it it can never, you know, especially if it's coming from somebody's family foundation or donor advised fund, it's philanthropic already often, and it can never go back to them personally. And that is part of the key, and that's why this is you know compliant with IRS regulations. So that's that I think is a

Why DAF Capital Is A Big Deal

Matt Eldridge 17:30

really important distinction to make sure folks are aware of.

Chris Maher 17:33

Yeah. And so, Matt, so Matt, question, Realise Impact has been around since 2013 and and the lat, and about six years ago, you created the the philanthropic investment vehicle. Were you the first folks to come up with this idea? Because there's a number of players in the space now, but were you guys kind of the first to come up with the idea? Like, and and then everyone kind of jumped on board because they saw the opportunity to tap. I mean, to to for context, the amount of money sitting in individual and family-owned donor advise funds here in the United States is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Like it is a massive amount of capital that either has largely been untapped and is sitting in these DAFs for years and years and years, or it's just kind of by default been earmarked to go to charities and nonprofits. So it is a massive opportunity for organizations like yours, but also for early stage companies in the disability sector, for example, that we support, it it is it is a bucket of capital that they've never thought about before that could really be incredibly catalytic for them if they can tap into it. But so tell me a little bit more about like, were you the first? How did this all transpire? And I would imagine like this sector of the market has gotta be picking up momentum.

Matt Eldridge 18:53

Yeah, and that's a great point, Chris. You know, there is a mountain of capital in DAFs today, like you said, hundreds of billions. Uh, there's more than 350 billion in DAFs in the US today. So it's it's crazy. And it's been growing. If you look at some of the infographics that are out there, it's astounding. You know, back in the 70s, some of the the the public charities in the US that were receiving the top dollars were places like, you know, the the you know, American Lung Association, you know, some of the big, well-known, you know, Harvard, uh, the that that sort of thing. And you fast forward to about 2010, and suddenly there's these other things called donor-advised fund sponsors that are starting to top the list and and but and and it just accelerates to where now the top dollars going into charities in the United States are flowing into really some of the big national DAF sponsors, Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and so forth. And it's it's pretty astounding. We were not the first to look at moving philanthropic capital into impact, but we, to our knowledge, were the first to roll out a program like ours that really strives to make it as easy as making a grant. So, our particular approach, I think is fairly fairly distinct. There's at least one other organization that I'm familiar with that does work pretty similar to what we do. That said, we're uh unique in that we invest anywhere, anywhere in the world, any sector, any geography, provided that it's sufficiently impactful, aligns with our mission, fits with at least one of the United Nations sustainable development goals. So we weren't the first per se, but I think our model is fairly unique.

Chris Maher 20:46

Yeah. So two quick comments, and I I want to come back to what you just like what qualifies as being investable. And let's talk specifically about startups, but let's just park that for one second. I've actually evaluated when you know, when I met you a year and a half ago and I evaluated some of the other players, which will remain nameless, because what I'm going to share next is not that flattering, right? Some of those organizations just really cater to the really big money and to investments that are more much more mature than super early stage and kind of pushing their customers or their clients on the funder side, I think to more traditional social impact. So climate, sustainability, all important stuff. But like disability and accessibility is not really on their radar in my mind. The second thing about those organizations is they're expensive. Like their fees are high. And some of them are taking fees on both sides of the equation. And so as I did my due diligence and then kept coming back to Matt and Realize Impact, one, their fees are incredibly reasonable. They're not taking bites from both sides, and their team is awesome, right? They've been doing this now for six plus years with the philanthropic investment side of things that for-profit groups leverage. But Matt's team is responsive and helpful and handholding. Like when I find an investor who wants to use DAF dollars, I just put them on the phone with Matt and walks them through the process. And like it is just easy peasy, right? And so for those reasons, I encourage investors or prospective investors that I come across who are interested in investing through their, say, their DAFs. I always recommend Realize Impact for those reasons. Um now, those of you out there, you should do your own due diligence, but I'm happy to be a reference for Matt if you're interested in talking to him. So let's come back to now what qualifies for you folks as something that's investable and let's and let's really focus on the startup side of things versus the fun side of things.

Matt Eldridge 22:46

Yeah. Thanks, Chris. Well, and thanks for those kind words. Appreciate

Prudence And Impact Investment Criteria

Matt Eldridge 22:50

it. So we have two main criteria at Realize Impact. One is prudence, and the other is impact. The prudence standard is really a question of is this an investment that a reasonable person would make, particularly in light of the charitable impact that it seeks to have. So we're evaluating an opportunity, whether it's a startup or a fund, looking at do they do they have their act together? Do they have the kind of materials we would expect? For a fund, that's going to be things like, you know, do they have a so-called data room where they've got all their materials? And most funds like Chris's have got that in spades. They're, they they tend to be really buttoned up. And we can understand what they do. And it's pretty clear. It's it's something that we think a prudent investor would would invest in. The with respect to some early stage startups, we also try to be flexible and we try to meet ventures where they are. We have invested in a chicken farm in Zambia. We've invested in other companies that are early stage and that are highly, highly risky. And so that's where when it comes to the prudence standard, we aspire to really understand a company where it's at. For the chicken farm in Zambia, we were not expecting necessarily, you know, a complex, you know, pro forma model of financial projections. No, we we were, but they did have they did have a pitch deck, they did have an executive summary, they were able to walk us through what they what they do and how they were looking to grow over time. And so it's it's really trying to adapt our diligence for the the stage that a company is at, the environment that they're in, the the the market that they're that they're serving, and also, you know, is this in the US? Is this in another, you know, sort of uh uh you know, Western economy, or is it in Japan, or is it someplace like that, or is it in more of an emerging market and we need to apply some greater flexibility?

Chris Maher 25:03

I love that because it's one, you're global, two like you're you're you're bringing the capital to uh uh areas of the market and stages of the market that really need it. They need that these early stage companies and and uh when you're investing, venture investing is inherently has higher, higher and greater risk to it, right? Like everyone knows that going into it. But there are still some institutional investors who like, oh, we're we're series A, we're series B, we're pre-IPO. It's like, okay, well, if companies get to that stage, they're getting capital in a lot of places, right? They really need it here at these earliest stages to to accelerate their business plan, their innovation. And the fact that you're unlocking this giant bucket of capital for companies at that stage is awesome. And selfishly for me, and wanting you to come on on the podcast, is the community that I'm investing in, the disability sector, accessibility, disability inclusion, they need access to more private capital. And this, I believe, is a fantastic bucket of capital that like I want to help them unlock to help drive their early stage innovation because we need more private capital coming to this sector. So like I just think your philosophy and approach as Realize Impact, which to be honest, I think is different than some of the other players in your space that act more as like institutional, I think is a bit is a big differentiator. Is there anything else that you would say before we get into kind of like trends and where you see all of this going as we go forward from here in terms of like unlocking philanthropic capital? What else would you say about Realize Impact that just you think is unique to you or differentiates you or that you would want to say to you know, a startup that I'm gonna refer to you shortly after this episode goes live?

Matt Eldridge 26:48

Well, Chris, and I appreciate you describing what the experience was like for you as a fund manager as you've referred donor investors to us and so forth. And really, I would say foremost, we aspire to just make it easy. We feel there's a lot of complexity in the market. There are a lot of other paths, like you described, that are out there for folks who want to use a DAF to make an impact investment. And there are many of them that have a higher bar, like you said, that are operating a bit more like institutions, and they have a lot of reasons for that. You know, I think they take very seriously what they feel is their fiduciary responsibility to their fund holders, and they have a lot of other concerns. They have a lot of assets under management, they have a lot of potential legal liability if they were to be seen as recommending an investment that goes sideways. And we are also trying to balance those risks with what we have as a value of audacity. Uh, we went through a values exercise about a year and a half ago, and that was one of our one of our top values, you know, which is, I think, in line with our mission as well. But in in addition to trying to just make it easy to fuel impact investments, we're, you know, we're also, we also believe that of all the capital in the world that should be taking reasonable risks in pursuit of impact, it's philanthropic capital. This is money that someone has, in most cases, already donated to charity. It's sitting in a DAF or a family foundation. And it's probably it's probably parked in Wall Street. It's probably not necessarily parked somewhere where it's, you know, in renewables or in in something else. It's certainly not parked in a privately held uh fund that's focused on the disability sector. So that's where we feel it's important to help folks who have philanthropic capital be able to easily use it to deploy into impactful investments in the world.

Chris Maher 28:56

Amen, my friend. I think you're spot on there, 100%, as it relates to the the There's a lot of philanthropic capital sitting in Wall Street for sure.

Growth Trends And Startup Fundraising Tips

Chris Maher 29:05

Okay. So I had mentioned about like trends, like what like what's on the horizon? Like, what are you excited about in terms of just the overall space that you folks are in, or specifically for Realize Impact? And any advice that you would have, and let's keep it specific to just social impact for-profit startups, any advice you would have for them as they're trying to navigate this world that we're talking about?

Matt Eldridge 29:29

Well, there's a lot to be excited about. One is that interest in impact investing, and really what does that mean? I think it means aligning one's assets with one's values and trying to ensure that you know your assets are helping make the change you want to see in the world. And the interest in impact investing has been growing exponentially for gosh, easily the last 15 years. And from what we can tell, that pace continues and that curve is just exhilarating to see. Certainly, we see that, I think, both in our work as well as some of the data that's available in the market. But, you know, to give you an idea, you know, we started a philanthropic investment program back in 2020, and the the curve of interest has been staggering. The first year, I think we moved about $2 million. The next year it was eight. We've now moved just under 100 million, and nearly 30 million of that was last year alone. So it's it's it's very, very exciting to see the increased level of interest. So I think just as more folks are becoming aware that that they can use philanthropic capital to help fuel impact investments, and then you know, if things go well, be able to harvest returns back to a DAF or a family foundation. I think as awareness is growing, it's it's just you know, it's continuing that kind of growth.

Chris Maher 30:58

That's awesome. That's amazing that you moved 30 million alone last year. That's remarkable. And then any any advice for startups that are trying to tap into this big bucket of capital?

Matt Eldridge 31:10

Yeah, yeah. We often get the question how do I find these people with DAFs? You know, as if DAFs are kind of a big mysterious thing and that that that's out there. And and indeed, it does kind of feel mysterious. And a lot of people haven't even heard of DAFs before. And it's not like there's some secret list, or there there might be, but it's a secret, and you're not gonna get it. And I don't know really who has it other than DAF sponsors, and they're not gonna give that away. Instead, we encourage startups and fund managers to think of philanthropic capital as just another bucket that an investor would have. And so when it comes to finding people who have DAFs, our advice is our question is well, if you're pitching to accredited investors, high net worth individuals, chances are they've got a DAF or a family foundation, or a DAF that's private labeled as a family foundation. So they are the people who you should be talking to, and don't think of them any differently with regard to their philanthropic capital than you do them as an investor. And the number one piece of advice that we hear back from fund managers and entrepreneurs who've used our program is add to the end of your pitch, literally the end of your pitch, two investors. By the way, you can also invest using your DAF. Pause for effect, and inevitably someone's hand will go up and they'll say, Well, I didn't know I could do that. How does how does that work? And they can point it to us, we'll help get it done. But that that by adding that line, by the way, you can also invest using your DAF to the end of your pitch, surfaces for the investor what's probably a brand new concept that they were not familiar with. And it creates two possibilities. One is they might decide to invest out of their investment bucket and invest directly and invest using their DAF through our program. Or if for whatever reason the timing isn't right or they're fully allocated elsewhere, but they love the opportunity, then this money that's in their DAF is if funds that they've already donated to charity. It's sitting there. Like I said, it's probably parked in Wall Street, and it's very, very well suited to you know, possibly taking a risk that they might not have taken otherwise, or being patient for some impact ventures that might have a long path ahead of them, uncertain future, but they're doing great work. So it it really can be a good fit for that patience and flexibility.

Chris Maher 33:58

Yeah, and I can attest that the strategy that Matt just recommended, it does work. And you're providing optionality,

How To Connect And Wrap Up

Chris Maher 34:05

right, for the for those investors, which which is is always good.

Kelvin Crosby 34:08

So, Matt, can you kind of tell us a little bit more how we can find out more about you and get in contact with you and also impact investing?

Matt Eldridge 34:16

Absolutely. Glad you asked, Kelvin. A couple ways. One is I can go to our website, which is realizeimpact.org, and there's a lot of information there about our main programs. There's a contact us form. They're also well welcome to contact me directly. And if you'd like to share Chris and Kelvin with this podcast, my email address or our general email address, we're happy to respond. It's funny, we we sometimes get asked, like, how do you find your donors? And our answer is, well, we don't really. We actually we don't pitch to donor investors. We try to find folks like you, Chris, or you, Kelvin, because you're already running a fund or an impact company, and chances are you're raising money and you're pitching to investors already. So, really, what we try to do is find folks like you and help make you aware that we can how we can help. So that's that's that that's how I hope we can be helpful to other fund managers and entrepreneurs.

Chris Maher 35:23

Awesome. And and we will put all of that, all those links into the show notes. And Matt, I just want to say thank you for coming on the show with us. You know, you are helping us do what the title of our podcast is. You're helping us to invest in accessibility and to make the world more inclusive and accessible to more people. So it's been awesome partnering with you, and hopefully we're gonna do a lot more work together in the future. But thanks for joining us today.

Matt Eldridge 35:46

Much appreciated. My pleasure.

Kelvin Crosby 35:48

Well, that wraps up Investing in Accessibility, as I always say, go live beyond your challenges, and we'll see you in two weeks. Thank you for listening to Investing in Accessibility, a Samaritan Partners podcast, where we invest in change for accessibility, not wait for change. If you want to follow us, you can find us on YouTube or LinkedIn at @Samaritan Partners. If you would like to invest in Samaritan Partners, email Chris at chris@SamaritanPartners.com. If you'd like to learn more about us, go to www.samaritanpartners.com. You can take the first step in investing in change by giving us five stars and sharing this podcast with everybody that you know so we can spread the word so that we can give access to all by Investing in Accessibility.