How to Find and Fund the Most Impactful Giving Opportunities

Hello, future billionaires. Welcome back to another episode of the Invest Like a Billionaire podcast. Today's guest is Lane Kipp of All Access, and I'm really excited about today's conversation because this is going to be a little bit different than maybe some of the normal content you'd expect from us and from the show Invest Like a Billionaire. Today, we want to talk about how to give like a billionaire. And this is gonna be really fun. This is a topic that I really care about, and I know a lot of our audience have questions about. And it's all over the map on what you want to do with your wealth, but at a certain point, you've accumulated enough, or you've kind of hit that number, hit that goal, and the next big question is, well, what do I do with it from here, right? And I would say most people that build wealth, want to use it for good. And that's what we're talking about today, because some of the challenges then become, well, what organizations do I put it with? How do I know that my money that I'm donating is going to the things I want to support and going to be used wisely and well? And that's a lot of why we brought Lane on today. So Lane, thanks so much for joining the show, and really excited to dive in.

Yeah, thanks for having me, Ben. Love the podcast, and yeah, excited to help more people give well.

Love it. Well, give us a little background. So what is All Access? How long has it been around? What's the real goal it was trying to solve?

Yeah, so All Access is a very young organization, but essentially it's a fund that uses analytics to help families, businesses, foundations make the most impact they can from right where they are. So we use analytics to go and find and fund the most impactful giving opportunities in the most unreached and impoverished places. And it's a little bit of a result of my own story going from my backgrounds in engineering. I was a naval architect in Florida for years, so I was on the wealth-building, wanting-to-give-well side, and then God called my wife and I to Haiti, and we were just there long enough to know we didn't know what we were doing on the nonprofit side. We were not very effective, very naive. Unfortunately, we had to evacuate and saw the not-so-pretty side of the nonprofit sector and went to grad school here in international missions to figure out if there was a better way, and there is. And so All Access, at the end of the day, is just a tool to help people give well.

Got it. So talk a little bit about the journey from— as you're trying to find the better way, what were you seeing that were concerning to you or just had question marks that you felt like you wanted to build a different process and system?

So in grad school, you know, I just evacuated from Haiti. That was a mess. Seeing behind the curtain on the nonprofit sector, and I'm sitting there with all of these resources in grad school to learn more, and I really was just coping with my own failure on, "Well, that didn't work." And so I started wrestling with, "Well, what would it take to tackle some of these big problems around the world?" The unreached people who don't have access to the Gospel, extreme physical poverty. Is it possible to get to the day when all people have access just from extreme poverty to out of extreme poverty? Is it possible and what would it take? And so I started researching that, the data on what is extreme poverty, what would it take to get there? And then started looking at the philanthropy sector, nonprofit sector, figure out what are we already giving to charity? And that was a lightbulb moment, was according to the research And what the experts are saying is that Americans alone are already giving every year more than double what the global economists predict it would take to actually end extreme poverty, which—

Wow.

—is a wild stat in and of itself. Some of that data is a little outdated, just from like 2009, but that was the lightbulb moment going, okay, if the resources are there, it's not a matter of just telling people, hey, we should give more, you should give more, but using our giving better and giving well and started looking for tools. Okay, we have all these tools that help us invest well, right? Find the best investment opportunities, monitor it for us, report back to investors. Is there something like that for the giving sector? It's kind of like Moneyball. I don't know if you've seen that movie or read the book Moneyball. Oh sure, yeah. But yeah, that's essentially what we built is just using investment-grade analytics, looking at the nonprofit sector not as the end but as a means to the end on behalf of, let's say, that little girl in South Sudan who has a 1 in 10 chance of making it past her 5th birthday, who can best help her in the most cost-effective and sustainable way, and using data to help us determine that. And so that's a story of how we got to this model, is just seeing the need. And yeah, there's also qualitative parts of it— the transparency, as you talked about, you know, the question about overhead, what percent goes to overhead. And so we set up All Access the way we did to try to answer those by showing every single expense we make. So when we take a member of our fund out to coffee, you can see that as a line item on our financial statements. Our fund is 100% efficient, so 100% of what people give to the fund goes directly to the programs, and we have a totally separate account that covers operations. So we're trying to not only be a tool, but also shine a light on what the nonprofit sector can look like in a more transparent and efficient way.

Very cool. Well, that's a pretty crazy stat that you mentioned a minute ago, that the resources are there and the amount of giving that's done, I think you said annually, right, in the US is more than enough to cover extreme poverty and get people out of that. And it's just making it into the right places. Talk about maybe some of the things that you saw as you were in Haiti and as you started to dive into this, of maybe inefficiencies or things that just don't allow the resources to get to-the-end need, and how are you solving that with data and analytics?

Yeah, it's really a systemic problem beyond Haiti. It really starts with our own perspective on giving. Right now, it's kind of the usual perspective. As we talk with a lot of people, they're giving for a couple of reasons. One is to feel less guilty about their own lifestyles is one of them. Part of it, as believers, is this myth about the 10%, the tithe, of, "Hey, you have to tithe 10% to your local church," which just frankly isn't true. It's not in the New Testament. There are Obviously, we want generosity. Generosity is great. But what I encourage people to have is what I call a redeemed perspective on giving, where giving is simply an asset to help you accomplish the impact you want to make in the world. So whether it's homelessness in Dallas or extreme poverty globally, what are you here to do? And there are better causes than others. Some have more needs than others, and we can talk about that. But We need to see the nonprofit sector as a means to an end. It's a vendor. Just like businesses, investments are a means to an end. They're vendors in a way. So is the nonprofit sector. Now there's a need for analytics and tools to help people do that well, but just having that shift in framework is really helpful because when you start looking at what is in the best interest of that little boy or girl in Haiti who has no access to safe drinking water, quality education they can afford, adequate nutrition, things like that. Just adequate housing and assets like a bicycle. When we start thinking about what's in their best interest, regardless of the organization's shirt or their marketing or relationships you may have, that's when we can really start making an incredible impact and moving the needle, and that's not the perspective I had when I moved to Haiti. It was, "Be a missionary." It's kind of like an entrepreneur. It's like if the box is just to check, "Hey, I want to be an entrepreneur," as opposed to, "Hey, I found a solution to a problem or a need," or market that's there, then I would imagine the other entrepreneur will be more successful when there's— he found a solution to a problem.

Yeah, I love that. So what are you guys doing that's maybe different than— in some sense, you're this middleman that is evaluating the charities or the nonprofits. Do you have a certain diligence program that you're running through or checklist that you look at? And what's kind of the process with your fund?

Yeah, it's a process. It's a really detailed process, but we're open source, so our entire process—every move we make, when we make it, where we're at in our annual evaluation process—is on a PDF that's linked on our homepage of our website, and so anybody can go and actually run it themselves if they have enough time and expertise to do, but essentially you start with the data on extreme spiritual and physical poverty. So we're believers, so we want all people to have access to the Gospel, but we also want all people have freedom from extreme poverty. And I'm talking extreme poverty. So we start with the data to locate the most unreached and impoverished places. And we have baseline data on— we know what percent of every population in every subnational region in every country, developing country, what percent of people lack access to water, education, nutrition, assets, housing, things like that. And so Our goal is to get those numbers down to zero. That would be ending extreme spiritual and physical poverty. So we start with the data to locate the places of most need. Then we talk with the experts—what works, what doesn't, what's most effective, what's not, what's most sustainable—to determine the most cost-effective and sustainable methods, and then we go and find the organizations that claim to work in those places, in those cause areas, and see if they align with what the experts recommend, and that's just where our valuation process starts. From there, we have about 5 analytical calculation numbers that we look at, quantitative and qualitative. How many people they pull out of extreme poverty, so going from deprived in this indicator to not deprived. What does it cost to do that? So cost efficiency. We look at the deprivation level of the location. We combine all those into kind of our quotient impact number. This is the moneyball number. To see with all of these in mind—effect, efficiency, and location—which is the most cost-effective program in the most unreached and impoverished place. And then we have a qualitative, a 20-point qualitative index. We call it the Confidence Index that basically looks at qualitative factors about this organization, about their program, how they collect data, is it reliable, their financials, any malfeasance, basically to determine How much confidence do we have in this organization's ability to make this impact? And so we look at all those analytics to inform our decisions on what programs should we add in our portfolio, and when we add 'em to our portfolio, then we just invite people to join us in giving to 'em through our fund, which makes grants every 90 days directly to that program. So we sign, actually sign an MOU. It's kind of like a general contractor with a job. Hey, here's a job. And we'll pay you if it's happening. And so that's the way it works. It's obviously a lot more detailed than that, but that's the 2-minute version.

No, that's so cool. I love that. And I mean, it's kind of a weird thing, honestly, to think about, you know, what's my ROI on the giving that I'm doing? But as business owners, as entrepreneurs, like, we're hardwired to think that way, right? We want to maximize, in this case, the impact of the dollars that we've worked hard to build and accumulate. And so I love that you're bringing data into this, and not all nonprofits are created equal, right? And I think that's potentially a big misnomer for a lot of people is the assumption that, oh, this nonprofit I met through my cousin or whatever, and seems like they're doing good work, but there's a lot of other things to consider. And so what are the things that you see that If a nonprofit's doing X, Y, and Z, or even a combination of multiple things, they probably wouldn't make the cut, right? Just give us some inside baseball here using your Moneyball analogy of what are the things that you look at that maybe someone that's not as involved as you are wouldn't even know to look at or pay attention to or see as a yellow flag?

Yeah, I'll speak on the quantitative and qualitative side because the quantitative is a little more at a professional level. It just takes time to do that, and that's what we haven't found. Any other philanthropic advisor out there that does these calculations the way we do them. And that's really the differentiator. And that's what's really exciting, Ben, is that scale. If a lot more people start giving this way, we seriously can start solving some really big problems in the world. I went to Texas A&M, and so when they let go of Jimbo Fisher a couple years ago as a football coach, it was like a $60 to $70 million buyout. I just did some quick math, and that buyout would end the water crisis in the Central African Republic for a whole country through this model. Now, if we were just going to take that $60 and $70 million and kind of give it to nonprofit, it can go to waste pretty quickly. But when it's hyperfocused through this model, focused on what's in the best interest of those in need, and using math and science really to determine that, we can really move the needle. So the quantitative side is a little more professional. That's where It's kind of like investment advisors or groups like that, funds, kind of come in to do that back research and make it worthwhile for the investor on an ROI standpoint. On the qualitative side, I will say there are some things that as an average donor who maybe isn't part of our fund or isn't using a philanthropic advisor, there are some things you can look for, and one are some of those impact numbers. So if you're focused on water access, you know, all the data I'm referring to as far as the data on extreme poverty, I mean, anybody can have access to. So this data is public, but I typically recommend people to start with a cause area. You know, take water or church planting. You know, what's crazy is about half the world lives in extreme spiritual or physical poverty. It's mostly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, but what you can do is start with a cause area and then start looking at What are the impact numbers for that organization? Look at their annual reports. What we do is verify, you know, cross-verify all this information. Again, something anybody could do. It just takes a lot of time and expertise, research. What are their experts saying on the most impactful methods?

Yeah, just give some examples on the quantitative and qualitative. So what makes up the impact score on the qualitative side? Like what are the specific things that you're looking at? And is it as simple as you're talking with experts on a need to solve extreme poverty, but they're doing maybe a different application or a different method than what they're saying, that would probably be a mark, right? Where it's like, well, they're doing something that's good, but it's not the best application that this recommended. What other things make up kind of the impact score that you're talking about?

So that would fall on the qualitative of we have a specific line in our 20-point— it's really 20 questions that we ask. Each of those questions have a 0 to 3 ranking, and from 0 to 3, we have kind of an objectively defined statement. So 3 on, let's say, longevity of the program. We project based off past performance of the organization that the outputs and outcomes from that project will last at least 10 years. That would be a 3. Whereas if it's under 2.5 years, that would be a 0. And a 0 on any of those 20 questions is automatic, doesn't make the cut to be in our portfolio. So we have one of those line items for experts. Does it align with what the experts recommend on a 0 to 3 scale? And if it's a 0, it doesn't make the cut as far as even being considered for the portfolio. So for example, you know, we do a lot of water access projects. It's a really high impact, but there are more sustainable solutions than others. I mean, I think 60% of hand pumps drilled in Africa aren't functioning today. Oh, wow. And we see that all the time as we're driving around Africa, is just broken hand pumps that aren't being used, and some donor gave a lot of money to make that happen, and now it's not functional. And so that's just one example of what an expert would recommend. You asked about the quantitative side and what goes into that calculation. So there's really 4 numbers. So the first one is what we call program effect. So we take the number of people that will go from deprived to not deprived because of this program, and we multiply it times a weight. It's a weighted score on the poverty index. And then we look at what does it cost to achieve that? Where is it being done? That has a score as well. And then we add all those up, multiply them together to get one number that accounts for all three of those factors. And that's our impact moneyball score, if you will.

Yeah, no, I love that. I mean, it's a way to kind of look at a lot of different factors and things that I would have no idea how to go research or figure out, right, if I'm trying to evaluate a particular nonprofit. So cool. So how does All Access get paid? How do you get paid? As you said, all the donations that go to the fund 100% go to these causes. Do you have a separate kind of fund that people donate to and pays for the overhead, or how do you survive?

Yeah, yeah, good question. It's always a fun question. Yeah, it goes back to when we were starting All Access of trying to solve this unsolvable question of what percent goes overhead, right? There's no right answer. And so if it's too low, you can't grow. If it's too high, you're inefficient. And the real question though is all goes back to donor intent. Did they intend for that percent of their dollar to go there. And so what we decided and what's been proven at scale with groups like Charity: Water is you just separate it into two different bank accounts. So that's what we did. So the fund is its own independent bank account. 100% of what members of the fund give to the account goes to the programs in our portfolio. And then we have, like you said, a totally separate bank account for our operational side, and we have sponsors that help cover that so that the rest of the world can take advantage of the fund and utilize that. So it's made it nice and clean, and it's the operation side that we show every single expense, even though none of members' dollars are ever going towards that. We just want to show, hey, this is how it's being spent, and helps hold us accountable.

Very cool. So if someone goes on All Access, the platform, and wants to make donations, is it I donate to the fund and then the fund allocates as needed, or can I be more selective of, hey, I really care about this project and want to have all my funds go there, or is it kind of a blanket donation that gets spread across things?

No, you can select exactly what you want it to go towards. So there's two options that people have. They can give to the fund as a whole, which is what most of the members do, or if you have a specific interest or a specific country that you're passionate about or a specific cause area or organization, you can give directly to that program and you still get the impact reports every 90 days. So those are the two options that people can do.

And it sounds like a lot of the focus right now in the nonprofits has been poverty, extreme poverty. Are there other areas that you're evaluating, or this is the big passion project of All Access and there's plenty to do to go solve there? Do you imagine expanding this into other kind of areas in the nonprofit space? Yes and yes.

There is plenty of work in this space, but yes, we do want to expand to other areas like human trafficking and things like that. So the plan as we grow is to really have a fund of funds, and so within you can give to the fund as a whole, but there will also be different tracks. So if you want to give to the human trafficking fund or the water fund or the education fund or geographical focus areas like the Africa Fund or Asia Fund. It'll kind of be a combination of all these different giving opportunities and where they overlap as we grow. And so, you know, we had to start somewhere. We wanted to kind of pick a focus and grow from there, but I mean, we could spend the rest of my days focused on extreme spiritual and physical poverty, and we would have enough to handle, but the model can be applied anywhere. I mean, you can apply this I mean, tonight when you go to the grocery store and say, "Hey, we're trying to cook a meal. How can we use these ingredients as vendors to find the best cost to make this really delicious meal?" So the model you can apply in every aspect of your life. We're just applying it to the giving sector and trying to shortcut it and make it easy for people who also want to give well.

So cool. Well, Lane, this has been really fun and very cool. I love to see kind of your analytical an engineering background come to be put to pretty cool use. And I'm definitely going to check out this more, and I hope our listeners will as well. So what's the best way for folks listening to learn more about All Access and check out what you guys have built?

Yeah, they can go to allaccess.international. So that's our website. We're an open source, so they should be able to find everything they want to find there. But they can also reach out. So we, at the end of the day, we're giving advisors. We help Families, businesses, foundations give well, and so we'd love to come alongside them and invite them to join us in giving to these really impactful giving opportunities that— I do say the impact reports are where the fun is at, of seeing the people that we get to help and actually hearing their names and taking people to go and meet them in person. And so we invite people to engage at any level they want to, from just giving to the fund and checking it annually, or going and seeing them themselves.

We're here to help. It's awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on, Lane. It's been really fun.

Yeah, I appreciate it, Ben.

For links to All Access, to check out the amazing work that Lane and his team are doing, go to allaccess.international. We'll put that link in the show notes. Let us know in the comments if you're on Spotify or YouTube, how do you vet the organizations that you donate to? How do you think about giving as well? Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.