2025 Annual Report

Excerpt from the Annual Report

A Letter from Our CEO and President 

To our partners,

One year ago, we launched Renaissance Philanthropy with the belief that bold philanthropic investments in science, technology, and innovation can spark a new era of progress—just as visionary patrons fueled the Italian Renaissance centuries ago. Today, this work is more important than ever. With public R&D investment declining and a growing list of complex global challenges, philanthropy has a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and responsibility, to step up. Renaissance Philanthropy was built for this moment: to help identify transformative ideas, empower extraordinary field leaders, and foster breakthroughs advances that otherwise might never happen.

We’re proud to share the results: in our first year, Renaissance Philanthropy catalyzed more than $214M in philanthropic funding for science, technology, and innovation, launching more than 10 initiatives across areas such as AI, education, climate, health, and scientific infrastructure.

Our approach is distinctive: we incubate and launch time-bound, thesis driven funds led by field experts. For example, the AI and Education Program will support ambitious R&D efforts to double the rate of student learning in subjects such as middle school math. The AI for Math Fund aims to speed mathematical discovery by supporting open-source tools, critical datasets, and field-wide infrastructure that academia and industry often overlook.

And the Talent Mobility Fund is encouraging high skill immigration by supporting projects to increase the use of U.S. immigration pathways for talented individuals with backgrounds in science and engineering.

At Renaissance Philanthropy, we believe that our best days are yet to come. Every day , we are contacted by scientists and innovators with big-if-true ideas. We think the best of these ideas have the potential to create positive, self-fulfilling prophecies. Not only can these teams identify a compelling goal, but they can identify a “why now” (e.g. new fundamental insights, advances in technological capabilities) that could make the previously impossible within reach.

That’s why we believe that we can create far more impact in the world by acting as a platform for impact to inspire others to take action. In our first year, we have matched funders to high impact organizations, cultivated talent and future leaders, and published eight playbooks to increase the awareness and adoption of new approaches to solving problems.

Looking ahead, our aim for 2025 and beyond is to move from proof-of-concept to proof-of impact. We are not just building individual programs—we are building the infrastructure to fuel a 21st-century renaissance powered by a virtuous loop between scientists, innovators, and philanthropists. We will continue to connect funders and innovators who believe that bold, well-timed investments can accelerate progress in entire fields. None of this would have been possible without the brilliant and hard-working members of our team; the generous and early support from Eric and Wendy Schmidt; the researchers and innovators whose game-changing ideas inspire us to stay up late; and the philanthropists, foundations, and government agencies who have backed these initiatives and provided core support for our work. For everyone who bet early on this venture, our deep and sincere thanks.

We’re just getting started.

Tom Kalil and Kumar Garg
CEO and President