What is Renaissance Philanthropy?

Renaissance Philanthropy is a nonprofit organization that designs, incubates, and manages time-bound, thesis-driven philanthropic funds for science, technology, and innovation. Founded in 2024 by Tom Kalil and Kumar Garg, the organization connects philanthropists with breakthrough scientific ideas and helps funders deploy capital without building large in-house expert teams.

Who leads Renaissance Philanthropy?

Renaissance Philanthropy is led by Tom Kalil (CEO) and Kumar Garg (President). Tom Kalil served as Deputy Director for Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Biden, and was the architect of major national science initiatives including the $40B National Nanotechnology Initiative and the BRAIN Initiative. Kumar Garg is a former senior science advisor at OSTP and Schmidt Futures with deep expertise in science philanthropy and government innovation.

What is a thesis-driven philanthropic fund?

A thesis-driven philanthropic fund is our primary engine for impact, modelled on venture capital. It consists of philanthropists and foundations who act as LPs and field strategists who serve as General Partners (GPs) sourcing, funding, and scaling high-impact initiatives based on a time-bound thesis. Our funds advance entire fields by addressing one or multiple bottlenecks that can transform domains, sectors, or systems.

What is the difference between a fund and a program at Renaissance Philanthropy?

Funds are the primary vehicle — pooled philanthropic capital deployed by a field strategist against a specific thesis (e.g., AI for Math, climate risk R&D). Programs are the cross-cutting capabilities and communities that support funds, such as the BiTS Accelerator (training scientists to design moonshot programs), the ARPA PM Network (200+ current and former program managers), and the Learning Engineering Network (3,000+ researchers and practitioners).

What funds does Renaissance Philanthropy currently operate?

Active programs and funds include: the AI for Math Fund (advancing math discovery through AI), the AI for Education Fund (breakthrough technical ideas for student success), ARC (catastrophic climate risk R&D), Chimaera (scaling geologic hydrogen), the Talent Mobility Fund (high-skill immigration pathways), UK Horizons (strengthening the UK R&D ecosystem), UK Dynamism Fund (and the Public Benefit Innovation Fund (improving social services through technology).

How has Renaissance Philanthropy measured its impact?

In its first two years, Renaissance Philanthropy catalyzed $533 million in philanthropic capital: $268M directly raised for its programs and funds, and $265M unlocked for other organizations through matchmaking and coalition building. The organization also operates communities of over 3,000 learning science researchers and 200+ ARPA-style program managers.

What are Renaissance Philanthropy's playbooks?

Playbooks are our open-source, practical guides for high-impact philanthropic giving. Each playbook covers a specific mechanism or strategy — such as catalytic capital, prize competitions, market shaping, coordinated research programs, or scientific field creation — with frameworks donors and innovators can apply directly. They are freely available at renaissancephilanthropy.org/playbooks.

How can a philanthropist work with Renaissance Philanthropy?

Philanthropists can engage as Limited Partners in existing funds, co-develop a new thesis-driven fund with the Renaissance Philanthropy team, or work with the team to identify and fund existing high-impact initiatives aligned with their interests. Contact info@renphil.org or visit renaissancephilanthropy.org/partner-with-us.

How can scientists or domain experts work with Renaissance Philanthropy?

Scientists, technologists, and domain experts with deep field knowledge can partner with Renaissance Philanthropy to develop field-level agendas and serve as General Partners for philanthropic funds. The BiTS Accelerator also trains scientists and technologists to design and manage 8-figure moonshot programs.

Is Renaissance Philanthropy a foundation or a grantmaker?

Renaissance Philanthropy is neither a traditional foundation nor a direct grantmaker. It operates like a venture studio — it designs and runs the funds, but the capital comes from its network of philanthropic partners. This model allows it to support breakthroughs that existing institutions often overlook, without requiring any single donor to build in-house expert capacity.

What makes Renaissance Philanthropy different from other science philanthropy organizations?

Renaissance Philanthropy focuses specifically on the fund model — time-bound, thesis-driven vehicles that move faster than traditional foundations and require less in-house expertise from donors. Its leadership brings unusually deep government and science policy experience (DARPA, OSTP, national initiatives worth tens of billions), and the organization explicitly aims to advance entire fields rather than fund individual grants. It also open-sources its playbooks and tools for the broader philanthropic community.

Introducing the 2026 BiTS x SPRIND Cohort

News

Jul 24

Written By Renaissance Philanthropy

Renaissance Philanthropy’s Big if True Science (BiTS) Accelerator, in partnership with SPRIND, Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation, is delighted to introduce the 2026 BiTS SPRIND cohort: eight exceptional scientists, technologists, and innovators selected to develop ambitious R&D programs that could unlock breakthroughs across Europe and beyond. This is the second BiTS cohort with SPRIND (read more about the first here).

Chosen for their ambitious technical visions and potential for real-world impact, over the next four months this cohort will develop rigorous plans for ambitious R&D programs across advanced materials, AI for science, cognitive assistive technologies, aging biology, nuclear energy, therapeutic audio, and precision mental health.

BiTS is Renaissance Philanthropy's accelerator for scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs with bold ideas for transforming a field. The program trains fellows to turn early technical intuition into actionable coordinated research programs; identifying bottlenecks, defining measurable goals, building the case for investment, and assembling the networks needed to make ambitious ideas executable. This cohort is particularly focused on Challenge designs: multi-stage programs that define a clear technical objective, inviting multiple teams and approaches into the same problem space to concentrate support behind the most promising paths. Fellows will develop not just a concept, but the conditions under which the best teams could work toward breakthroughs that might otherwise remain stuck between disciplines, institutions, or funding models.

Over the coming months, fellows will receive 1:1 mentorship from experienced ARPA program managers and SPRIND’s Challenge team as part of a 15-week, part-time accelerator program. Their work will culminate at ExhiBiTS, a public showcase that will take place in Berlin, where they will present fully developed program designs to SPRIND, its Swedish partner agency Vinnova, foundations, and philanthropic funders. The event is designed to maximise the probability that the concepts find support for implementation.

This cohort builds on last year’s inaugural BiTS SPRIND cohort, whose alumni are already moving from program design to execution. Successes so far include starting €40M R&D challenges on continuous hormone monitoring and microbial consortia at SPRIND. Others have gone on to start unusually ambitious R&D non-profits and startups, collectively raising over $20M on topics including revolutionizing synthetic cell engineering or detecting unknown pathogens or human performance. Another joined Google DeepMind to start their first autonomous materials science lab. Details about our 54 fellows can be found here.

The Big if True Science Accelerator represents Renaissance Philanthropy's commitment to building systematic pathways for developing research program leadership, creating a replicable model for how governments, philanthropists, and research institutions can cultivate a robust pipeline of ambitious visionaries capable of catalyzing breakthrough innovations.