Building and fostering
community & purpose.
Mission
Our worldview
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Research suggests that having purpose in life helps people live happier and longer lives. Similarly, when communities are strong, there are many social benefits like less crime, mortality, and a healthier environment. We believe that community and purpose are the two core mechanisms both for improving individual lives and society as a whole.
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Our intent
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We seek to fund organizations whose missions align with our two core pillars - fostering community and helping individuals find their purpose. We focus on organizations that are (or on a path toward being) self-sustaining. Our approach is based upon applying first principles thinking and the scientific method; we endeavor to partner with organizations that share these operating principles.
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Complex situations
The Navigator Foundation also devotes a part of its resources to address less-scalable, complex situations. Put plainly, sometimes there are individuals, families, or even small communities whose situations require a unique, often holistic solution.While this may impact the total amount of people we can reach, we believe that everyone deserves an opportunity to find their purpose and be a part of a healthy community.
Work
We launched the foundation in the spring of 2021 and have been focused on learning, speaking to community leaders, and synthesizing our knowledge into a data-driven strategy.
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We are currently working with organizations in Austin, Texas, in order to be physically close to the projects. Once we have built and tested our data-driven models, understanding which interventions work in our own community, we plan to scale nationwide in 2023.
Methodology
We take a strategic approach to giving that involves rigorous research and analysis. Some of these elements include:
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Using a multi-disciplinary approach which includes scientific research, empirical data, & insights from conversations with individuals and communities.
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Being driven by empirical data; grounding ourselves in sociological, psychological and anthropological studies to ensure we are seeing the full picture.
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Taking a first-principles approach to big problems and applying root cause analysis.
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Focusing on helping organizations become self-sustaining and working with them to optimize their operations and processes.
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Bistra Anguelova
Starting from when she was in high school, Bistra was spending her weekends solving the world's problems in nationally competitive policy debate. A decade later, she has spent time in nonprofits and politics, as well as start-ups and large tech companies in Silicon Valley.
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She has optimized her career for diversity of experience: from running digital marketing on political campaigns to selling commercial-scale solar power plants to interning at a papaya farm, every new organization has been a place to learn the intricacies of how the world functions. As a first generation immigrant to the US who has lived in 6 different US states & speaks 4 languages, she has seen the impact of community firsthand and is excited to work on helping people find their own community and purpose.
She has a data-driven way of operating in the world which translates to philanthropy that is well-researched and focused on metrics and results. She takes a big picture approach to social problems and likes to understand root causes and historical context in order to evaluate issues holistically and find lasting solutions. Driving this is an innate love of research and a passion for learning about individual motivations, societal outcomes, and why things happen the way they have throughout history.
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Bistra holds a BA in International Relations from Stanford and an MA in Environmental Economics from Sciences Po Paris. In her free time, she enjoys sailing, skiing, exploring new places, and raising her Golden Retriever, Sunny.
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Nate Rodland
Nate was the founding COO of Robinhood, which he helped grow to millions of customers and raised over $500M in capital. Nathan joined VC fund Elefund in 2019, bringing his experience as a founder and seasoned operator to the firm and its portfolio companies. He also has experience building teams across finance, HR, compliance, business development, and customer success. Prior to Robinhood, Nathan served as COO of Chronos Research on Wall Street.
Nate grew up in a small community in Washington State and was homeschooled until ninth grade - this gave him a unique, often outside perspective of communities and how they operate. After spending much of his career building small companies, he appreciates the core qualities of community and how important they are to each of us as humans. While working throughout his life to find his own purpose, Nate has encountered people from all walks of life who have found theirs. Having seen and experienced the transformative power of finding one’s purpose, he is motivated to help others find their own.
Today, Nate partners with entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving real-world problems and achieving massive scale. When he isn’t working with founders, Nate enjoys spending time sailing, skiing, or tinkering with electronics.
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Based in Austin, TX