What we believe
Today's Problems are Wicked
Wicked problems are challenges so complex they defy easy understanding. There is wide disagreement about the exact nature of the problems, let alone the solutions to them. Unspoken beliefs cause confusion and conflict, and the best-laid plans have unintended consequences. Many of the big issues philanthropy aims to address today – from climate change to poverty to the future of liberal democracy – are classic wicked problems. Solving them will require a willingness to question our own assumptions and an openness to new ideas beyond what we have previously considered.
Ideas Drive the World
Ideas shape how society thinks and acts. New ideas can transform our understanding of complex problems, help identify original solutions, and break through polarization and gridlock by shifting the terms of debate. Ideas also play a critical role in driving markets, informing public policy, and influencing philanthropy. We invest in the development of new paradigms in order to address the most wicked challenges of the 21st century.
Liberal Democracy Matters
We believe in a robust role for government in addressing society’s greatest challenges. The United States government is the largest and most important lever on many of the most wicked problems facing our world, but its effectiveness is being undermined by political polarization, hyperpartisanship, and illiberalism, all of which are amplified by rapid demographic and technological change. The values, norms, and institutions of liberal democracy need to be defended and revitalized so that people can live free and secure lives and government can again play its proper role in helping solve complex challenges.
We Can Learn from Progress
By most objective measures the world has experienced dramatic progress over the past few centuries. Increasing numbers of people live longer, healthier lives than ever before, with reliable access to basic needs like food and education. A growing number of people have the ability to choose their own destinies – including what they do and who they love. Recognizing this progress does not mean denying the very real challenges that the world faces today, and of course there is nothing inevitable about future progress. But we have much to learn about social change from the successes of the past and we remain conditionally optimistic that human ingenuity, forward-looking policies, and bold philanthropic and social movements will help make tomorrow better than today – just as today is better than yesterday.
our focus areas
Climate and Energy
We support think tanks, academic institutions, and advocacy organizations driving new ideas in the climate and energy debate. In particular we focus on efforts that take seriously the need to create positive outcomes for both people and nature. We support research, communications, network-building, convening, and – when the time is right – advocacy. We seek to leverage our resources by focusing on areas of the climate and energy debate that are often overlooked and underfunded, including energy poverty, nuclear power, carbon removal, and sunlight reflection. We also support efforts to help understand and frame climate and energy issues more accurately and productively.
U.S. Democracy
We support efforts to disrupt hyperpolarization and hyperpartisanship through the creation of cross-ideological convening spaces and networks and the development of new intellectual frameworks for democracy and policy. We focus on the deep, underlying challenges facing American democracy and support organizations working to understand the nature of these problems and the potential solutions to them. We also support nearer-term efforts to defend and revitalize democratic norms, values, and institutions.
Our partners
who we are
Rachel Pritzker, President & Founder
Rachel Pritzker is President and Founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund. She is chair of the Democracy Funders Network, a cross-ideological learning and action community for donors concerned about the health of American democracy, and is co-founder of Patriots & Pragmatists, a network and convening space through which civic leaders and influencers debate, envision, and realize a brighter future for American democracy. Rachel is chair of the board of the Breakthrough Institute, a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges, and is chair of the board of the Energy for Growth Hub, a global nonprofit network designed to promote energy solutions aligned with countries’ own development ambitions by connecting data, research, and evidence with policymakers. She also chairs the board of Third Way, a national think tank that champions modern center-left ideas. Rachel is a co-author of An Ecomodernist Manifesto, which advocates an abundance-based approach to tackling ecological challenges while fulfilling human aspirations. She grew up on a goat farm in Wisconsin and has since lived in every time zone of the U.S. Rachel currently lives in the Bay Area with her family and is an avid consumer of cute animal videos, including of her own cats. She studied Latin American studies at Brown University.
Roland Pritzker, Chairman
Roland Pritzker is Chairman of the Pritzker Innovation Fund. A man of diverse interests, Roland is an entrepreneur, musician, race car driver, private equity investor, and philanthropist. He plays bass with Blind Dog Smokin’, a Grammy-nominated funk/blues band that he has been with since 2000. Roland is an experienced venture and private equity investor. He studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Colorado and sustainable business at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute.
Mike Berkowitz, Senior Advisor
Mike Berkowitz is a Senior Advisor to the Pritzker Innovation Fund. Mike is Co-Founder & Principal at Third Plateau Social Impact Strategies, an integrated social impact strategy firm that partners with people and organizations that have game-changing ideas to improve the world. An experienced strategist and passionate believer in long-term solutions that drive social change, Mike leads much of Third Plateau’s philanthropic advisory and development strategy work. Mike is also co-founder and coordinator of Patriots & Pragmatists. He is a 21/64-certified philanthropy consultant and has counseled numerous individual donors, family foundations, and institutional foundations on their philanthropic giving. He has also advised dozens of nonprofit institutions on effective development strategy, community engagement strategy, strategic planning, and impact evaluation. Mike formerly served as a lead consultant to the Democracy Alliance, a partnership of the nation’s top progressive philanthropists. He has a B.A. in History, magna cum laude, from Brown University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Democracy Resources
Climate Resources
