John Arnold: belief

Transcript context

…Your skill and decision-making at philanthropy, which is done with your wife Laura — how does that fit into the schema? It’s more like trading, more like buying art, something else? I think there’re a lot of similarities to private equity or venture capital. This is mostly a money allocation venture. We have some components of being an operating foundation and a lot of internal expertise on areas, and we do a lot of consulting with policymakers internally, but the majority of the effort is in making grants. The question on making grants is very similar to the questions on making investments. It’s what field do I want to be in? What team do I want to back? What’s their theory of change? Do I believe it? What components of their organization do they need help in? And do we need to supplement or require them to supplement with our resources in order to maximize the chance of success? What do you think is the key skill behind a good philanthropist?…

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