Patrice King-Brickman on Funding Women & Donor-Advised Funds

Jason Kirby: Welcome back to the show! Today we have Patrice King‑Brickman, CEO and founder of Inspire Access. Patrice, thanks for joining.

Patrice King‑Brickman: Thanks, Jason. It’s wonderful to be here with you. I appreciate you having me.

Jason Kirby: Your story is inspiring. Tell us about Inspire Access and how you got here.

Patrice King‑Brickman: Inspire Access helps unlock philanthropic investment capital for underrepresented founders—especially women and people of color—by mobilizing donor‑advised funds (DAFs). There’s over $200 billion sitting in DAFs in the U.S., often idle. We provide a way for that capital to fund businesses while still remaining charitable.

Patrice King‑Brickman: My own journey started in 1998 when we scaled a family business with private equity partners. That experience showed me how integral growth capital is. We exited in 2013, and in 2015 I started investing in women‑led businesses. In 2020 I expanded to people of color and all underrepresented founders. In 2021, looking at a company with a donor‑advised fund on the cap table, I realized I could deploy my DAF into for‑profit, mission‑aligned companies. That’s how Inspire Access took shape.

Jason Kirby: For listeners—what exactly is a DAF?

Patrice King‑Brickman: A donor‑advised fund is like a charitable savings account. You contribute cash or appreciated assets, receive a sizable tax deduction, and then recommend grants to charities over time. It’s simpler and cheaper than setting up a private foundation. The downside is that money can sit there indefinitely. Our model lets donors invest their DAF balances into mission‑aligned for‑profit companies and then recycle returns back into the DAF, keeping everything on the charitable side of the tax line.

Patrice King‑Brickman: The policy basis goes back to 2015 when the U.S. adopted the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The government acknowledged that in some cases a for‑profit company can be better positioned than a nonprofit to solve certain problems. That opened the door for philanthropic capital to support mission‑aligned business activity in areas like climate, racial equity, gender equity, and economic mobility—provided returns recycle on the charitable side.

Jason Kirby: So it’s a full‑circle approach: charitable intent, real investments, and returns that flow back into the DAF. Compared to parking money at a big institution, this actually puts capital to work while keeping the mission intact.

Jason Kirby: Conventional VC often overlooks founders without legacy networks or risk tolerance shaped by generations of access. How do you think about underwriting to make sure this isn’t concessionary?

Patrice King‑Brickman: It’s not concessionary. We underwrite like any venture investor: resilient founders, strong theses, scalable models. I lean toward co‑founder teams because the startup grind wears people down. The difference is that we’re aware of systemic and unconscious bias and don’t let it screen out high‑potential founders who’ve historically lacked access.

Patrice King‑Brickman: A great example is Ulu Ventures on the West Coast, led by Miriam and Maria. They built an algorithm to reduce human bias in early‑stage decisions and have repeatedly backed categories others ignored—like products for textured hair. Their funds have performed well; it’s proof that overlooked markets can be great businesses.

Jason Kirby: Mechanically, are you a traditional fund with a fixed portfolio construction?

Patrice King‑Brickman: We run an ecosystem model rather than a rigid portfolio. Donors recommend where their funds go across our companies and funds, and they can bring new ideas. For example, a CEO on the East Coast donated appreciated stock to support a woman launching a sports marketing agency on the West Coast. She received the deduction; we converted and diligenced the investment to ensure the underrepresented founder truly received the capital.

Jason Kirby: That reminds me of seeing sham setups where a business uses a spouse’s name just to qualify for set‑asides. Total fraud.

Patrice King‑Brickman: Unfortunately, that’s been a thing. Standards have tightened, and we take our 501(c)(3) exemption seriously. Our diligence looks through to ensure the intended founder receives the money. We can’t control capital forever, but we can close the investment gap—and ultimately the wealth gap—by getting capital to the right hands.

Jason Kirby: How do participants engage—are they LPs?

Patrice King‑Brickman: Conceptually similar, but here’s the structure: multiple donor‑investors come through Inspire Access; we aggregate them and sit as a single LP on a fund’s cap table. That keeps VC cap tables clean and lets us accept smaller checks. Technically, donors make a charitable contribution to us; we, in turn, make the investment. I call them “donor‑investors.”

Jason Kirby: Walk us through fees and distributions when a fund starts returning capital.

Patrice King‑Brickman: We built Inspire to be the easy button and fully transparent. Donors can see where their money sits and what it’s doing. We take about 1% on the way in and ~1% on profits as proceeds return—not on corpus. Our floor for moving capital is $25,000. When distributions hit, donors can transfer back to their DAF or redeploy to another mission. The point is to recycle philanthropic dollars for continued impact.

Jason Kirby: So it behaves like a regular investment, just sourced from a DAF—and everything recycles to mission outcomes. If a donor allocated $1M to a theme, they could double down as proceeds come back, or pivot to a new cause later. It’s tax‑advantaged and not for personal use; it’s already earmarked for charity.

Jason Kirby: How do conversations go when you’re educating newcomers to this model?

Patrice King‑Brickman: We often start with the data: less than 2% of U.S. venture capital goes to women and people of color, while Black women start businesses at multiples of the national average. Concentrating capital in one narrow demographic narrows which lived experiences get funded—and which problems get solved. Broadening capital flows expands innovation. That resonates.

Jason Kirby: What trends—positive or negative—are shaping your work?

Patrice King‑Brickman: Some legal and political developments are worrying and could roll back progress—that keeps me up at night. On the positive side, younger generations think differently about money: where it’s invested, what impact it has. And the wealth transfer from baby boomers beginning around 2025—much of it to women—could accelerate change, especially if we build intentional structures to direct capital inclusively.

Jason Kirby: For founders who aren’t yet positioned to open DAFs but may fit Inspire or similar vehicles, how do they discover these allocators?

Patrice King‑Brickman: Listen to operators who share these paths, and connect with innovators doing the work. Besides Inspire Access, there are groups like Legacy, Realize Impact, and Impact Assets. Frankly, there should be a hundred more platforms, given $200B+ sits unallocated in U.S. DAFs. Our exemption focuses on the U.S., so when great international opportunities surface, we point founders to peers. To reach us, visit inspireaccess.org—there’s an inquiry form and we share a one‑pager and a deck founders can use with investors. Then someone on our team jumps on a call and walks through the mechanics. We aim to make it easy.

Jason Kirby: Love it. This kind of capital recycling is a powerful complement to grants. Patrice, thanks for the work you’re doing and for joining us.

Patrice King‑Brickman: Thank you, Jason. I appreciate the conversation and your support of founders.