About Us
Remagining Philanthropy for Greater Impact
The Navigation Fund was founded on a simple observation: Those working on the world’s most urgent problems often know how to solve them, but traditional philanthropy doesn’t always fund what these leaders know will work.
With an initial gift from Jed McCaleb, our co-founders Seemay Chou and David Coman-Hidy set out to create a different kind of grantmaking organization, one led by practitioners who shape our approach with their experience creating social change. We embrace opportunities others may undervalue or overlook, including high-risk, high-reward projects, as well as capacity building, cultural change, and novel or experimental strategies. We’re willing to fund promising approaches, even when progress is slow or difficult to measure.
From our first year granting $4 million to 36 recipients, we’ve rapidly scaled to over $60 million annually, supporting 217 organizations in 2025. This growth reflects our expanding community of donors who share our vision and our commitment to accelerating meaningful progress in key cause areas.
How We Work
Each program publishes its strategy annually. We share our thinking, our lessons, and even our failures because we believe the entire field benefits when funders are transparent about their approaches. Likewise, we believe knowledge funded through philanthropy belongs to the public and should be openly shared.
We partner with other donors to do more together. Beyond their direct grantmaking, our program officers advise funders on strategy development, design pooled funds for time-sensitive campaigns, and actively participate in donor networks that coordinate giving across their fields. We also facilitate collaboration among our grantee partners to strengthen our issue area communities.
If you're a funder looking to partner on high-impact giving, please get in touch.
We look for tangible impact, but we do not let measurability dictate strategy. Our program officers bring deep field expertise to assess what is likely to work, including initiatives that take time to show results or rely on quantitative data alongside qualitative evidence. We view the work through our lens as campaigners for lasting social change. We make calculated investments based on what we believe will best advance progress. We know that our cause areas require sustained support and courageous grantmaking, even when conventional metrics cannot capture the full picture.
Our program officers are practitioners. Before joining The Navigation Fund, they built organizations, led campaigns, and shaped strategy within their fields. Because decision-making sits with the people closest to the work, we can respond as opportunities arise. We deploy bridge grants when federal cuts threaten critical government capacity and coordinate urgent support when advocacy campaigns reach pivotal moments. We strive to move at the speed the work requires.
Our Leadership
The Navigation Fund is governed by an independent board, chaired by Seemay Chou, co-founder of The Navigation Fund and CEO of Arcadia Science. Day-to-day operations are led by co-founder and president David Coman-Hidy, who brings deep experience in advocacy and organizational leadership.
Our program officers set strategy within each cause area based on their field knowledge and expertise. The board provides oversight and approves the largest grants, while program officers and organizational leadership direct funding decisions.
Our Endowment
The Navigation Fund’s founding endowment was provided by Jed McCaleb. Since then, we have managed the fund as a means to support our long-term philanthropic work. We've made strategic investments, including in Lightning AI (formerly Voltage Park), with the goal of achieving strong financial returns that enable us to do more through our grantmaking. At this time, we do not do impact investing.