Nicholas Piediscalzi

Concerned citizen, Philanthropist

As board chair of a private foundation, Nick leads development and operation of its climate change program. After gaining board consensus in 2019 to allocate half its annual grants budget to mitigation (now totaling $3M/yr), he crafted a multi-year portfolio of nature-based carbon sequestration research and capital projects in terrestrial, riparian and tidal wetland habitats throughout Northern California, as well as shipping decarbonization and sustainable aviation fuels projects globally. In 2023, with greatly valued expert guidance from CLIMATE LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE (climatelead.org), the foundation committed grants for 3+ years to innovative collaborative giving platforms: GLOBAL METHANE HUB (globalmethanehub.org); FOREST PEOPLE CLIMATE (forestspeopleclimate.org); CLEAN GRID INITIATIVE (cleangrids.org). For his "day job" Nick works at Kaiser Permanente, the nations largest non-profit integrated health plan (https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/commitments-and-impact/healthy-communities/improving-community-conditions/environmental-stewardship).

Understanding how private foundations can leverage their unique ability to fund climate solutions that other funders can't

“The only wisdom we may hope to attain is humility.” T. S. Eliot