Investing in a healthy future.
Exploring moonshots in mental health, ending Veteran suicide, protecting human rights, and addressing climate change.
The Jurvetson Foundation supports innovative leaders, organizations, policymakers, and research efforts that make our world a better place.
Improving Mental Health
We have a growing mental health crisis, and available treatments are quite limited in their effectiveness. There are 12 million U.S. citizens with PTSD, 20 million with depression, and close to 20 million with substance use disorder.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy offers the most effective mental health treatment ever studied. In MAPS Phase III clinical trials, 67% of trial participants treated with MDMA no longer qualified as having a PTSD diagnosis after suffering for 14 years on average, and 88% saw significant improvement in their symptoms after just three treatments with MDMA-therapy. Similar results are being shown using psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat depression. We invest in cutting-edge research into these compounds, advocacy efforts, equitable access initiatives, education, and delivery of care.
Please explore the work of these incredible organizations: MAPS, Sunstone Therapies, Drugs Over Dinner, Fireside Project, Healing Advocacy Fund, and PSFC, as well as these brilliant scientists: Dr. Nolan Williams at Stanford University, Dr. Roland Girffiths at John Hopkins University, Dr. Alex Lehmann at McGill University, and Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris at UCSF.
Ending Veteran Suicide
We support and advocate on behalf of organizations that aim to end Veteran suicide (approximately 40 Veterans take their lives every day). These organizations help our Veterans find and finance alternative treatment for traumas incurred in the service of our country and advocate for policy change to support the health and well-being of our Veterans and their families.
Please see the incredible work of VETS, Heroic Hearts, and Reason for Hope to learn more.
Protecting Human Rights Globally
More than half of our world lives under tyranny. Tyranny is the root cause of poverty, human rights violations, and war. We support the brave organizations and dissidents who fight dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. We are proud supporters of the Human Rights Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.
Addressing climate change
We fund innovative methods of combating our warming climate and support the communities that are most harmed by the impact of climate change. We are pleased to support the exceptional scientists at the Salk Institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative, which is optimizing a plant’s natural ability to sequester carbon, and the Good Food Institute, which is a think tank working to accelerate alternative protein innovation. We also support an incredible team in Africa called the One Acre Fund which supplies farmers with everything they need to grow their way out of poverty. They enable farmers — most of whom are women — to provide nutritious meals to their families. Lastly, we are longtime supporters of The B612 Foundation. B612 has developed tools to map and navigate our solar system and protect our planet from asteroid impacts.