Flourish Trust

?? A Look Back at Big Green's 2024! ?? 2024 has been one for the books—filled with growth, connection, and impact. Together with our incredible community, we’ve: ? Empowered thousands of growers through home, school, and community garden programs. ? Connected 150,000+ people to the power of growing food. ? Established 1,500+ new gardens to create thriving local food systems and healthier communities. AND… we hit the road on The Big Green Bus! ?? The Grow Together Tour took us coast to coast—from farmers markets to the TODAY Show—where we celebrated growing food, gave away gardens, and shared stories from San Antonio, Memphis, NYC, Atlanta, Savannah, Minneapolis, Charleston, and beyond. Thank YOU for making this all possible. Here’s to more growth in 2025—stay tuned for bus and program updates coming your way! ??

It was an incredible honor to interview Michael Pollan at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation Edge of Medicine event, a space dedicated to advancing healthcare by fostering collaboration, sharing breakthroughs in medical and scientific research, and raising public awareness about the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. Michael shared insights on the power of storytelling in driving cultural change, reminding us that “we are creatures with a deep investment in story.” His reflections also highlighted the importance of layering perspectives—combining science, history, philosophy, and spirituality to truly understand the full picture. This event reinforced the need to push boundaries in healthcare while keeping patients—the people who benefit—at the heart of every breakthrough. As Michael put it, “edges are very exciting places, but they're very fraught too.” Thank you to everyone who made this inspiring conversation possible. #EdgeOfMedicine #HealthcareInnovation #MichaelPollan

We at Flourish Trust had the privilege of visiting one of our grantees, the Inspiring Children Foundation, and sitting down with alumni to hear their powerful stories. This is one of the world’s most impactful youth programs for mental health. The foundation transforms lives by empowering underprivileged youth with a student-led, principle-based approach to mental health and wellness. Through meditation, sports, entrepreneurship, leadership development, home-cooked organic meals, and project-based learning, these young people are given the tools to truly thrive. Thank you Ryan Wolfington and Jewel for creating such life-changing opportunities. Witnessing your impact is truly inspiring. #InspiringChildren

Most people today understand that if you want to invest in, or support, initiatives serving women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBQT+ communities, etc., you need to engage directly with people within these communities to understand what they want and need. However, when the conversation turns to Disability or Neurodivergence many people reflexively revert to an old-fashioned (dare I say Victorian?) model of 'charity' and talk to 'experts' about what 'those poor unfortunates need.' The result is often biased towards medical interventions, paternalistic thinking, and increased marginalisation for the very people you mean to help. This is the subject of my recent article for ImpactAlpha?(registration required, but it’s free). In it, I explore how principles of Gender Lens Investing can help investors, funds, and entrepreneurs ensure their efforts actually drive meaningful, positive change. These lessons can also inform broader policies that aim to include Disabled and Neurodivergent people in schools, workplaces, and society as a whole. Have you come across any businesses or initiatives that are doing Disability or Neurodivergence investing well? If so, I’d love to be connected with them. And hat tip to my colleagues Sana Kapadia, Randy Belcher, Hedda Pahlson-Moller, Eleni Theodorou, Paul Surreaux, Shashaank Awasthi, Alison Thornburn, Joshua Haynes, Sabine Flechet, Barrier-Free Finance Initiative, Disability Impact Partners, Rachel Hills who helped with this piece. https://lnkd.in/eJiQCFUW

Cast your vote for ancient wisdom… and a conversation between Brian Muraresku, Christiana Musk, and our Bruce Damer at SXSW25: bit.ly/SXSW25wisdom If selected, they’ll have a rare chance to speak on stage about gaps in modern innovation (especially in science and health care) and how to potentially integrate ancient wisdom. Because “if you die before you die, you don’t die when you die,” right??

At Flourish Trust, we honor the resilience of those living with PTSD, including survivors of trauma, veterans, first responders, and individuals who have experienced sexual assault. This day is about more than awareness—it's a call to action. We must break the silence, listen with empathy, and provide unwavering support to those on their healing journeys. We extend our deepest gratitude to our grantees who are on the front lines of this important work. Your dedication to providing care and support to those affected by PTSD is making a tangible difference in countless lives. Community Building Art Works Sunstone Therapies Rachel Yehuda —just to name a few!! Let's build a future where mental health care is a priority, accessible to all, and stigma no longer stands in the way of recovery. #PTSDAwarenessDay #MentalHealthMatters #UnitedAgainstSilence

Flourish Trust is proud to join the U.S. Dept of State and Salesforce Foundation in supporting another epic cohort of Unreasonable Goals Fellows!

We are proud to announce the -inaugural- cohort of Flourish Trust Fellows from UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics as part of a joint grant program Psychedelics in Society and Culture with Harvard University supported by the Gracias Family Foundation. ?? A historical moment, this inaugural cohort of UC Berkeley Flourish Scholars and Fellows, whose proposals have been awarded funding from the Psychedelics in Society and Culture Program, begin a diverse range of research projects that encompass the evolution of psychedelic cultural movements, the spiritual dimensions of mysticism, the ecological and cultural effects of psychedelic tourism, the diversity of psychedelic art and literature, the wisdom of psychedelic elders and the role of ancestral practices in healing intergenerational trauma. ?? “When Michael Pollan and Brian Muraresku brought us the opportunity to support this research, we were inspired by what we had learned in their respective books, Your Mind on Plants, and The Immortality Key. Humanity’s relationship with mind-altering plants and fungi is ancient. Just as it’s important to understand better the promise and risks of psychedelics in mental health treatments, it is also important to understand how these compounds may have shaped meaning-making systems throughout time and across cultures and how they might be contributing to that today. These initial grantees offer an inspiring contribution to this nascent field.” - Christiana Musk

To say I'm humbled to be in service to the community and portfolio of solutions we just brought together for our Unreasonable Goals gathering is a true understatement. I'm beyond grateful to our co-founders and partners at U.S. Department of State, Flourish Trust, Salesforce, to the 17 absolutely brilliant and courageous entrepreneurs we selected, and to the cohort of mentors who came together around a shared goal of supporting this portfolio of solutions — each uniquely positioned to accelerate our achievement of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. I know I speak on behalf of our entire community and our team when I say I feel both blessed and privileged to be playing even a small roll in supporting the impactful efforts of all the solutions below (read more about each venture and their courageous CEOs here - https://lnkd.in/gCVffTak): ? d.light ? Dhun Jaipur (Manvendra Singh Shekhawat) ? EcoPost Ltd ? Esoko ? Frontier Markets ? Greenhope.co ? Haqdarshak ? Lawrencedale Agro Processing India Pvt. Ltd. (aka "Leaf") ? Loowatt Ltd ? Maeko (Chelsea Chee C.) ? MYCL | Mycotech Lab ? Paga Group Ltd ? S4S Technologies ? Smart Joules ? ThinkCERCA ? URBANMETRY ? Veerhouse Voda Gratitude for Dimple Sahni, Gaurav Gupta, Paula Murphy Ives, Wendy Fergie, Stanley Ng, Anthony Bondurant, Thomas Knudsen, Ashley Archie, Mike Rios and the many others who have joined us as Mentors and on this journey to take us all into a more regenerative and just future... I'm sending you all my deepest gratitude. Also, special shoutout to our Chairwoman (Christiana Musk) and our entire team at Unreasonable — without each of you none of this would be possible ??