About Us | Benefunder

An aligned intermediary for impact through emerging breakthroughs

Following a pediatric health scare in the founder’s family, it became clear how inefficient and misaligned the private funding paradigm was for supporting outcomes that would help other families facing similar challenges. It became apparent that those very same issues were ubiquitous across all cause areas and that dissatisfaction with the experience was not isolated.





Benefunder started as a non-profit and gradually evolved to a for-profit social enterprise in order to leverage the attributes of scale and alignment with the existing ecosystem.

2023

Acquisition of Impactly.

JV with Weild & Co. for Benefunder Capital Markets scale up.

2022

First non-research institution grant made to create industry standards & guidelines for NeuroEthics.

First Impact Venture Fund Capital Placed.

2020

Soft Launch of Benefunder Capital Markets Services.

  • 5 EARLY STAGE COVID-19 COMPANIES FUNDED
  • BENEFUNDER RESEARCHER WINS NOBEL PRIZE FOR GENE EDITING
2019
  • $2M IN RESEARCH FUNDING PLACED
  • 750 RESEARCHERS
  • 22 INSTITUTIONS
2017

Resource for Wealth Management and Multi Family Offices to serve Philanthropic need of client

  • APPROVED ON UBS FAMILY ADVISORY SERVICES PLATFORM
  • FIRST PRIVATE FOUNDATION CLIENT
  • $1.5M IN RESEARCH FUNDING PLACED
2016

For-profit platform integrated w 3rd Party; DAFs and Private Foundations

  • 250 Researchers
  • 7 Institutions
  • Partnered with 4 DAF Administrators
2014

Donor Advised Fund Solution aimed at worthy research ventures in need of funding (non-profit, no ROI):  

  • Non-profit funding vehicle for research
  • 500 Researchers
  • 5 Institutions
2013

Christian’s Nephew Diagnosed with Hepatoblastoma

Team

The Benefunder team is comprised of seasoned veterans from Wall Street and Silicon Valley with over 85 years of philanthropic, investment, data technology, operations, and impact experience. Our backgrounds span wealth management, investment banking, global banking data services as well as startups and non-profits.

Executive Team
Founder
Christian Braemer

Christian’s background is a unique combination of global wealth management. entrepreneurship, and non-profit experience. 
Christian is responsible for the mission and growth of Benefunder.  

Founder
Tom Paparatto

Tom is a pioneer in the data and information industry having a wealth of experience building information businesses and monetizing data assets in the financial services sector.

CTO
Steve Adler

Steve is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years in successful high technology and software development industry creating solutions in the fintech, connected device, cloud-based media, SOA microservices, streaming video, IoT, Blockchain, AI and app ecosystems.

Director
Aaron Morgan LL.M.

Aaron is both Benefunder’s in-house counsel (CLO) and COO - Capital Markets in operational and analyst roles.  Aaron is an entrepreneur, investor, and IP lawyer with extensive experience leading large teams of professionals, all of which he leverages in his multifaceted support of Benefunder clients.

Director, Impactly
Nick Foster

Nick is the co-founder and lead developer of Impactly. Nick combines financial acumen and technical prowess to create bespoke solutions for impact funders. Nick oversees product and client success. 

BOARD
Founder
Christian Braemer

Christian’s background is a unique combination of global wealth management. entrepreneurship, and non-profit experience. 
Christian is responsible for the mission and growth of Benefunder.  

Board Member
Reid Carr

Having focused on multi-channel, integrated marketing for nearly 20 years, Reid Carr is the CEO of award-winning marketing transformation agency, Red Door Interactive. He also sits on the boards of several corporations and nonprofits across several industry sectors.

Board
Ake Persson

With more than 3 decades in executive positions in the global telecom and information’s technology industry, most recently as the President of Ericsson Wireless Communications Inc., Ake serves across industry sectors as CEO advisor and board member.

Board Member
Eric Brisson

Eric brings a wealth of experience as the co-founder of Impactly, a successful entrepreneur, data scientist, philanthropist, and impact investor.  

Advisory Board
Advisor
Dina Shoman

Founder & CEO at InherQuests and Nahji

Advisor
Jim Patrick

Group President Envestnet|PMC at Envestnet, Inc and SVP at The Clark Estates

CTO
Steve Adler

Steve is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years in successful high technology and software development industry creating solutions in the fintech, connected device, cloud-based media, SOA microservices, streaming video, IoT, Blockchain, AI and app ecosystems.

Advisor
Roger Arnemann

Chief Product Officer | Chief Operating Officer

Advisor
Mike Dorsey

Independent Investor and Advisor

Advisor
Charles Froland

CEO at Performance Equity

Advisor
Beth Sirull

President/CEO, Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego

Advisor
Gert Lanckriet PhD

Head of Machine Learning @ Amazon Music

Advisor
Petr Johanes PhD

Petr brings a unique perspective to the Benefunder executive team having served as a researcher, venture capital analyst, and on the investment team for his own family office. He has an innate ability to analyze a situation and quickly identify and communicate actionable opportunities and challenges.

Advisor
Sandra Familet

Sandy serves as Co-CIO for her family office and ED of their foundation. She previously played a pivotal role in Blackrock’s meteoric growth from inception to IPO and was one of the first female executives at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. She’s an associate with The Milken Foundation/Faster Cures, a fellow of The Aspen Institute, one of the earliest supporters of both The Robin Hood Foundation and TED.

Advisor
Darren Lipomi PhD

Professor at University of California San Diego

Advisor
Richard Swart PhD

Richard advises family offices in alternative finance, technology assessment, and strategy. He is recognized as a global thought leader on FinTech and was recently appointed Fellow in Emerging Technology at UC Irvine. Richard advises the Gates Foundation, and works with several other prominent foundations, think tanks, funds and corporations.

Advisor
Karen Landry

Managing Director at Silver Leaf Partners

Advisor
Jonathan Ozeran

Jonathan is a product and operations leader, company builder, investor and advisor. He has assembled, scaled and led product, design, software engineering, hardware engineering and machine learning teams across numerous financing stages (pre-seed through Series G-2).

Advisor
Sarah Griego Cooch

Sarah is Head of Private Wealth and Family Investments for a private family office and has deep experience advising individuals, family offices, and foundations on strategic philanthropy and impact investment.

Advisor
Valerie Conn PhD

Valerie is a science evangelist and entrepreneur helping clients advance frontiers to solve some of humanity's biggest challenges.