“Let It Be Joyful”: June Wilson on Lessons Learned from Spending Up at Quixote Foundation
Last night of Quixote Foundation’s farewell “Launch Party” in 2016.
In May 2022 our new executive director, June Wilson, spoke with Priscilla Enriquez, chief executive officer of The James B. McClatchy Foundation, about June’s previous experience with spending up as executive director of the Quixote Foundation, which closed in 2016 after a 10-year spend up campaign.
In the clips below, June shares some of the lessons she learned and offers advice for other foundations that are on a similar journey.
You led Quixote Foundation through its spending up journey. Can you describe that experience in one word?
How did Quixote Foundation arrive at the phrase “spending up”?
How did you prepare Quixote’s grantee partners for the foundation’s closure?
What did you learn about the needs of Quixote’s core grantees during this time?
Quixote gifted a grantee an impact investment in a Renewal2 fund as part of its spending up journey. How did that turn out?
There were fewer family foundations spending up at the same time as Quixote. What were some of the reactions from others?
How does Quixote’s spending up journey inform your work at Compton Foundation?
What is your advice for other foundations that are spending up?