Institute For The Future

Meet Director of Philanthropy and Foresight Charles Tsai!

Charles Tsai, Director of Philanthropy and Foresight

Charles Tsai lives in Vancouver, and brings his deep experience in philanthropy to IFTF—a field that he believes is due for some big, structural change.

“Typically, people talk about philanthropy as society's risk capital,” Charles says. “But the problem is, we haven't really used that money to take big risks and make big bets to bring about the transformations that we need in the world.”

He was drawn to join IFTF as our Director of Philanthropy and Foresight because of the potential to weave futures thinking into philanthropy. He wants to use his work here to become part of a push away from short-term thinking.

“I'm hoping that, with a few foundations, we can tell a different story about what philanthropy could be,” Charles says. “That would change the way we give out grants and how we engage different stakeholders...to create change in a collaborative way.”

This interest in big narratives and big change resonates in Charles’ media consumption as well. He cites the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn as the first book that, as you’re reading it, deconstructs “the dominant narratives that live in your head,” and offers an inspiring vision of what humanity could be. “I’ve never had another book that has had that kind of impact on me,” he says.

Charles comes to us from the Fossil Foundation, but the first phase of his career was as an on-air reporter for CNN. He has some fascinating stories to tell from that time, but there’s one that takes the cake.

“I think I'm the only Asian person to ever step into the ring with Evander Holyfield,” Charles says.

We warmly welcome Charles to the IFTF team!