Meeting the $1 Trillion Challenge: How Maude’s Ventures is Funding Dementia Care Innovation | The AgeTech Podcast S4E11

Keren Etkin: Giulia, welcome to the show.

Giulia Benvenuto: Hi, Karen. Thank you so much for having me.

Keren Etkin: So could you share some background on the foundation’s mission and history and how this grant came about?

Giulia Benvenuto: Sure. With pleasure. So Maude’s Ventures is one of the programs by the Ferry Foundations and we are a family foundation located in the heart of Seattle. Our founders are Richard and Maude Ferry and they led a life that were passionately engaged in their community and have supported numerous civic and charitable causes.

with a particular focus on Catholic education Catholic faith health care. They established the Ferry Foundation to really grow a culture of giving and of forgiving and legacy of gratitude within the family and the community. Four years ago Richard founded Maude’s Ventures specifically.

And Maude’s Ventures really emerged from Richard’s personal caregiving experience with Maude, his wife, and he walked the caregiving journey for 10 years with Maude, and really discovered firsthand the many unresolved challenges of dementia care. So Richard and his family recognized the need for better care and support for those living with dementia.

So really innovation in care is personal to us. And this is one of, this is why we focus on this. But the other reason why we focus on this is because. Because care is a public health crisis in a country Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America. With cost, expected to exceed 1 trillion by 2050.

So unlike other diseases, the primary economic and human challenge of Alzheimer’s is really care rather than cure, rather than the treatment itself. So Maude’s Ventures, the program. embodies really our commitment to improving care and improving how care is delivered to people living with dementia and their caregiving experience.

So we empower early stage entrepreneurs with $50,000 grants to launch new organizations. tools, programs resources anything really that has the potential to improve the lives of those living with dementia and their caregivers.

Keren Etkin: That’s amazing. And I honestly had no idea that the cost of dementia was expected to reach a trillion dollars. That is, wow, that is a ridiculous amount of money. So you mentioned that Maude’s Ventures has been around for around four years. Can you share a little bit about some of the startups or innovations that came through your program?

Either the ones that you funded or the ones that you ended up not funding for any reason, but you see them doing really well and you’re excited about it.

Giulia Benvenuto: Yeah. Sure. So yeah, we’ve been around for four years, which is not a long time, but we had the pleasure to. really find, discover and fund incredible people and incredible organizations. So I’m gonna go like that chronologically. So a few years back we awarded grant, our grant to Taproot by Ella, whose founders were developing a digital AI assistant that mitigates adverse behaviors in Alzheimer’s and.

dementia and they promote aging in place while supporting continuity of care from the family caregivers to Other care options. So whether it’s in a facility, for example. So this was a really, high tech solution that presented at sophisticated design. And we saw the potential and the broad impact that it can have on the dementia community across the country.

After that, and we are still We’re still very much like we support our funders very much after the the grant period, so we are still connected with the with the owners and founders of Taproot by Ella, and we know that they’re doing a great job. They’re doing very well, and they are expanding their their services from senior facilities to in home care so that is really great for us to hear.

Another of our winners a few years back was Lorenzo’s House, led by Deanna Coase. And Deanna came to us with the idea of establishing the first Nonprofit organization with the mission of empowering family care partners air and their loved ones by addressing the social and clinical needs of families living with younger onset Alzheimer’s.

And just last week I joined one of their one of their online webinars events where I had the pleasure to learn about Lorenzo’s house, like most recent developments and achievements. And in just three years. Since our granting which was the very first grant, Lorenzo’s House has become the national leader in outreach and support for families encountering younger onset Alzheimer’s.

And really, Lorenzo’s House stands out as a testament to the power of Maude’s Ventures and our community. Entrepreneurial approach. Really proud of this. Most recently, so just last year on 2023, we awarded Maude’s Ventures grants to Memory Cafe Alliance and led by three leaders, Anne Besting, Susan McFadden, and Beth Salzberg.

With our funding, they developed A plan last year throughout the entire time like they developed a plan to equitably and sustainably grow the number of memory cafes around the country. So currently there are only 900 memory cafes around the country with a population living with dementia of over 11 million.

And they are in 10 years, their plan is to grow the number of memory cafes from 900 to 9000. So 10x the Memory Café has played an important role for social engagement and fighting isolation and stigma surrounding people living with dementia. And these places really can make, in these places, people living with dementia really can make meaningful connections and experience joy and purpose with their caregivers.

And last couple of weeks ago, we were actually at the, I don’t know if you know about the Grandmakers in Aging Network. So we were there at the annual conference and we sponsored and the alliance so our past grantee, we sponsored them and they had the opportunity to, get in contact with the network of funders in aging of the GIA offers.

Their plan, and we are really excited that we were there for them in that moment, which really represents their, the next step in their initiatives. Something that I would like to share about this year’s application cycle. We, I thought it was really interesting to see like a trend of Innovations that reflect like a need from, like a need for social engagement, but there was really an interesting combination of social engagement and the arts and how Arts in all of the forms can support and can improve the quality of life that was living with dementia.

We were really yeah, that really stood out to us and we are we haven’t moved forward with some of these some of these applicants and applications and in the evaluation process. But nonetheless, we were really impressed with ideas that are. Are being, cultivated around the country.

Keren Etkin: Wow. It sounds like you have a lot on your plate and it also sounds like you have a really broad mandate in terms of the innovations that the Foundation Awards grants to. So can you shed some light on any specific challenges in dementia that you are Really interested in funding solutions for

Giulia Benvenuto: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. First of all, we’re passionate about ideas that have the potential to scale and to bring a very broad impact to the greatest number of people in the world. with dementia in the country. We’re particularly interested in solutions that address the need for caregiver respite. This is something that is very close to our funders our funders experience and our funders approach.

Caregiving in the U.S is a significant societal issue with millions of individuals that are in need. They are providing unpaid care to their loved ones at home every day. So this role, while often rewarding, presents a lot of challenges for these caregivers, for financial challenges, physical, mental challenges.

We’re also particularly interested in solutions that address the most vulnerable part of the dementia community. And for us, that means people at the later stages of the disease, so people with late stage dementia which are. is unfortunately usually the part of the population that is mostly impacted by the stigma surrounding dementia, and they’re very much considered as, they’re not there anymore.

So why bother, why placing so much efforts but we admire innovations and innovators. that, seek to support this part of the population, always ensuring dignity and quality of life at every stage of the, of this condition. Because after all aging really affects us all, and the challenges of dementia should be viewed.

Not just as challenges and problems of burdens, even though we see them as opportunities to really improve the quality of care and life for people living with dementia. So we also know that seeking funding can be a daunting process, especially for those people that are at the early stage of the innovation journey.

But we have streamlights. Streamlined, this process with our, I think, very straightforward application process. And, as I mentioned earlier, crucial to our evaluation is the potential to scale and the path to financial sustainability of some of the ideas that we that we go through during the application cycle.

And of course, what we really like to see is a strategic use. of Maude’s Ventures funds, meaning we like to be catalytic with our funding. And we like to, launch an idea and really see it like taking off, from just an idea to reality.

Keren Etkin: so basically seed funding.

Giulia Benvenuto: Correct. Seed funding. Yes.

Keren Etkin: Speaking of the application process, can you share a bit about how your application process works? How long does it typically take you to give applicants a response on the way that they’re going to receive the grant or not. And also does it happen to you sometimes that you give applicants feedback and then they apply the next year and then they get it?

How does that work?

Giulia Benvenuto: Yeah, sure. I like to speak to that. So our application cycle usually starts in the spring. So we don’t have set dates really. It’s quite flexible, but usually starts in the spring. And we we usually get the get applicants responses by The fall by the beginning of the fall.

That process really can change. Like it can be longer or shorter, depending on the number of applications we received. For example, this year has been record breaking number of applications. We had 130 applicants, something that we hadn’t seen before. So really, that, that was very demanding for us.

But also we were very excited about this. So the. The application process starts with a very streamlined a streamlined process from our website. The applicant, we ask, requires some basic information and then they can upload a two page statement of purpose. Basically where they describe the idea where they can talk about the team behind the idea and they can also, speak to what type, what need they are trying to address.

What is the unmet need and the challenge that they are trying to address within dementia care? And on top of that, we also ask for two letters of support. And those can come from. Previous, current or prospective partners. We really, we’re not really strict with that, but we like seeing, we like seeing a second, just a second eye on this and a second thoughts on, on, on the applicant.

And we actually thought that because this is like a new approach to application, we actually thought that might have, scared a lot of applicants away because maybe it would have been a bit better. It was a bit more difficult to, find people to write up to two letters of support. But no, actually, that turned out to be not an issue at all.

So we were happy to see that, and we really enjoyed this type of application process. So throughout throughout the application period usually applicants the application period lasted through the Three a little bit less than three months and then during the review of the application we also, we evaluated the Applications with what we call Maude’s team.

a small group of it’s a small group of professionals and People that have personal or professional experience with dementia. So this year we were happy to Form our Maude s team like here in Seattle. So we met with them in person. It was a great experience and they provided extremely helpful guidance during our selection process of the finalist and of the semi finalist and the finalist.

So during the time that we review applications, we do realize that, applicants. want to hear a response, so I am very, I very much care about that and to maintain a very transparent communication with applicants. So I’m in contact with them, letting them know what part, what step of the review process we’re at.

And we always hope to give, obviously. Plan to give a response by the end of the summer by fall. We this past application cycle. Of course, we have to say. a lot of no’s. Actually, very shortly, we will be announcing our winner. So there’s one winner this time around.

And, we had to see a lot of, we had to see a lot of no’s, and they were difficult no’s. They were really difficult no’s. We had some really incredible people and, but, I I also offered feedback, and I know how important that is. And absolutely, we. We’re open to that and we’re open to applicants reapplying again.

Actually, we encourage that if, if they have been working on their projects they have incorporated the feedback that we provided them or other partners provided them with. We absolutely, would like to see it again in our applicant pool. But I think, I think it’s a very precious thing.

And I this past cycle was tough just because of a lot of a lot of applicants and a lot of unfortunate rejections. But I, I made sure that whoever was asking for it, I Was able to provide them with feedback with thoughts, and yeah, hopefully, hopefully they were well taken and and received.

Keren Etkin: I’m sure they were. And it’s always helpful to receive feedback whenever you apply to something and you get rejected because you always can learn from the experience and maybe create a better application for the next grant. Before we wrap up, can you share with us your vision for Maude’s Ventures future and for the foundation’s future?

How do you see these grants impacting innovations in dementia in the next few years?

Giulia Benvenuto: Yeah, absolutely. We think Maude’s Venture is well positioned to continue growing as a program within the foundation. And we’re really determined to become a leading funder in the field of dementia care and develop new programs. A robust network of innovators across the country because of our unique approach to funding in dementia care, that focuses on seed funding, but also that is open to nonprofits and for profits entities.

One of our long term goal is to build a robust set of resources for our grantees. So we don’t want to be ordinary funders where, just give the money and then. That’s it. We don’t follow up with them. We really want to really care about our our founders really care about our innovators and we want to offer them more than just financial support.

We’re really working towards building that. The foundation is part of a significant network of other funders and we want our grantees to have access to that. As I mentioned, we, the foundation is a member of GIA, of Grantmakers in Aging and that was, just an example of what we can offer to to our grantees.

One other thing, one other goal that I’m really, really excited about is for Maude’s Ventures to open the doors for young founders and innovators out there. So we were surprised that among our applicant pool this past this past summer there were some impressive young founders like literally young funders, high schoolers and early graduates.

Even though we were not able to move them forward in the evaluation process, we were highly impressed and that kind of served as a wake up call to us. There’s, there are. There are really incredible people out there that are working on something meaningful. And we, we think that young, promising entrepreneurs have a fresh and innovative take on how to improve the lives of those living with dementia, thinking also about the fact that in the United States, there is a growing number of young caregivers.

So as mentioned, there’s a lot of families that are experiencing younger onset dementia. And that means that there are a lot of. Kids, or adolescents, teenagers that are becoming caregivers to their not so old parents. There are people out there that are experiencing dementia, Alzheimer’s and the caregiving experience in a very particular way.

And we want to empower whoever has an idea to help. No matter the age, no matter, certainly no matter the age, but we want to really empower those who have significantly impactful ideas out there. So I’m sure Maude’s Venture is going to grow into, I’m very excited for it, and I am really committed to, have Maude’s Ventures become a resourceful and impactful program in dementia care.

So Hopefully, that is, that is the path forward and we’re working towards that.

Keren Etkin: Awesome. Is there anything else that we didn’t talk about that you would like to talk about or that you would like to add?

Giulia Benvenuto: Um, I’m just gonna yeah, why not? Anyone listening out there, anyone interested in Maude’s Ventures, really feel free to reach out to, to Not really to us, but to me you can find all the information on our website. I am very responsive so I really would love to get in contact with anyone and discuss any future opportunities with Maude’s Ventures.

Our application process will start next spring which is Which is not late, but soon enough. And hopefully, hopefully we can just get you all set up for it.

Keren Etkin: Awesome. I will put the link to Maude’s Ventures websites in the show notes and anyone listening or watching this, you can contact Giulia directly from that website. Giulia, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and chatting with you.

Giulia Benvenuto: Yeah, thank you, Karen. It was great opportunity to talk about Maude’s Ventures and meeting you.

Keren Etkin: Thank you so much.