Ktisis Capital serves as a strategic advisor to a mix of progressive individual donors, families, foundations and philanthropic collaboratives. Since 2015, we have worked with clients to help them create and refine their grantmaking strategies; manage their charitable, advocacy and political giving and their impact investing; navigate challenging organizational questions on governance, generational transition, and mission change; develop funder collaboratives and donor networks and the related recruitment, engagement and programming strategies to make them thrive; and more.
Based in Michigan, we work with clients across the United States and internationally from South and Central America, to Europe and Australia, strategizing with each client to develop a confidential and customized plan of action. Our client engagements range from deep ongoing partnerships that span years to quick, targeted worked to tackle a specific challenge or question — we adapt to the needs that each client brings our way.
Dr. Jason Franklin is one of the nation’s leading voices on philanthropy and social change. From 2010-2015, he served as executive director of Bolder Giving, an organization credited by Melinda Gates as an inspiration for the Billionaire Giving Pledge. In 2015, Dr. Franklin moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to accept the position as the first W.K. Kellogg Community Philanthropy Chair at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. As the holder of the nation’s first endowed professorship focused on community philanthropy, Jason spent his time on a mix of research, teaching, consulting, advising, and thought leadership focused on collective giving and community philanthropy, nationally and internationally.
As he began his journey as the W.K. Kellogg Community Philanthropy Chair, Jason also launched Ktisis Capital to complement his academic work. Ktisis Capital serves as a strategic advisor to a mix of progressive individual major donors & investors, foundations and philanthropic collaboratives supporting movements for racial, social, economic & environmental justice. In light of the shifting political landscape of the Trump Administration, increased and resurfaced racial tensions and police brutality, and ever widening social divides, Dr. Franklin made the decision to leave the Johnson Center to fully dedicate his time to Ktisis Capital.
Dr. Franklin saw the need to delve deeper into this work, to advise money into the forefront of movements, and support organizations run by those affected. In January 2020, Jason brought in Anna Baeten as COO & managing director, Michael Pratt as the first senior associate, and Jakki Behan as the operations associate. As one of the only firms of its size doing this type of work, Ktisis quickly found footing and gained traction, expanding our team by two in the latter half of 2020; Michele Bookie and Ricardo Benavidez were brought on as senior associates. As the work continues to grow. Ktisis Capital is expanding once more, opening our ranks to a group of affiliated consultants. These affiliates work as members of the Ktisis team to help meet the needs of the field.
Our dedicated team works with clients to help them create and refine their grantmaking strategies; manage their charitable, advocacy and political giving and their impact investing; navigate challenging organizational questions on governance, generational transition, and mission change; develop funder collaboratives and donor networks and the related recruitment, engagement, and programming strategies to make them thrive; and more.
Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis 500–550, with modern restoration. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 301
Ktisis: The Byzantine Goddess of Generosity
We’re often asked about the origins of our firm’s name.
Our founder Dr. Franklin first discovered Ktisis (k’-tī-sīs), the Byzantine goddess of the foundation of buildings and cities and personification of generosity, when he saw the mosaic above at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he moved to New York City in 2002. This mosaic dates to 550 CE and is believed to have been part of a large floor mosaic of a public building of the Byzantine Empire.
Over the years as he visited the Met, the mosaic always caught his attention and he learned more about the goddess she portrayed and he was captivated by the few surviving mosaics of her around the world. As he sought a name for the firm, the combination of a name from an ancient Mediterranean civilization where he could also trace some of his own familial roots that encompassed both the enduring human impulse towards generosity and the importance of planning to create a stable foundation captured his imagination.