The Andy Altahawi Grant is being organized to do one thing well: make direct grants. Not to run programs in a dozen directions, not to lend its name to causes it cannot see through — to find students, clinics, and community programs that need money to do work that matters, and to pay for it.
The initiative grows out of one observation from its founder’s own life. Four decades of work across two demanding professions — international law since 1988, and the U.S. capital markets since 1994 — and every consequential door along the way was opened first by education, then by access, and at the decisive moments by someone willing to give a stranger a start. The grant is the systematic version of what those people did informally.
What the grant will do
- Make direct grants. Tuition and study support for students; operating support for legal aid clinics and clinical education; program support for financial-literacy and enterprise training. The three areas are set out on the Areas of Giving page.
- Publish its standards. Eligibility rules, selection criteria, and grant terms will be published on this site before the first application opens, and outcomes will be reported plainly.
- Stay narrow on purpose. Education, legal access, and economic opportunity — the three fields the founder actually knows something about. A grant-maker that funds everything funds nothing well.
- Publish its founder’s record. Whole, unedited, and one click away. See Credentials & Record.
How it will be funded
The grant is intended to be funded by its founder from the proceeds of his working practice — the listing advisory and consultancy work described under The Practice Today. It does not solicit or accept donations from the public, and no payment functionality exists anywhere on this site. If that ever changes, it will be announced here first, with whatever registrations the change requires.
Why philanthropy, and why now
Because the arithmetic of a career eventually becomes obvious. Four decades of advising companies on how to raise capital teaches you exactly how much of the world never gets within reach of any of it — and how small the sums are that change a particular person’s trajectory. A single year of tuition. A clinic that can afford one more staff attorney. A training program that survives another season. Those are not abstractions; they are line items, and they are affordable.
Governance, when it is formed
On formation, the grant intends to operate with a written charter, a published conflict-of-interest policy, an independent review step for every award, and annual public reporting of what was given and to whom. Those documents will be posted on this site as they are adopted. Until then, nothing here should be read as describing an existing legal entity — see the Terms & Disclosures.