ERICERICERICSINGLETONSINGLETONSINGLETON

I am a strategist, researcher, and designer living in San Francisco. I work at the intersection of philanthropy, emerging technology, and physical craft.

Every grant portfolio I have worked in taught me the same thing: strategy gets stronger when it is built the way designers build. Start with research alongside the people closest to the problem, name the insights and key drivers, then make the thing, whether that thing is a funding strategy or a working prototype. Philanthropy is the ecosystem. Design is the method.

The ecosystem came first: seven years at three very different foundations, from a community foundation in South Carolina to a global health funder to grassroots climate grantmaking in the Bay Area. Along the way I worked across a $300M annual portfolio, co-authored a national health strategy alongside a ministry of health, and helped launch an open call that drew 400+ applications from youth-led climate movements. The method is what I went to Stanford to deepen, and it now runs through AI governance research with a Great Plains Tribal Nation and design work from Karachi to Taipei.