Tegan Acton

Founder and Co-chair, Wildcard Giving; Principal, Sunlight Giving, Solidarity Giving, Acton Family Giving

Tegan and Brian Acton are the founders and co-chairs of Wildcard Giving, a family of philanthropic entities created following the sale of WhatsApp to Facebook in 2014. Tegan serves as the principal at each of the sister entities, which work together to further civic values, collective responsibility, and our common humanity. Independent of Wildcard Giving, Brian serves as the Executive Chairman of the Signal Technology Foundation, which strives to make private communication accessible and ubiquitous.

Prior to establishing Wildcard Giving, Tegan served as the Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives for the office of the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. She additionally held positions at Yahoo! and the Sundance Institute, and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a BA in English and Political Science. Tegan is the head of Good Gravy Films, which provides grants and equity funding to independent films, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Contributions

The Principles of Effective Family Philanthropy: Reflection & Learning

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Tegan Acton, Regan Pritzker, Mailee Walker, Don Chen, David Weitnauer

 Effective family philanthropy makes a collective commitment to meaningful societal change. It holds itself accountable to impact as defined by community, and to the proven practices that support it. It is adaptive, evolving with the family and the community or ecosystem within which it operates. It shares or cedes power with different family members and generations, as well as… Read More

Pluralism in Family Philanthropy: Navigating Tensions and Bridging Divides for Impact

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Uma Viswanathan, Tegan Acton, Heather Templeton Dill, Brian Hooks, Nicholas A. Tedesco

Group of people of on top of the mountain at sunset
In an increasingly divisive society, people are facing complex, challenging dialogues around politics, ethics, and social issues, struggling to manage perspectives across the political aisle and facilitate healthy discourse with multiple viewpoints. What is taking place on a macro scale is mirrored within individual families—difficult conversations, distinct political and cultural divides, and in many cases gridlock or an inability to… Read More

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