This page was written by Stefan, the funder behind Arising Quo, to shed light on the background that led to the genesis of this project.

“Arising Quo is not about me, nor should it be. But in some ways, it is impossible to disentangle from the journey around the wealth I have inherited - whether I like it or not.

The birth lottery placed me into an excessively wealthy family.

There are very different ways to tell the story of how that wealth came to be accumulated in the first place. I could tell you about my late grandfather (it's always a man, isn't it?) who joined the family company, later became Chairman of the Board, and eventually sold an extremely successful pharmaceutical business. Obviously, this company created numerous meaningful and well-paid jobs. But this would conveniently obscure the fact that the employees - the very people working day in, day out for the firm - have never seen anything like the level of wealth I have access to, and for which I have not worked one day of my life.

A different way of telling the story, would be to attend to the company’s role as a leading supplier of quinine – an extract from the bark of the fever tree and the primary medication against malaria. We can choose to focus on the multiple benefits this had for humanity and thereby (somehow) justify the immense profits it made possible. Or we could explore how the rise and success of the pharmaceutical industry in the Global North is linked to colonial history, as natural resources (and the labour needed to extract and process them) often come from regions in the Global South that were colonies of (former) empires. In my case, there is a direct link - quinine - to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even though no one in my family is originally from this country.

I'm sharing these details because they illustrate how decades of racial, financial, class and gender privilege compound on each other. Together, they shape the position of disproportionate structural power I hold in particular, and that rich people hold in society in general. All too often, this goes unrecognised. Of course, recognition is only a first, necessary but not sufficient, step towards redistribution - subsequent steps being about action.

Admittedly, before 2020, I was doing my best to forget about the wealth and the associated privileges. I only really started grappling with how I wanted to live in alignment with my values as an inheritor of wealth as the pandemic held up a mirror to my face and forced me to answer difficult questions. I'm extremely grateful that I found organisations such as Resource Transformation, Guerrilla Foundation and Active Philanthropy: they have been formative in shaping my ideas about wealth redistribution, and to launch my redistribution journey.

Since then, I've been active as a funder in various contexts, as well as engaging with other wealth holders around their philanthropic efforts. As my redistribution grew and unfolded, I've learned a lot about theories of change and best practices in grantmaking, but I've also come to question the inherent weaknesses and contradictions of the philanthropic field. Arising Quo was born out of this reflection journey. It's a commitment to escalate my redistribution, to make it more transparent and, hopefully, more transformative (more on this buzzword).

I've embarked on this journey with an emergent mindset. I'm expecting missteps along the way, especially for all that I fail to see because of my privileged blinders. I look forward to learning together with others, to show up for the work and to get told where my blind spots lie - and to adapt accordingly.”