Plenty of donors write the check first and ask questions later. JP Conte runs it the other way around. He treats a grant as an investment in an organization’s ability to deliver rather than a reward for good intentions.
Two of his giving principles do most of the heavy lifting here, and both would look familiar to anyone who’s watched him evaluate a company.
Capacity before checks
Before committing money to schools, Conte went and looked. He interviewed and visited each one, then sorted them by whether they could actually do the work. “I interviewed each school, visited each school, and learned that some of the schools were really good at it, good at providing resources, attracting that talent, and even mentoring that talent while they were at school,” Conte said.
That legwork shaped where the Conte First Generation Fund landed, concentrating support at 11 universities that showed both the will and the machinery to back first-generation students.
Leadership decides outcomes
When he saw a nonprofit’s Bay Area operation drifting, he pushed for a leadership change instead of simply topping up the budget, and the numbers moved sharply afterward. That experience taught him to read the people at the top before the balance sheet.
His $5 million gift to UCSF followed a leader he’d come to trust. “Andy is such a great leader. He’s on a mission to find better solutions for brain health. He’s brilliant, but he’s also full of empathy and drive. When I met him, I knew I wanted to support his work at UCSF,” Conte said.
Start early, choose well
The vetting feeds a wider pattern in how Conte gives. He favors reaching students early, which led to a $250,000 gift to 10,000 Degrees in 2023, funding work that reaches children as young as eighth grade.
Early reach only works with organizations sturdy enough to sustain it, which loops right back to the first test. Capacity and timing turn out to be two halves of the same decision, and he applies them together rather than one at a time.
Measurement as a habit
Affluent donors are increasingly bringing evaluation frameworks to their giving, and the 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy found the practice spreading. Conte’s hands-on oversight fits that shift rather than resisting it.
Conte, founder and managing partner of Lupine Crest Capital, shows that a performance lens and genuine empathy can share the same desk. Rigor tells him where the money can work; conviction tells him why it should.