Episode 48: Laura Merage and Sabrina Merage Naim

Join Lori and her guests, Laura and Sabrina Merage, in this conversation about "generational philanthropy." Laura and Sabrina come from a family of business owners as well as philanthropists. In this episode, they talk about having a legacy that comes from a passion perspective, rather than from a duty-bound perspective. What is its impact on the next generation? Stay tuned!

Here are the things to expect in this episode:

Coming from a family that values philanthropy more than anything in their lives. Having their own individual foundations within the family. Supporting a cause that they feel passionate about. Taking on a legacy is huge pressure on the next generation, whether they’re passionate about it or not. What does a conversation on philanthropy look like between generations? Recognizing that storytelling is a form of social impact. And much more!

About Laura and Sabrina Merage:

Laura Merage is an accomplished artist and venture philanthropist who leads initiatives that impact the lives of thousands of people every day. Laura’s generosity has made a profound impact on Denver’s Art and Culture landscape, including the 2008 launch of RedLine Contemporary Art Center, an urban art laboratory fostering education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change. As RedLine flourished over the last decade, Laura envisioned another dynamic nonprofit, and founded Black Cube in 2015, a nonprofit, experimental art museum that operates nomadically and aims to nurture the self-sufficiency of artists and inspire people to experience contemporary art beyond traditional white museum and gallery walls. Laura brings her artistic and business expertise to these organizations and provides strategic leadership to the David and Laura Merage Foundation’s Early Childhood Education and Jewish Life initiatives. Laura serves on the University of Tel Aviv Board and is an emeritus board member for the Anti-Defamation League.

Sabrina Merage Naim (she/her) is passionate about promoting tolerance and inclusivity between religious, cultural, racial, and ethnic communities. She founded the Sabrina Merage Foundation in 2008 with the intention of building bridges between diverse societies through educational programs for young people. Sabrina focuses much of her philanthropic efforts on uniting communities and paving the way for individuals from diverse backgrounds to connect, teach, and learn from one another. Sabrina is also the founder of Echo Capital Group, a venture capital firm focused on early stage investments in consumer product companies founded by young, driven entrepreneurs who are developing exciting concepts for the uniquely individual Millennial demographic.

Connect with Laura and Sabrina!

Laura Merage: https://merage.org/
Sabrina Merage: https://sabrinameragefoundation.org/
Evoke Media: https://weareevokemedia.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakingglasspod/

Connect with Lori Kranczer!

Episode Transcript

Guests: Laura Merage and Sabrina Merage Naim

You're listening to the positive impact laughing podcast where we share the journeys of everyday Philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into their lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey and through the stories we will share here. We hope it sparks something in you and how you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host, Laurie Panzer attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy and strategies. Together we're going to explore what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist and make a positive impact in the world. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode. So I'm really excited today. This has been like a long time coming in the wind to interview these individuals and we also have two people with us today. So joining me here today is Laura Merage and her daughter, Sabrina Merage, welcome both of you.

Thank you.

So, I'm just gonna read off your background just a bit and then I would love for you to just elaborate and tell us more about you. So Laura, you're an accomplished artist and adventurer, philanthropist which I want you to talk more about. You're the founder of Black Cube and RedLine Contemporary Art Center. And Sabrina you are the founder of Eco Capital and Sabrina Merage foundation so I can just tell by what I'm reading off from your bio that you're both philanthropist and I want to talk more about that but also your business owners. So I want to talk more about that as well. So whoever wants to jump in first.

I guess I'll go on to give you a little bit of a background of where I'm from and how I came to be a philanthropist. I was born in Iran and in a family with a culture of giving. So very early on, I learned what it means to give back and it was almost like requirements in our family and mostly by our mothers and grandmothers and their families and women and so it was built into my upbringing and so my mother was my role model. And it was beautiful to watch her operate as someone who took giving very seriously and I also learned a lot from my mother in law, Catherine Merage, which was beautiful.

That’s great. And Sabrina, where did your philanthropic intent come from?

Yeah, it's similar actually, because, as my mom mentioned, so much of our philanthropic ethos is very multigenerational in nature. And certainly seeing my grandmother's and the strong kind of philanthropic women that they are Catherine Merage, has, for most of her life been extremely giving just so generous and growing up with that culture and then again, my parents seeing that that was such an important part of their lives being you know, both of them being kind of business oriented in different ways. My mom more as an artist, my father as a businessman, but their philanthropy kind of trumps all of that right it was so much more important for them. It was so much more important than anything else that they were doing that they felt like their philanthropy was really representative of their social beliefs and being able to make the world a better place. And I was fortunate enough to to really just grow up with that kind of environment. And it was baked into me and something that was kind of hard lined into my mentality from a very early age. Is that similar to what my mom said it is, it is our responsibility. It is absolutely our responsibility, being in a position of privilege to to do something about it and to give back. There's just no other option.

So let's talk a little about giving back because I'm sure our listeners would love to hear. How does that translate to what have you done? philanthropically?

Yeah, our family is a little bit unique in that most families of wealth that have a foundation there's generally one large family foundation, maybe there's a board where multiple families sit, and they all kind of make a decision on where they grant to. And our family is a little bit unique in that we have each of us individually our own foundations, which actually gave us the flexibility to find our own passion projects and to not kind of have any infighting about well I want to get here and I want to get there. It was much more of an opportunity for us and it actually even from a young age pushed us my brother and I and hasn't it pushed us to be more aware of what were the social issues and social impact issues. That we felt passionate about. So for example, my parents who have their foundation, the David Elora Mirage Foundation, have focused on early childhood education, on art in Israel. Those are the projects and the areas that they care a lot about and I'll let my mom speak more to that. I came to philanthropy more from a personal experience around inequity. It was from an early age on college campuses where I was seeing swastikas graffiti on dorm walls. I was seeing racial tensions between black students and white students in our university. And it was so easy at the time to go to other people when you don't know them, right. It's just so easy to kind of put your prejudices on individuals who are different, let have different life experiences when you're not faced with the reality that these are people and we are all people and we all have similar lived experiences. And so for me it became really important to create an organization that brought individuals together from different backgrounds, and maybe even conflicting backgrounds to create more education, awareness and dialogue. And that has evolved in many ways too. I recently created an organization called Evoke Media as a subsidiary of my foundation, which is investing in social issue documentaries, and we're executive producing documentaries that are around storytelling, you know of these issues. It could be immigration in the United States. It could be abortion in Ireland, they could be indigenous populations and women going missing in those communities. I mean, it could be a variety of issues, but it's all about raising our awareness of lived experiences that aren't may not be our own, and creating more empathy and awareness of those things. So that's kind of where I focused and I'll let my mom talk a little bit more about what they do.

Yeah, we focus on family focus, is because I'm an artist, and I have firsthand experience the difficulties what artists experienced in their lives in recent history, we have come to devalue the arts once upon a time our boys and poisons and taught in classes and in schools, but unfortunately, that has kind of gone by the wayside. Even though all the research shows that our children learn the core language, the core subjects like languages, and math and science are better when they are exposed to the arts and music. So we began with focus in contemporary art, as well as early care and education and that changed from experiencing my own shifts in school and their challenges in education. When they were young, realizing that that's an area that we really need to all of us focus on and make sure that all hardships across the board, get a good education. And of course, Jewish life is something where, again, we feel passionately about what I'm very involved in.

So this is really interesting. I'm gonna go into something very transactional, but i i It's so interesting because many, many philanthropists when they're working on their philanthropy feel like they're each generation to support the same causes, like the shared values that they have in philanthropy, it should be passed along to each generation. And that's not the case here. And I think it's a really, like incredible point to call out because everyone has their own identity and the values and what they want to support so I'm, I really applaud the fact that you have created your own foundations to support those causes. Just on a transactional level, what did that look like? How did you all decide to do separate foundations and what sort of resources helped you through the process?

Well, it was very important to us that our children feel as passionately about philanthropy and what they were doing, as we found alcohol throughout the years. So we had many, many conversations. And this began when our kids were very young. And some might argue that they were too young to have these really serious conversations. Maybe they weren't ready for it, but I think it set up the foundation for success later on. And as part of that conversation, we had to be good listeners and find out what are my kids where their passions lie, instead of telling them what to do and what to feel strongly about and passionately about. We want them to have their own voice and work on areas that they feel strongly about. And I'll just echo that as the next generation. Because I think oftentimes, what can happen in legacy businesses legacy foundations is that it becomes almost a burden for the next generation to take on the legacy of generations before whether they're interested or not, whether they're passionate or not, whether they're capable or not. Right. And that is a lot of pressure to put on your kids, your grandkids future generation. And I think one of the things that I really appreciate about this is it allowed me to pave the path for myself to find the things that I cared deeply about. And now, that is such an important part of my life, right? I am a business owner. I do run a venture capital fund and that is something that I'm also passionate about, but I can tell you that there are many days where my philanthropic activities take the lion's share of the hours of my day and I'm just thrilled by that. And it doesn't come without complexities to be fair, because right now we have multiple generations of our family that are still alive and active and doing their own thing. Well, what happens when, you know, hopefully, in 120 years, my parents aren't around anymore, but their foundation still exists. Yeah, someone is going to have to continue that legacy. And that will be something that I will gladly do to honor them and to honor the work that they've created. But it exists you know, it will continue it will go on to someone else someone will need to manage that. So it's not without complexities for sure, but I do think that when it comes to bringing in the next generation, from a passion perspective, and not from a duty bound perspective, this was an extremely impactful way of doing it, or whatever was

For us it is important that whatever we do, it continues to generate power. We're not doing this from a place of ego. We do it to feel good about it and when we're gone it is so close. To us that we're really doing this to uplift people towards a better future for all of us. And if it's not sustainable, then David and I feel that is us and has not been successful. So that has been part of the conversations with our kids.

And you can imagine that some of those conversations have been quite spirited and so we're jumping ahead a little bit talking about legacy in the future and I want to get to that a moment. But just talking about, as you mentioned, conversations amongst the generations. What does that look like? Are there family meetings, you have scheduled meetings to talk about philanthropy as a family and what everyone is doing? Or is everyone pretty much siloed in what they're working on and just share our stories as they come up?

It's a little bit of a mix, actually, because we don't want it to feel so formal that we need to have set meetings every time we want to talk about what it is that we're doing. But we also rely on each other and the guidance of an experience from each member of the family to help us and ensure that we're on the right path. So there are times when I will go to members of my family and get guidance from them, get advice from them, but there's also a lot of freedom in terms of, for example, my activities are very much my own. And I have the ability to make decisions, my own philanthropy and that's true for other members of the family as well. But I would say that it's much more collaborative than restrictive and it's much more formal than informal.

Yeah. Favorite part of family gatherings are these discussions since Sabrina and John and my son were very young. We have fun conversations around the dinner table. And of course, philanthropy was a big part of that. So that those conversations continue today.

And actually I would even say that so many of the so many of the projects that we created were based on family dinner conversations, like something was happening in the world. And we got into a really impassioned conversation about it. And then instead of what I think a lot of people feel when you're faced with a challenge that is so big in the world where you want to just throw your hands up and be like, well, that sucks. I guess this is just the reality. We've been kind of conditioned to say okay, well what are you going to do about it? And a lot of the projects that we started, whether individually or as a family have been based on conversations like that, or something is happening in the world that feels like an injustice that feels like a white space that feels like an opportunity. And then we have the well what are you going to do about it conversation? And that, for me, has always been really exciting because you feel like your words have the possibility for real action and impact. Absolutely. And it's interesting listening to both of you. A lot of the same words keep popping up in conversations and storytelling and I'd love for you just to address that. Like how does that work into your philanthropy and and your multigenerational philanthropy.

Storytelling is something that has become really important for me and something that I recognized in my philanthropy as being a real tool for impact. So I would say that a lot of the work that I had been doing for the first decade of my foundations existence was and continues to be more traditional nonprofit, giving, you know, finding organizations or initiatives or even individuals who are doing work that is in line with my mission and I feel can have a real impact but the truth of it is that in with that kind of model. It's multi-generational. The hope is multi-generational impact, right? That the work that we are doing today will change the lives of my grandchildren and future generations and it's slow, and it's important, we need to do it. We need to continue that work because we are creating a fundamental shift in society and that is not something that can happen overnight. But that I started mirroring those efforts with storytelling, and part of it came from how we tell stories in our family of generations before like it's so important to me to hear, for example, that just two generations ago my grandfather was born and grew up in the poorest part of the Jewish ghetto of Iran, and was picking up buttons from the street and trying to sell it for pennies just to get food for his family. And he went through famine, and he went through all kinds of hardship. That was just two generations ago. I am now in a position of privilege to be able to help people who were like him. And so those kinds of legacy stories that are personal to me, changed my life. And recognizing that storytelling as a form of social impact is also so important is something that became a really, you know, fundamental part of my philanthropy through evoke media, through our documentaries through my podcast, breaking glass where we talk to women all around the world who are really pushing beyond gender boundaries, and getting to know those intimate stories. You really change hearts and minds and it's much more immediate I find, so being able to take those stories off of a screen or out of your earphones and then figuring out what is the impact on the ground. That's something that has become extremely important to me.

Laura?

Yeah, I second everything that Sabrina says: storytelling is hugely important for everybody really and in our family. From the beginning it has been essential. It has been essential to put things in context to make our children realize that it took a lot for previous generations to a lot of hard work, a lot of very harsh and rough experiences to bring them to this point where they are living a life of privilege and that they cannot they may not take it for granted at any point in their life. And then what does that mean that that comes with the responsibility of giving back that we expect them to now turn around others and sisters help them to bring them to where they are now. That's usually important.

Yeah, now we're gonna get to our last question now, but from what Sabrina had mentioned, before, that philanthropy was baked into the family and into the conversation, and it really it's part of your identity and to what it sounds like and now as you think about the vision for the future, and yes, it's it's, you know, could be generations away, but what it feels like they're pulling back, what do you want your legacy to look like?

For me, is paramount, the number one, all the hard work that the previous generations did to bring us out of the ghetto to help us be where we are now is not wasted. Where does that mean? That means that in return, we are now helping others come to a place where they are lifted up and they can help their communities. We have very lofty ideas. Some might laugh at us, when we say that we're really looking to make the world a better place for all of us. We go beyond just our own communities. And that is a very important goal that we have and we're very serious about it. So, for that to happen it takes many generations and I it is up to us and our responsibility to tell the stories to make our children and grandchildren understand why philanthropy is important in any area that they the important than is their passion. At the same time, I have to say that as much as we hope that our children and grandchildren, maybe even great grandchildren, learn from the US and our changing grandparents. We are also learning from them. There's so much that I have learned from Sabrina and my son Jonathan. Sabrina is quite a powerhouse or so. And I'm always talking to her and trying to learn from her, where she comes from what she's thinking or experience. And that has been very beneficial.

And, Sabrina What would you like your legacy today? Yeah, it's, um, it's actually quite similar. I would say a lot of the things that I think about are that I grew up as part of the generation that saw how hard my family had to work to get us to where we are today. I experienced that I saw it. It's not. There was no sense of entitlement for me. And the message that I had gotten for most of my life is that you are a custodian to this. It is your duty to ensure that you pass this down to the gentleman next generation and further of your family and that philanthropy is a huge part of that. And so, to me, I have no ego about the position that I'm in. I'm very grateful. But I also feel that sense of responsibility as a custodian to ensure that my children and my grandchildren will continue that legacy and will never feel like they are entitled to anything that they have. Because frankly, it doesn't belong to you. Right it has been, it has been passed down to you to now be the custodian. And as part of your duty as a custodian is to make the world a better place. And that may change for my children. It may look different than how I'm doing it. They may find areas and white spaces that are not the same as what I'm doing. And that's fine. That's beautiful. I encourage that, but that it's a fundamental part of their lives and of the legacy of this family that will continue forever.

That’s great. So I really enjoyed having this conversation with the both of you about multi generational storytelling philanthropy, and it seems that your legacies are very much aligned. So that's great. So where can people find out more about you and your work? So you can find out more about me at Sabrina Mirage foundation.org. We are evoked media.com And also at Breaking Glass pod at Breaking Glass podcasts on Instagram.

Great and Laura. And you can find more about us on David and Laura Merage Foundation, right?

So we'll link everything in the show notes so everyone can find this information. Be very handy and definitely go check it out. Check out the work that Laura and Sabrina are doing. And feel free to reach out with any questions that you may have after this interview. So thank you again for joining us. And we hope that would provide some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I hope it provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in every week on Wednesdays when new episodes are dropped. We'd love to hear your feedback. So leave a comment and a rating of what you liked. And what you'd like to hear more about. And if you liked the episode today, make sure to share it to raise awareness about the story to inspire other women to take action. I'm Larry crasner. And until next time, you can make a positive impact through philanthropy every day. Thanks for listening!