Any amount joins the fund that writes these checks. Your contribution is tax-deductible, and if a company we back exits one day, the proceeds go out again to the next founder.
It's the amount we write to every company.
Contributions go into the fund that writes every first check. If you're thinking about giving at this level, write to contributions (at) fifthstarfunds.org or send us a note.
Your contribution joins the pool that writes each $25,000 SAFE, in a Chicago company whose founder our committee has evaluated on the same ten-dimension rubric as everyone else. The founder gets LongJump's coaching and introductions with it.
You'll hear about each founder we back, and how the companies are doing after that. If the company exits, our share comes back to the fund and goes out again as the next first check, which is what makes us an evergreen fund.
We expect the first returns on a five to ten year horizon.
The Steans family has been with us since 2021. All our supporters
$100 a month is $1,200 a year toward the next first check.
Your contribution is tax-deductible, and you'll get a receipt by email the same day.
Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, your community foundation, or any other sponsor. Search for us by legal name and EIN: Fifth Star Funds Inc., 88-1382953. Grants usually arrive with your name, which lets us thank you. If you'd rather stay anonymous, tell your sponsor.
Fill in the short form below and we'll reply with our wire and ACH instructions, then send a receipt to the right address. Our W-9 and IRS determination letter are here.
A missing receipt, or a contribution that doesn't fit these paths: write to contributions (at) fifthstarfunds.org.
Transfers arrive without much of a name on them. Thirty seconds here means your receipt goes to the right address and we can thank you properly.
About $17 goes into a founder's company as the first check, and about $3 pays for the operator support that comes with it. The other $5 runs the fund: the day-to-day operations, the evaluation, the legal work and the accounting.
We call our contributors unlimited partners. A venture fund's limited partners expect their money back. Ours give knowing nothing comes back to them, and nothing comes back to us either, so every return goes out again as a first check. Thirty-six checks in, twenty-eight companies are building and ten have raised $100,000 or more since our check.
Twenty-eight companies still building, every one backed with the same $25,000 check.
PortfolioContribution to committee to SAFE to founder, and if the company exits, back to the fund. With a worked example.
How It WorksUpdates on the founders we back and the work behind the checks.
