Volo Foundation (VF)  is a private foundation that provides grants to organizations that build awareness and conduct research in remediating climate change, improving the education process, health care, and other social issues. ¹

Volo Foundation and its associated groups, Voloridge Investment Management and Volo Earth Ventures, were founded and controlled by David and Thais Lopez Vogel. ^{1 2}

Organization

Volo Foundation (VF) is a private foundation that makes grants to organizations that seek approaches to redress man-made climate change, the improvement of education, and health. ¹

VF was founded by David S. Vogel and Thais Lopez Vogel in 2014 and, as of July 2024, has issued $48 million in grants, 95 percent of it to United States-based organizations. Of those organizations, slightly more than half are in Florida. In 2023, 42 percent of VF’s grants went to building awareness of, research into, and mitigation of the impact of climate change while 58 percent went to support education, health, and social non-profits. ³

Assocaited Groups

Volo Foundation is associated with Voloridge Investment Management (VLM), a firm that was built on the predictive modeler, data analysis, and technologies developed by David Vogel, and Volo Earth Ventures (VEV), which provides first-in funding and hands-on leadership to early-stage technology companies. ^{2 4 5}

Partners

Volo Foundation’s Climate Action program lists 29 partners. including Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which received a grant over $1 million. Another partner is the CLEO Institute, which received a grant of $935,330 and is committed to what it terms “climate crisis” education and advocacy. ^{6 7 8}

VF’s Education program lists 14 partner organizations including Amplio Network that received a grant of $400,000 that acts to provide simple cost effective, technology-based means of accessing knowledge to address poverty globally. ⁹

Eleven organizations are listed as Volo Foundation partners in their Health program including Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, rated as the top children’s hospital in Southern Florida, that received a grant of $1 million. ¹⁰

Volo Foundation lists 10 organizations as partners in their Humanitarian Support program including unLimbited Foundation at the Paley Institute that provides temporary housing for families and children undergoing treatment at the Paley Orthopedic and Spine Institute. ¹¹

Initiatives

Volo Foundation hosts an annual Climate Correction conference to promote its view that climate change affects all people’s health, the economy, and migration, including promoting the need to create international instruments to help migrants impacted by extreme weather as well as the achievement of net-zero emissions in Florida by 2030. ¹²

VF sponsors Florida Climate Week held each year that is joined by major Florida cities including Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. ¹³

Volo Foundation advocates for a carbon dividend, a scheme that places a fee on the use of non-renewable energy sources to encourage their reduced use with the proceeds given back to taxpayers as carbon dividends. ¹⁴

Volo Foundation is sponsoring a new arm of Environmental Defense Fund to build a satellite (MethaneSAT) that will measure the amount, location, and change in methane emissions while claiming that methane will warm Earth more in the next decade than carbon dioxide. ¹⁵

People

David S. Vogel is co-founder and trustee of Volo Foundation. He is a data scientist internationally recognized for predictive modeling accuracy and founded Voloridge, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund. Vogel is also board member of Environmental Defense Fund, JUST Capital, and Amplio, and is part of a subcommittee at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ¹⁶

Thais Lopez Vogel is co-founder and trustee of VF. She is an attorney and board member of EDF; American Conservation Coalition (ACC), a right leaning environmental advocacy organization; Tiffany Circle at American Red Cross; and Water People Theater in Chicago. ¹⁷

1. “Mission.” VoLo Foundation, May 9, 2024, Accessed June 29, 2024. https://volofoundation.org/mission/.
2. “Our Affiliates.” VoLo Foundation, August 28, 2023, Accessed June 29, 2024. https://volofoundation.org/our-affiliates/.
3. “Home.” VoLo Foundation, May 3, 2024, Accessed June 29, 2024. https://volofoundation.org/.
4. “Our Story: Voloridge.” Voloridge Investment Management. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://voloridge.com/our-story.
5. Volo Home. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://www.voloearth.com/.
6. EDF strategic plan 2015–2019 – environmental defense … Accessed June 29, 2024. https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/content/strategicplan_blueprint2020_interactive.pdf.
7. Cleoinstitute. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://cleoinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Annual-Report-2-1.pdf.
8. “Who We Are – the Cleo Institute.” The CLEO Institute – It’s time for a climate change of mind!, May 6, 2024, Accessed June 29, 2024. https://cleoinstitute.org/who-we-are/.
9. “About Us: Amplio: Talking Books.” Amplio. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://www.amplio.org/about-us.
10. “Top-Ranked Children’s Hospital in South Florida.” Pediatric Hospital in Miami, Florida | Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://www.nicklauschildrens.org/home.
11. “Unlimbited Foundation Helping with Limb Saving Treatment.” unLIMBited Foundation, April 9, 2024, Accessed June29, 2024. https://unlimbited.org/.
12. Volofoundation. Accessed June 29, 2024. Page 17 https://volofoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/VoLo-AR-2023-Website-with-links.pdf.
13. Florida Climate Week. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://floridaclimateweek.org/
14. “Carbon Fee with a Dividend as a Solution to Climate Change.” VoLo Foundation, November 8, 2021, Accessed June29, 2024. https://volofoundation.org/carbon-fee-with-a-dividend-as-a-solution-to-climate-change/.
15. Volofoundation. Accessed June 29, 2024. Page 32 https://volofoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/VoLo-AR-2023-Website-with-links.pdf.
16. “David Vogel.” Statistics and Data Science. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://sciences.ucf.edu/statistics/person/david-vogel/.
17. Thais Lopez Vogel – Esq., Founder – Volo Foundation. Accessed June 29, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaislopezvogel.