The Conway Family Trust is a trust fund controlled by Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway and his wife Gayle. While Ron and Gayle Conway do not appear to operate a family foundation or donor-advised fund, some of the family’s giving to left-of-center or other charitable organizations flow out of the family trust.

Ron Conway and his wife have supported a variety of left-of-center organizations and Democratic candidates since becoming wealthy through a series of successful angel investments in the 1990s, most notably one in Google. In 2020, Ron and Gayle Conway signed Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, a project that encourages high-net-worth individuals to give away the vast majority of their fortunes. ^{1 2 3 4}

Background

The Conway Family Trust is a fund operated by Ron Conway and his wife Gayle Conway. The fund appears to function as an extension of the couple’s personal giving and grantmaking and is not a family foundation or donor-advised fund. ⁵   

Ron Conway is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and angel investor known as one of the more prolific angel investors in the history of the technology industry. He held senior roles at technology companies since the 1970s and has been referred to as one of Silicon Valley’s “Super Angels.” Conway was the subject of a 2001 book calling him the “godfather of Silicon Valley” that highlighted his investing in internet companies during the dot-com bubble and his affiliated venture capital funds that have been early investors in a variety of well-known companies including Google and Paypal. Conway has contributed significantly to left-of-center organizations and causes, particularly concerning immigration expansion and gun control, and has supported many Democratic candidates for office in California and across the U.S. ^{6 7 8}

In 2020, Ron Conway and his wife Gayle joined Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge. Conway noted that most of his and his wife’s charitable contributions are given directly from the couple and not through a family foundation or donor-advised fund. Conway’s Giving Pledge letter cited that the main causes the couple supported included gun ownership restrictions, homelessness, voting access, and immigration. He also noted that in 2020, the couple “directed significant philanthropic support towards helping first responders and health care workers on the frontlines of the [COVID-19] pandemic, and towards organizations working to end racial injustice and systemic economic inequality.” ^{9 10}

Ron Conway is a supporter of Democratic candidates and opposed former President Donald Trump. He was reported to have spent over $1 million while raising additional funds to support efforts to flip control of the U.S. House of Representatives to Democrats in 2018. Recode named him one of ten major Silicon Valley donors and fundraisers in the 2018 midterm elections. ¹¹   

Giving

The Conway Family Trust was listed as a donor to the now-defunct left-wing advocacy organization Civic Participation Action Fund, a secretive left-of-center advocacy group created by the Atlantic Advocacy Fund in December 2014 with a multi-million dollar endowment. ¹²

The Trust was also listed as a donor to the Charlie Rose Foundation in 2015. ¹³

1. Return of an Organization Exempt from Income Tax. The Civic Action Participation Fund. 2017. https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/08/Civic-Participation-Action-Fund-2017-Form-990.pdf
2. Rivlin, Gary. “The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ron Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms.” 2001. AtRandom. https://www.amazon.com/Godfather-Silicon-Valley-Conway-Dot-coms/dp/081299163X
3. Ricadela, Aaron. “VCs Aim to Out-Angel the Angels.” Business Week. April 2, 2007. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20070406024558/http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070402_747117.htm
4. Sgrelli, Massimo. “The Ron Conway’s Way.” Lombardstreet Ventures Journal. October 25, 2023. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://medium.com/lombardstreet-io/the-ron-conways-way-8a9224fd63b1
5. Return of an Organization Exempt from Income Tax. The Civic Action Participation Fund. 2017. https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/08/Civic-Participation-Action-Fund-2017-Form-990.pdf
6.  Rivlin, Gary. “The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ron Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms.” 2001. AtRandom. https://www.amazon.com/Godfather-Silicon-Valley-Conway-Dot-coms/dp/081299163X
7. Ricadela, Aaron. “VCs Aim to Out-Angel the Angels.” Business Week. April 2, 2007. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20070406024558/http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070402_747117.htm
8. Sgrelli, Massimo. “The Ron Conway’s Way.” Lombardstreet Ventures Journal. October 25, 2023. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://medium.com/lombardstreet-io/the-ron-conways-way-8a9224fd63b1
9. Canales, Katie. “Investor Ron Conway and Zillow CEO Rich Barton are among 13 new billionaires who have agreed to give away most of their fortunes by signing the Giving Pledge.” Business Insider. December 21, 2020. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://www.businessinsider.com/giving-pledge-new-signatories-ron-conway-zillow-billionaires-2020-12
10. “Ron and Gayle Conway.” The Giving Pledge. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=415
11. Schleifer, Theodore. “Ten big Silicon Valley money players behind this November’s U.S. midterm elections”.  August 20, 2018. https://www.recode.net/2018/8/20/17693048/silicon-valley-tech-donors-midterms-2018-democrats-donald-trump-list
12. Return of an Organization Exempt from Income Tax. The Civic Action Participation Fund. 2017. https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2019/08/Civic-Participation-Action-Fund-2017-Form-990.pdf
13. Form 990, Schedule B. Charlie Rose Foundation Inc. 2015. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/134080925/201623049349100002/IRS990ScheduleB