Why a Nonprofit

We have sat where family offices sit. We have been the ones looking for advice, trying to find information that was not written to sell us something, and hoping the person across the table was on our side. That experience is why The Cyber Foundation is a nonprofit, and why we chose a fiscal sponsor to get it started.

Trust is the operating system of a family office

Trust is not a soft value in the UHNW world. It is the thing a well-run family office is built on: trust in the information, trust in the partners, trust in the relationships that carry the family’s affairs year after year. Every decision about information risk depends on it, because the people making those decisions usually cannot verify the technical detail themselves. They have to trust the source.

We think a trusted entity starts with aligned incentives. A for-profit company is aligned, first, with its business model. That does not make it untrustworthy; many of the best firms in this industry are for-profit, and we work alongside them every day. But it means the advice always has a second audience. We believed a better alignment was available in the nonprofit form: an organization whose only obligation is to the mission, with no product to sell downstream, no referral economics, and no exit to plan for.

The industry needed a standards body

There is no family office information security standards body. None. Every other sector of this size has one: a neutral place where practitioners agree on what good looks like, where the vocabulary gets settled, and where newcomers can learn the rules before they learn them the hard way. Family offices have been working without one, borrowing frameworks built for enterprises or for small businesses and cutting them down to fit.

A standards body has to be un-owned. If a vendor sets the standard, the standard favors the vendor. If a consultancy sets it, the standard creates work for the consultancy. A nonprofit that nobody owns is the only structure suited to set standards and build the community around them, because it has nothing to gain from the answer coming out one way or another.

We set out to do good

That is the mission, and we mean it plainly. We did not start this to launch a product, increase shareholder value, or build toward an exit. We started it because we care about this industry: the families, the executives who protect them, and the providers who serve them. We have spent our careers here and owe much of our professional and personal lives to it. This is our way of giving back.

The UHNW world is privileged in many ways. That does not mean the places where the industry is lacking should go unaddressed. And this is not only about clients. A neutral body raises the floor for providers too, ushering in an era where the firms that do excellent work can be found, compared fairly, and rewarded for it in an opportunity-rich market.

We see a neutral standards body as the way to a win for everyone: families get clearer answers, providers get a fair field, and the industry gets a shared language. We see our role as facilitator. We are experts, and we hold opinions developed over long careers, but we believe transparency, collaboration, fairness, standards, and trust help everyone get better, including us.

We could have built another security company. We have: Atro is the for-profit firm our founders run. The Cyber Foundation is different work. It needed to be done, so we did it.

Why a fiscal sponsor

Standing up an independent 501(c)(3) is hard. The federal process is slow and exacting, and we had never built a nonprofit before. Once we understood that a fiscal sponsor might be the right path, we ran a months-long selection process to find the right one.

We chose Digital Harbor Foundation. Digital Harbor is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with deep experience sponsoring mission-driven projects, and it is selective about the projects it takes on. We were fortunate to be accepted. Digital Harbor provides the administrative back office, the governance oversight, and, most importantly, the strategic and tactical advice The Cyber Foundation needs to succeed in these formative days.

Our hope is to grow into a fully independent 501(c)(3) in time. For now, fiscal sponsorship lets us focus on the mission while an expert partner handles the parts of running a nonprofit that are easy to get wrong.

What fiscal sponsorship means for you

• Tax-exempt status. The Cyber Foundation operates under Digital Harbor Foundation’s 501(c)(3) status (EIN 45-3093797). We do not hold a separate determination letter, and we do not need one to operate as a nonprofit.
• Tax-deductible contributions. Donations and membership dues are made to Digital Harbor Foundation, restricted to The Cyber Foundation’s work, and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donor-advised funds and bequests can give the same way.
• Oversight. Digital Harbor holds fiscal and legal responsibility for the project. Our finances are reviewed by an organization whose own compliance depends on getting it right.
• Continuity. If The Cyber Foundation becomes an independent 501(c)(3), the mission, the standards, and the community carry over. The sponsor changes; the work does not.

If you have questions about giving, sponsorship, or how the structure works, contact us. We would rather explain it than have you wonder.