Foundation for a Better World

Foundation for a Better World

Tom Claugus, who built his career at Rohm and Haas before founding Atlanta-based GMT Capital Corp., launched the Foundation for a Better World in 2013 to recirculate private-market gains into philanthropic science and poverty-alleviation work. The foundation operates from San Francisco and maintains a presence in Cambridge and London, reflecting a transatlantic footprint that supports its dual focus on drug development and evidence-based social programs. President Adam Hoffman, who joined in 2018, leads the foundation's strategy at the intersection of Alzheimer's-focused therapeutic funding and scalable anti-poverty initiatives. While the foundation does not disclose its total grantmaking budget, its commitment to long-duration science is evident in its staffing — including a neuroscience PhD — and its emphasis on direct programmatic engagement rather than passive check-writing. Its geographic focus spans US-based clinical research and global community development projects. A four-person program staff under President Hoffman executes the foundation's work, guided by a board composed entirely of Claugus family members. Hoffman also serves as a Healthcare Analyst at GMT Capital, creating a pipeline that may inform the foundation's scientific diligence. Recent activity includes the continued build-out of its Alzheimer's therapeutics portfolio alongside cost-effective education and health interventions in underserved communities. The foundation's architecture is distinct: it functions as the philanthropic extension of a single hedge fund principal, with program staff directly embedded in the investment firm's sector research. That blurring of for-profit analysis and charitable deployment — a neuroscientist reviewing both investment memos and grant proposals — gives the foundation a technical diligence capacity that small-family foundations rarely possess.