Growing up in Southern California in the late 1990s, college was an unfamiliar concept to Marc Stad AB ’01. As one of five children in a family of modest means, he was the first to graduate from high school, so being accepted to Harvard and awarded a generous financial aid package was understandably a big deal.
“I had a wonderful experience, with all it had to offer,” Marc says about his time at Harvard. “I learned so much in and out of the classroom with my peers, and still my closest friends to this day are folks I met at Harvard. It was the most formative four years and launched me into my professional life.”
As a first generation college student, Marc learned to be comfortable in uncharted territory, where even the simplest things can require some navigation.
“The fall of my freshman year I wanted to go see the Harvard-Yale game in New Haven. But the weather forecast called for snow and freezing temperatures, and the thickest item of clothing I owned was a long-sleeve T-shirt,” recalls the native of Montebello, a small city just outside of Los Angeles. “I asked someone in the financial aid office, ‘What do other people from L.A. with no money do at this time of year?’ They told me about the Winter Coat Fund, which someone had endowed to provide coats for people just like me. I applied and received a check to buy a coat. That was my first encounter with The North Face.”
After college, Marc returned to California and worked at McKinsey & Company, followed by a stint in private equity at TPG. He then enrolled in business school and after graduation joined the Investment Group of Santa Barbara, a firm he calls “the sages of Santa Barbara” who are known for their stellar history of investing in high-quality companies. The experience inspired him to chart his own course, and in 2012 he founded Dragoneer Investment Group.
“We’re new to philanthropy, and still trying to figure out how we want to give back. The donor advised fund is an interesting tool to allow us to figure it out along the way… .”
—Elisa Stad
Around the time Marc returned to California, he attended yet another football game (this time coat-free) at the University of Southern California (USC). It was there he met his future wife, Elisa.
Elisa Stad was born in Southern California but grew up in Boise, Idaho. Her mother is a Vietnamese-Chinese immigrant who came to the United States in 1976 following the Vietnam War. At USC, Elisa developed an interest in international business and spent the early part of her career in sales and brand management roles at global organizations, including Newell Rubbermaid, Clorox, and Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Elisa’s career took her and Marc all over the world, including to Hong Kong, where she served as general manager of Benefit Cosmetics’ Southeast Asia division. It was there that she and Marc welcomed their first child.
Today, they live in San Francisco with their two daughters and one son, all under the age of six. Elisa is on the board of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco and is a volunteer at Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist organization that promotes peace, culture, and education through personal transformation and social contribution. Marc has actively recruited Harvard graduates to join Dragoneer, and the couple has been involved with Marc’s Harvard reunion committee.
In addition to volunteering their time and energy, the Stads’ professional success has allowed them to support Harvard monetarily. They recently established a donor advised fund (DAF), which offers donors the opportunity to make a significant gift that is invested and grows with the Harvard endowment, and can be distributed upon the donor’s request. It’s a way to invest without management fees and includes one-on-one support and consultation from Harvard planned giving staff.
“Having a strong, personal advocate at Harvard offers a lot of perspective, pattern recognition, and best practices on what other donors have done before, and really informs the best way to give back,” Marc says about the appeal of Harvard’s DAF offering.
“We’re new to philanthropy, and still trying to figure out how we want to give back,” Elisa adds. “The DAF is an interesting tool to allow us to figure it out along the way, as we age, as our kids grow up, and as we grow more interested in different initiatives that the University is working on.”
“We’ve always believed that investing in oneself, one’s family, and one’s community don’t have to be sequential events: they can be contemporaneous.”
—Marc Stad AB ’01
The timing of their gift is notable, given the couple’s relative young age, but being ahead of the curve is part of their makeup.
“A lot of people wait their whole lives to give back, and they do it all toward the end. We’ve always believed that investing in oneself, one’s family, and one’s community don’t have to be sequential events: they can be contemporaneous,” Marc says. “At this point in our lives we can give back in a meaningful way to Harvard, and we hope it can become even more meaningful over time. But there’s no time like the present. Harvard is important to us, and we have the means to do it, so let’s start now.”
From soccer practices to kindergarten, the Stads are enjoying time with their young family of five, and they are also giving of their time and effort to many deserving organizations. They have yet to determine what areas or initiatives they will support at Harvard. Maybe they will use their fund to support financial aid. Maybe they will launch an entrepreneurship program at the University. Or maybe they will make their mark with their own version of the Winter Coat Fund. Time is on their side and the Stads are used to navigating uncharted territory.
Contact University Planned Giving to learn more about supporting University programs.