The trusted partner for impact investing

Connecting Capital to Impact

Access to quality education…

Provides the greatest potential for success and social mobility

Climate change is real…

We must address it now, before the opportunity to prevent it floats away.

She needs a job and access to good healthcare…

But cannot afford health insurance

We must invest in and support innovative ventures…

That build scalable, impactful solutions profitably and drive economic growth

Let’s give the children of today…

A better future in healthy, thriving communities of tomorrow

Society needs you!

Together we can make the world KINDer.

about
Let’s make the world KINDer

About Us

Kind Capital’s mission is to drive positive impact on a billion vulnerable lives…prudently, conscientiously, sustainably and profitably. We envision a world where all individuals have equitable access to opportunities to reach their full potential in healthy, thriving communities. To deliver on that mission, we leverage the full spectrum of impact investing tools in collaboration with leading stakeholder partners across the ecosystem to drive scalable, sustainable impact. Philanthropy alone cannot solve the biggest challenges and existential threats faced by society today; there must be systematic, integrated solutions across multiple stakeholders: public, private and philanthropic.

Mission-Driven Executive Team

Diverse in experience, united in mission. The Kind Capital team brings 100+ years of combined experience across industries and leadership roles, authentically mission-driven to leverage our skills to catalyze positive sustainable impact while driving financial returns for our partners & investors. We have experience working with early stage companies through large Fortune 500 conglomerates across the full spectrum of asset classes, including structuring program-related investments (PRI), mission-related investments (MRI), social impact bonds (SIB) and income share agreements (ISA).

John Duong

John Duong

Founder & CEO

Sarah Baynes Shinn

Sarah Baynes Shinn

Partner

Jason Buchanan, MD

Jason Buchanan, MD

Partner & Chief Medical Officer

Debbie McKeon

Debbie McKeon

Partner and Senior Advisor, Strategic Partnerships

Thomas Hornbeck

Thomas Hornbeck

CTO and Venture Partner

Zyrine Dave Geraldez

Zyrine Dave Geraldez

Executive Assistant

Lori M. Ruffin

Lori M. Ruffin

VP of Entrepreneur Services

José Miguel Guzmán

José Miguel Guzmán

Director

Advisory Council

Andre Bennin

Andre Bennin

Jennifer Oertel

Jennifer Oertel

Melanie Audette

Melanie Audette

Joe Fuller

Joe Fuller

Rich Krygiel

Rich Krygiel

Thomas Terdjman

Thomas Terdjman

Ted Mitchell

Ted Mitchell

Sonal Shah

Sonal Shah

Peter Fusaro

Peter Fusaro

Karen Tay

Karen Tay

Meredith Finn

Meredith Finn

Senior Workers of Talent (SWOT)

Joy Profet

Joy Profet

Superpower: COO & Comms

Ray Wilburn

Ray Wilburn

Superpower: Finance & Compliance

Keith Aikens

Keith Aikens

Superpower: Comms, Racial Equity

Marissa Lowman

Marissa Lowman

Superpower: Product & Innovation

Isaac Segal

Isaac Segal

Superpower: EdTech, Entrepreneurship, Management

Lucia Weathers

Lucia Weathers

Superpower: Strategic Comms

Maria Del Toro

Maria Del Toro

Superpower: Philanthropic Fundraising, Strategy, & Management

Jocelyn Sargent

Jocelyn Sargent

Superpower: Philanthropy, Racial Equity/EDI, Leadership

What We Do

Kind Capitalism

Strategic Advisory
Strategic Advisory

We bring extensive strategic, operating and impact investing experience across nonprofit and traditional corporations.

Investments
Investments

We are experienced investors with a track record in both traditional and impact investing across all asset classes, spanning both direct investments and as limited partners into other funds.

Kind Capitalism
Kind Capitalism Impact Deals Community

Where capitalism meets kindness, we provide strategic M&A advisory and fundraising support. Join our Kind Capital market that connects investors with social ventures & entrepreneurs.

Accelerator & Studio
Accelerator & Studio

Partners to promising entrepreneurs, we nurture early stage social ventures for success and growth.  Leverage our deep expertise and broad network.

Optimized Management Solutions/Shared Services
Optimized Management Solutions/Shared Services

Outsourced interim executive leadership (CFO, COO, CTO) and operational capabilities (managed IT services, tech/software development, etc.) to improve efficiency, reduce costs, accelerate growth and drive success.

Note: Certain services and transactions promoted on this website are provided through entities affiliated with Kind Capital LLC. Affiliated services that you access via this website are offered by affiliated entities rather than Kind Capital LLC itself, and each affiliated entity operates under its own terms and conditions. Affiliated entities and their services include Kind Capital Securities LLC, Kind Capital Advisors LLC, and registered investment advisor (RIA) Ivy Capital Management LLC.  We encourage you to review these terms carefully before engaging in any transaction or service.

Kind Capital serves a broad set of stakeholders

Traditional and Mission-Related Investments (MRI)
Traditional and Mission-Related Investments (MRI)

Traditional and MRI investors equally interested in financial return and impact

  • Investors seeking market rate returns
  • Financial returns are equally weighted to social impact
  • ESG screening
  • Prudent Investor Rule applies
Program-Related Investments
Kind Capital Holdings

Kind Capital Platform managing various businesses and investment vehicles

  • Investment management function

  • Studio/incubator for early stage companies
  • Consulting & strategic advisory services
  • Shared services for portfolio companies
  • Impact deals market place matching investors to entrepreneurs
Program-Related Investments
Program-Related Investments (PRI)

Foundations and impact investors seeking to prioritize impact

  • Catalytic capital providers
  • Investors prioritizing impact over financial return
  • Private foundations using PRI structures to drive outcome
  • Donor advised funds
  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives
Program-Related Investments
Grant Funders

Funders seeking to support ecosystem

  • Technical assistance/coaching for entrepreneurs
  • Strategic advice to support grantees
  • Market research
  • Donor advised funds

  • Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives

Sample of Our Network

rockefell mission investor exchange indiana owl ventures
ford foundation giin san jose lightspeed
macarthur foundation toniic learnlaunch gsv
lumina kamehameha school comptia insight partners
sorenson queenlili k12 newisland
wkkellogg wessm sap sandbox
fbheron ace california rethink
billgates googleorg school credential kauffman
robinhood detroit villiagecap legacy ventures
kresge foundation losangeles learncap ibm
pluginplay adecco salesforce ascendium
ecmc workday amazon strada

Get in touch

We Would Love To Hear From You!

bekind@kindcap.com

+1 (562) KIND-CAP

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Copyright © 2025 Kind Capital LLC. All rights reserved.
John Duong

John Duong

Founder & CEO

John launched Kind Capital to drive scalable, sustainable impact profitably. He was formerly the Managing Director and Founder of Lumina Impact Ventures, the $50M impact investing arm of Lumina Foundation focused on education technology investments. Previously, he was Program & Portfolio Officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, managing a $110M+ MRI and PRI investments portfolio across funds and direct investments, and making grants to further the field of impact investing.

John started his career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch in various roles including M&A advisory, credit risk analysis, equity research, capital structure optimization, and corporate finance in both debt and equity products. He has extensive for-profit and nonprofit board experience including Cell-Ed, Upswing, BrightHive, EduNav, Credly, Global Communities, Vitas Group, and AAPIP.

John earned his BA degree in Economics and East Asian Studies from Yale University and holds an Executive MBA, with a concentration in Management and Entrepreneurship, from the Kellogg School of Management. He is a Kauffman Fellow. Born in Cambodia, John immigrated to the U.S. at a young age. He and his parents are survivors of the Khmer Rouge concentration camp and were sponsored to the United States by the Catholic Sisters of St. Francis in La Crosse, WI, where he grew up.

Sarah Baynes Shinn

Sarah Baynes Shinn

Partner

Sarah Baynes Shinn believes in empowering, supporting, and mobilizing people to create sustainable and equitable impact in our communities. Purpose-driven and data-informed, she works to align mission, governance, policy, procedures, and processes to consistently drive intended outcomes and support organizational culture. She brings a wealth of leadership experience from diverse sectors, including corporate philanthropy, non-profit, and higher education.

As a current senior strategic advisor for corporate and community-based foundations, Sarah provides leadership on all aspects of the organization—from philosophical frameworks to implementation strategy for the philanthropic mission. Sarah has also served as the President and CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho, where she honed her skills in executive leadership, board governance, major gift fundraising, and mission delivery. Before her work in philanthropy, she dedicated more than 15 years to higher education administration in roles related to institutional strategy, program development, and stakeholder stewardship.

Sarah earned an M.S. degree in counseling from Eastern Michigan University and draws from counseling frameworks to align organizations more intentionally to value and support the human experience.

Jason Buchanan, MD

Jason Buchanan, MD

Partner & Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Jason Buchanan is a Partner and Chief Medical Officer at Kind Capital. Dr. Buchanan currently is heading the build out of Kind Capital’s healthcare/health tech division, which will connect growth-ready healthcare companies needing capital, to socially oriented funding sources that desire to impact their communities. In addition to his duties at Kind Capital, he is also pursuing an MBA at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School with dual specializations in “Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Technology” and “Healthcare Management, Innovation, & Technology.”

Dr. Buchanan has over 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry as a Family and Community Medicine physician providing direct patient care to the underserved and marginalized populations of Houston, Texas at Harris Health System, which is one of the largest safety net health systems in the country. In addition, he has cultivated an ever-growing passion for using data and technology to improve health outcomes by serving as a medical director and Clinical Informatics Officer on both the payor and provider sides of healthcare. Dr. Buchanan has the distinction of being board certified in two medical specialties (Family Medicine and Clinical Informatics) and brings to Kind Capital expertise in the healthcare, healthtech, and medtech sectors. His past work has focused on digital health, telemedicine, data analytics, electronic health records, workflow optimization, and health information technology education.

Dr. Buchanan was born and raised in inner-city New York. He attended Yale University for his undergraduate studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychobiology (Intensive Research track). He was then recruited to Houston, Texas for medical school and obtained his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his residency training in Family Medicine through the Houston Methodist Hospital System. Subsequently, he completed a Master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics, with a specialization in Clinical Informatics, from The University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center School of Biomedical Informatics. Additionally, Dr. Buchanan has earned fellow status in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). He has remained in Houston, at Baylor College of Medicine and Harris Health System, as an assistant professor of Family and Community Medicine where, in addition to his duties at Kind Capital, he still maintains a clinical micro-practice providing direct patient care to Houston’s underserved.

Dr. Buchanan’s professional memberships include the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). He delights in being a husband and father. Dr. Buchanan is an avid runner and enjoys taking time to appreciate the things often overlooked in life.

Debbie McKeon

Debbie McKeon

Partner and Senior Advisor, Strategic Partnerships

Debbie contributes her expertise, experience and learnings from decades in nonprofit and philanthropy leadership and small business and nonprofit development to Kind Capital’s mission achievement. Debbie’s deep commitment to equity, cross-sector partnerships and activating catalytic capital has resulted in a track record of successful equity-centered initiatives, innovative philanthropic strategies, impact investing field-building, and systems-level change. Debbie nurtures Kind Capital’s strategic partnerships and the conditions to co-develop scalable, sustainable impact with equity-centered, systematic, integrated solutions across multiple stakeholders: community, public, private and philanthropy that leverage the full spectrum of impact investing tools.

Debbie was CEO of San Diego Grantmakers, of Philanthropy California; COO of the Council of Michigan Foundations; founding Executive Director of NorthSky Nonprofit Network; founding board member and Managing Director of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (20 countries of the Americas); and founder and small business owner of McKeon & Associates, Inc. (M&A) that provided executive management and consulting services on six continents, and building international public-private partnerships.

Debbie received a Bachelor of Music from Central Michigan University; League of American Orchestras Management Fellowship; Small Business Counselor Certification from Grand Valley State University; and certifications in governance, strategic restructuring, community philanthropy, fundraising, and healing circle facilitation.

Thomas Hornbeck

Thomas Hornbeck

CTO and Venture Partner

Thomas is a seasoned entrepreneur and technology leader with a passion for impact investing. At Kind Capital, he leverages his extensive experience to support and invest in innovative companies that drive positive social and environmental change.

Thomas is the Co-Founder of Homeroom Inc., a YC-backed, AI-powered property management platform for affordable housing (Y Combinator W'22). He was formerly the Co-Founder of GotIt!, a leading VC-backed Silicon Valley AI education company, and has authored numerous US technology patents. His career began as a software engineer in 2004 at PhoneFactor, a pioneer in multi-factor authentication, which was later acquired by Microsoft. Between 2007 and 2012, he pursued a PhD in Computer Science while being one of the first engineers at VIDA Lung, a global leader in pulmonary diagnostics used in over 40 countries.

In 2011, Thomas co-founded GotIt!, one of the first on-demand tutoring platforms, which achieved the #2 ranking in the App Store's Education category and served millions of students worldwide. He has successfully grown and managed large technology teams of over 100 engineers and was also the former Co-Founder of Elliott Bay Technologies, a software engineering firm focused on building early-stage technology companies.

With over 20 years in the tech industry, Thomas excels in software engineering, product development, and AI. He has consistently attracted significant backing from top-tier investors like Y Combinator, 500 Startups, YouWeb, and TechStars. Beyond entrepreneurship, Thomas has made substantial contributions to academia as an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa’s Department of Computer Science. His CDC-funded doctoral research in computational epidemiology using big data, sensor networks, and large-scale distributed simulation was published in Oxford Journals in 2012.

At Kind Capital, Thomas is dedicated to fostering companies that align with his vision of impactful innovation. He also co-founded Distynct, serves as an angel investor and board member at Jobhop Inc., and continuously seeks opportunities to drive positive change through strategic investments and mentorship.

Zyrine Dave Geraldez

Zyrine Dave Geraldez

Executive Assistant

Zyrine Dave Geraldez is a dedicated executive assistant, bringing a wealth of experience in administrative support and project coordination. Her passion for making a positive impact in the lives of others is evident in her work with Kind Capital.

Originally from Iloilo, Philippines, Zyrine graduated Magna Cum Laude from Iloilo Doctors’ College with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce, majoring in Management. She honed her skills at Queen City Development Bank, where she played a crucial role in the Accounting Department for nearly 8 years.

Zyrine has deep experience in management, administration, and project coordination and excels in improving management systems, overseeing calendar coordination, scheduling events and meetings, and fostering open communication within our team. We are fortunate to have Zyrine on board, and her contributions continue to drive our success at Kind Capital.

Lori M. Ruffin

Lori M. Ruffin

VP of Entrepreneur Services

A believer in leaders, Lori is an upbeat strategic thinker, speaker, and Founder of The COO Team, an operations agency that specializes in helping companies and nonprofits get the strategy and systems they need to scale. Drawing from her experience at a Fortune 500 company and serving national and international nonprofits, she equips entrepreneurs who lead small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofit ventures to expand their capacity. She has worked with organizations such as Kumveka, Women Doing Well, Generous Giving, Urban Hope, the New Hill Development Foundation, and the V3 Movement. She serves as Vice President of Entrepreneur Support Services with Kind Capital and lives in Richmond, VA with her husband and two daughters.

Lori earned her undergraduate degree in Business from The University of Richmond and her MBA from Regent University’s School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship. She currently serves on the boards of Jobs RVA, a job skills program for the unemployed and underemployed, and Virginia Community Voice, a community development nonprofit that invests in community leaders and prepares institutions to equitably engage and make decisions regarding historically marginalized communities.

José Miguel Guzmán

José Miguel Guzmán

Director

José Miguel Guzmán is currently devoting time to consulting on projects in the field of private equity where he helps investors perform company due diligence on investment opportunities across industries and the globe. He is also taking the opportunity to give time for a variety of volunteer pursuits in effect to give back, such as Seizing Every Opportunity (SEO) where he mentors individuals interested in the alternative investments industry, The Toigo Foundation, the Queens Economic Development Center where he is currently mentoring a small business in the UES, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow—organizations focused on providing professional and career development to underrepresented and underprivileged groups.

José served as an Investment Officer within the Bureau of Asset Management at the NYC Comptroller’s Office and helped oversee the investment activity of the Private Equity portfolio within the $195 billion NYC Retirement System. Prior to joining the NYC Comptroller’s Office, he worked at Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., where he helped perform financial and operational due diligence on investments and assisted portfolio companies with strategic initiatives.

Previously, José was an Equity Research Associate in the Biotechnology sector at Credit Suisse. In this position, he identified attractive investment opportunities in which excess returns could be generated by taking advantage of mispriced assets. Prior to his role in the Equity Research Department, José served as an Associate in the Interest Rates Valuation Group at Morgan Stanley, where he assessed the firm’s valuation risk and identified areas for profit maximization throughout the United States.

José graduated from Binghamton University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Management Information Systems. In addition, he earned his Master of Business Administration in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.