U.S. charitable giving reached $592.50 billion in 2024, growing 6.3% in current dollars and marking the first time in three years that donations outpaced inflation. Individual donors continue to drive the majority of this generosity, accounting for the largest share of all contributions. Yet as the philanthropic sector evolves, the question of how to give effectively—and with lasting impact—has become as important as how much to give.
Jean-Pierre Conte, managing partner of family office Lupine Crest Capital, has built a philanthropic practice that prioritizes longevity over publicity. Through the JP Conte Family Foundation, established in 2017, he works to advance a range of causes spanning from education to the environment. His approach emphasizes what he describes as supporting “projects with longevity and dignity at their core, rather than superficial responses.
“I’ve always felt the need to give back when I achieved a certain amount of resources and wealth and opportunity to help others,” Conte has said.
Philanthropy Rooted in Personal History
The foundation’s focus areas trace directly to Jean-Pierre Conte’s own biography. His father, Pierre, fled France following the Nazi occupation before building a career as a tailor and clothing salesman serving Wall Street clients. His mother, Isabel, left Cuba seeking the freedom to chart her own course in a new country. Neither attended college, yet both instilled in their son aspirations that would shape his career and charitable work.
“I grew up in a pretty modest household that had big dreams, big aspirations, and lots of love, but we didn’t have a lot of resources,” Conte has recalled. “We had a lot of love and a good family, and people helped me along the way.”
That experience of receiving help from mentors and advisors during his early career left a lasting impression. Jean-Pierre Conte’s philanthropic work now aims to extend similar opportunities to others facing comparable circumstances—particularly first-generation college students who lack the networks and information that students from more privileged backgrounds often take for granted.
Educational Support for First-Generation Students
According to The Conference Board C-Suite Outlook 2025, most companies are focusing their social efforts on economic opportunity and education. Jean-Pierre Conte anticipated this emphasis years earlier through his creation of the Conte First Generation Fund, which provides scholarships, mentorship, and resources to first-generation college students at eleven universities, including his alma maters, Colgate University and Harvard.
The fund emerged from Conte’s reflection on his own undergraduate experience. “I remember being a student at Colgate and being the first in my family to go to college,” he has said. “And then I started talking to not just Colgate but some of the other universities where I had a connection, and then other schools where I had met people along my path and I was impressed with these people, so I contacted their universities and said, ‘Let me see how we can better support students like I was.’”.
His approach to educational philanthropy extends beyond college campuses. Jean-Pierre Conte recognized that intervention at the university level, while valuable, often came too late. “A light went off, and I came to the conclusion that I need to start sooner, in high school or earlier, to really help change the trajectory.”
This realization led to partnerships with organizations such as Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and 10,000 Degrees in San Francisco, which work with students as early as eighth grade. These programs provide academic preparation, mentoring, and the kind of guidance that students from more connected families receive informally.
J-P Conte’s involvement goes beyond financial contributions. He travels to New York annually to speak with students about careers in private equity and has opened internship opportunities through his professional network. “These are kids who, voluntarily in eighth grade, agree to go into this program and do after-school work, work on Saturdays, work during the summer, and extra tutoring to supplement their public school education,” he has noted. “Plus, they agreed to mentoring to get them to go to college.”
Advancing Medical Research Through Personal Commitment
The UBS philanthropy report notes that next-generation donors increasingly employ a kind of “venture philanthropy,” using entrepreneurial models to scale solutions with lasting impact. Jean-Pierre Conte’s approach to medical research funding follows a similar discipline.
His father’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease prompted a significant commitment to neuroscience. In late 2024, J-P Conte donated $5 million to the University of California, San Francisco to advance Parkinson’s and neurodegenerative disease research, establishing two endowed professorships focused on understanding and treating these conditions.
The gift brought business rigor to scientific philanthropy. Rather than dispersing funds across multiple institutions, Conte concentrated resources at UCSF, a leading center for neurological research. The endowed professorships provide sustained support for researchers, avoiding the year-to-year uncertainty that can hamper long-term scientific inquiry.
Environmental Conservation in Northern California
Jean-Pierre Conte’s philanthropic portfolio also includes environmental work, particularly through his involvement with Pepperwood Preserve, an ecological research institute and nature preserve in Sonoma County, California. The organization focuses on conservation science, environmental education, and research into wildfire ecology—a pressing concern in a region that has experienced devastating fires in recent years.
Conte has supported Pepperwood’s efforts to study and mitigate wildfire impacts while educating policymakers and communities about environmental challenges. His foundation’s commitment to environmental conservation aligns with his broader philosophy of addressing problems at their root rather than responding to symptoms.
The intersection of business success and charitable giving has shaped how Jean-Pierre Conte thinks about impact. “To be a business builder, you need to be optimistic about the future, and you need to know you can have an impact on things by sheer hard work or thinking differently,” he has observed. “Bringing those characteristics into my philanthropy has really helped.”
His philanthropic work spans education, medical research, and environmental conservation—areas united by a common thread: each addresses systemic challenges that require patience and sustained commitment rather than quick fixes. For Jean-Pierre Conte, giving back is not an afterthought to business success but an extension of the same principles that built it.
Related: JP Conte: The Power of Mentorship And How I Give Back To The Next Generation
