The Cynosure Group, an investment firm and family office, merges philanthropy with investing. The firm hosted Nick Grono, a London-based human rights leader who discussed global efforts to combat modern slavery and drive social impact through effective management of non-profits and NGOs.
Named after the ship that brought 14-year-old David Eccles to America from Liverpool over 160 years ago, The Cynosure Group (Salt Lake City) is a diversified investment firm and family office. In addition to managing the investments of the Eccles family, it also manages assets of other families, foundations, and endowments. Cynosure stands out for its strong philanthropic focus. Cynosure’s mantra: ‘To Help Good People do Great Things,’ is deeply embedded in the firm’s mission. They’ve been very successful in their efforts thus far. One of its projects—combating modern slavery—was highlighted by the Cynosure Group luncheon event that took place today at the historic Alta Club in downtown Salt Lake City. The event’s guest speaker was London-based human rights leader Nick Grono, CEO of the Freedom Fund and author of the new book How To Lead Nonprofits.
“Transforming Purpose into Real-World Results,” was the topic of a conversation between Grono and Jennifer Napier-Pearce, Chief of Staff of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. They explored the topics of Grono’s new book How To Lead Nonprofits, that included best practices for nonprofits and foundations. They also discussed Grono’s work in combating the scourge of modern slavery.
Mark Siddoway, President of Cynosure, described Cynosure in his welcome as "a pretty unique firm because all our clients are either a charitable foundation or a philanthropic entity."
Cynosure’s Managing Director Herbert E “Bud” Scruggs described Cynosure in a similar way:
“The overwhelming majority of our clients come to us for one reason. They want to make more money in order to be able to give it away. Nobody works with us for their retirement, or for their students, or their children's education. They come to us because they want to be able to give more money away.”
Cynosure, with offices in Salt Lake City and New York, employs 70 people, manages $6 billion in assets (as of 2023), and continues to grow rapidly “with a composite annualized average of over 14%, that is providing us with the opportunity fulfill our primary goal,” said Managing Director Scruggs.
Scruggs describes how Cynosure connected with its featured speaker, Nick Grono, setting the stage for a key luncheon topic:
“In 2011 I was working in Perth, Australia for [Australian mining billionaire] Andrew Forrest. I was responsible for organizing his family office and organizing his philanthropies. Andrew and his daughter Grace had just returned from a very troubling trip. As a high school student, Grace had volunteered one summer at a girls orphanage in Nepal. A year and a half later, she wanted to go back and showed her family the orphanage where she worked, and she was alarmed to note that many of the older girls had disappeared.”
He continued:
“They did some looking into it, and found that many of the girls we had been forced into had been lured into India and forced into sex work. One of my responsibilities then became to determine how to have an impact on this heartbreaking issue.”
After doing some research, Scruggs and his colleagues found that people were hesitant to engage with such a difficult topic. So, as Scruggs describes:
“We took it back a notch, and decided to tackle what's referred to as modern slavery. This includes trafficking, as well as many other forms of exploitative forced labor.”
In 2011, Scruggs and Cynosure founder Nick Ronald helped form the organization Walk Free, an international human rights group based in Perth, Western Australia, whose goal is to end modern slavery.
“What we did to combat modern slavery was form Walk Free. But, two things quickly became obvious. First, the issue was global and massive. Second, I was unqualified to lead this organization. So, we contacted the top international search firm in Australia to find somebody that could be the first president of Walk Free. This is how we found Nick Grono, who, in 2012 got the organization started.”
He continued:
“When I met Nick, I knew I met a really special person. Nick was a lawyer by training with a Master's in Public Policy from Princeton. He worked briefly for Goldman Sachs in London, before returning to Australia to become, among other things, the National Security Advisor to the Australian Attorney General. He then moved back to Europe to work with the International Crisis Group.”
Grono and Scruggs discovered that many organizations were attempting to combat modern slavery but in a disconnected way.
“We found that there were a lot of organizations tackling their corner of modern slavery, but they weren't coordinated. They didn't have good research. So, together we launched the first Global Slavery Index to try to find out how many slaves are actually out there. Our first rough estimates told us there were about 23 million slaves.”
He continues:
“After a couple of years, and more countries participating in it, the number is just under 50 million people on the planet that live as slaves.”
Scruggs also explains how the Freedom Fund was created:
“Walk Free was one of the three founding organizations that created the Freedom Fund, which is a London based organization committed to combating modern slavery. They've worked with over 128 frontline partners, so they’re really working with local groups on the ground.”
Scruggs then puts into perspective just how many people have been affected by these organizations:
“Think about the Delta Center being filled during a hockey game, and then multiply that by two. Under Nick's leadership, 30,000 people are no longer slaves.”
He continued:
“Under Nick's leadership, his organization has helped over 200,000 children, over four times the size of the Rice Eccles stadium, to be free from oppressive circumstances and allowed to return to school. In total, they’ve impacted 1.5 million lives across the planet.”
Scruggs and Grono said, “The work has only just started,” and Cynosure plans to keep growing and expanding its reach to continue helping good people do great things.
Learn more about Cynosure by clicking the link here.
Learn more about Nick Grono’s Freedom Fund by clicking here.
Learn more about Walk Free by clicking this link.
Check out Nick Grono’s book, How to Lead Nonprofits: Turning Purpose into Impact to Change the World, published in July of 2024, by clicking here.