Nikki Eslami Launched A Multi-Pillar Conservation Venture Disrupting The Philanthropy Landscape

Sustainability goes beyond the improvements in areas like natural resources overexploitation, manufacturing operations, the linear consumption of products and consumer purchasing behaviors. Sustainable investing, especially over the past two years, has become more prominent. According to the US SIF Foundation’s 2020 Report on US Sustainable and Impact Investing Trends, one out of every three dollars under professional management in the United States, $17.1 trillion, was managed according to sustainable investing strategies at the end of 2019. Sustainable investing is more than a strong financial performance; it’s about believing that investments should contribute to social and environmental advancements.

Nikki Eslami, founder and CEO of Wild Elements, launched a multi-pillar venture to create conscious communities that drive collective impact for the future health of our shared home. The platform restores symbioses between nature, wildlife and humanity by building a compassionate community of consumers, allies and advocates ready to take action. Combining the power of philanthropy, storytelling and commerce, Wild Elements accelerates conservation efforts and scales community-led solutions worldwide.

“We’ve invested $3 million in sustainability and conservation organizations,” Eslami explains. “At the core of it is that we’re investing in women. One of the things that I realized was, as I was meeting with all of these other amazing conservationists and environmentalists, and these badass women, frankly, doing cool things in their communities, I realized that in their conservation experience, they had the same setbacks that I had in business. But even though we were so far apart in our experiences, there was this shared experience that we were consistently underrepresented, underestimated and underfunded. … As I started learning, even more, there was a stat that floored me. Less than 0.2% of all global philanthropy goes towards women-led environmental action. … The idea of it became very clear with Wild Elements was how do you intentionally disrupt philanthropy? One of the main things was to help change and equalize the playing field by investing in women.”

Eslami started her career as a lawyer. However, she quickly realized that practicing law wasn’t what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. By the time she turned 23, she had founded a hair extensions company, Bellami, out of her passion for hairstyling. As she scaled the company over the past decade, she took a couple of years to figure out what she actually wanted to do with her career. 

She wanted to use her background to help brands level up and make a greater impact in their communities. In her journey of exploration, she was introduced to Selena Gomez, who wanted to build a beauty brand that had a purpose and a reason at the core of the brand DNA. Gomez focused on mental health and providing access to underserved youth and communities. Eslami invested in the company, became a board member and helped build a business model where an organization could be profitable and purposeful. 

That experience gave her the idea of the possibility of scaling social impact across different issue areas. Her idea led her to found New Theory Ventures. It’s a venture studio that funds diverse entrepreneurs, a majority of women who want to be next-gen agents of change and want to impact the world. 

With the venture firm, Eslami and her team grow and catalyze companies. As she thought about the types of companies she’d like to support, she honed in on her love for animals and wanting to conserve and protect them. She learned that for animals to thrive, agriculture, people and communities must thrive. 

Eslami began researching agriculture and the food system. She noticed the gaps and how traditional agriculture is exceptionally devastating to the health of the soil. It uses a lot of water and is not climate resistant. Additionally, there are environmental toxins and pollutants in the waterway. 

“The thing I really fell in love with was hydroponics,” she explains. “So the ability to grow an enormous amount of food and produce without the use of soil, and in urban areas that don’t have access to a lot of farmland and being able to create a supply chain for food security in those areas. So I really got quite passionate about hydroponics. And I wanted to get to this point where I wanted to do this at scale. And that’s where the idea of Wild Elements came from.”

Through the philanthropic pillar, Wild Elements Foundation, the company launched its flagship program, Wild Innovators. Ten innovators consisting of women conservationists, scientists and community organizers received $100,000, which will be disbursed over the course of two years. Additionally, they have access to advocates who help amplify their leadership, advancing wild ideas into world-changing impact.

As Eslami continues to transition in her career and expand her companies, she focuses on the following essential steps:

• Focus on your why. Are you running away from something or towards something? Make sure your why is rooted in purpose. 
• Research and test your idea. It’s easy to glamorize that the grass is greener on the other side. But, in reality, it might be a nightmare.
• Trust your instincts. This is the hardest step because you have to jump with both feet and follow through. 

“People ask, ‘Why the women piece?’” Eslami concludes. “First of all, I went through that as a young woman entrepreneur. And yes, I had a male cofounder, but that was even harder because you have to be louder, be more present and really try to find your place. I find that to be really important. I do think there’s power in women when they do come together with intention and purpose.”