In April 2024, Chase and I set ourselves a number: $100,000 to seed the Finn Wardman World Explorer Fund. The plan at the time was conservative. Build an endowment, let it sit, and use the interest to send one young person out into the world every year, forever. One trip a year in Finn's name seemed like a good, safe, sensible plan. To be honest, we didn't really know what we were doing, or where this would lead. It just felt right.
You broke the plan. By the time the first round closed, you had given $175,000.
So we stopped being conservative. Instead of one trip a year, we started saying yes every time the right application came in; the specific dream, the dated opportunity, the youth with everything ready except the money. Two years on, eleven young people and growing have been funded. This is the record of where your money went, one person at a time, with the videos so you can see their faces when they tell it themselves.
Leo — Mexico to Cologne, Germany
Our first grantee. Leonarda "Leo" Peredia grew up in a town of 2,000 people near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She had never been on a plane. She didn't own a passport until the grant money came through. Despite growing up on the beach her whole life, she couldn't swim. What she did have was a target she'd been carrying for years: C1 German, studied on her phone between shifts while teaching English to native Spanish speakers.
In the fall of 2024 we awarded her $7,500 for a six-month intensive German course in Cologne — flights, housing, course fees. She left in July 2025 as an over-planner with every train ride listed on a spreadsheet. She came back a woman who grabs a backpack and a Eurail pass and just goes. One of her new found loves is the app couch surfing which she now uses and hosts herself.
And at the age of 23, she learned how to swim so she can now enjoy the beaches of her native Mexico.
Leo now sits on our selection committee, reading the applications that come after hers.
From her exit interview: "The grant removed not only a financial obstacle but also a mental one. It made the dream concrete."
You can hear about her life changing transformation on our podcast interview.
Brenda — Little Cayman, then the world
Brenda Gomez Camarena, our second grantee, left for the Cayman Islands in February 2025 for a marine biology internship on Little Cayman that my sister helped to find and land. There she was able to get her dive certification, and do reef work, dive work and the kind of hands-on ocean science you cannot get from a classroom. She didn't stop there. While in Little Cayman, she met an Indian girl who was engaged, she wrote us and asked, "What do you think if I went to Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef, via Kerala India for my friends wedding?
Through grit, resourcefulness and passion for travel, Brenda was able to extend our grant of $10,000 to a full 12 months in field. She is also our resident expert on how to use trusted house sitters, and other apps to live for free in other people's homes while she watches their pets and water their plants. Her list of watched pets include but are not limited to; dogs, cats, horses, chickens and.. emus.
Her updates since have come in from Australia and Bali, and every one of them ends the same way: I am loving life!
You can catch a glimpse of one of her days in the field.
We did a podcast with Brenda, who also sits on our selection committee making decisions that could change others' lives in the same way.
Jediah — our first Bermudian athlete
Jediah is a motorcycle road racer from Bermuda who has been on bikes since he was two years old. His father, who first put him on one, passed away when Jediah was young; his mother Patrina has been his manager, fundraiser, and pit crew ever since. In April 2025 the Fund backed his season in the British Superteen Championship — his first testing sessions on the new bike came that same month. He carries Finn's logo on his helmet at races.
His mother wrote to us: "Some athletes, although highly talented, miss the opportunity to reach their dreams and goals because finances are not available." That sentence is the reason this fund exists, in one line.
In 2026, after we helped fund a full season Jediah returned to the UK and made a podium finish.
Yasmin — marine biology across two oceans
Yasmin Lorenzo wants to be a marine biologist, and she is doing it the hard way: real internships, real fieldwork, real water. In April 2025 we committed $5,000 for six months of marine conservation work in Costa Rica, with the destination deliberately left in her hands. She was able to extend a 3 month trip to Costa Rica to 6 months and fulfilled a lifelong dream to dive in the Galápagos Islands.
She earned the second half in December 2025 when we approved a further $5,000 to carry her on to Australasia, another lifelong dream where she vows to return some day for longer. Along the way she's sent back dispatches from solo travels she never thought she'd take.
Catch a day in her life in the video below.
Rubi — a master's at Nottingham
Rubi came to us from Mexico in May 2025 with an offer letter in hand: a one-year master's in Biodiversity Conservation at the University of Nottingham. The opportunity was real, the dates were fixed, and the money was the only thing in the way. That is exactly the application we fund.
While I was writing this, I sent a quick WhatsApp to ask her what she's been up to. Here is her reply.
I'm camping and barely using my phone, sorry for the delay.
So far I've been in Portugal, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, and the UK.
And I'm in Sweden volunteering as an International Service Team (staff) in the National Swedish Scout Jamboree. But I've been here for a month and a half cause I also came to participate in the celebration of midsommar.
In her own words: "My gratitude is beyond words, and I look forward to sharing this journey with you — one made possible by Finn's legacy of love."
A day in the life for Rubi currently wrapping up her MS at Uni in the UK.
Melissa — Malawi to the London School of Economics
Melissa Musukwa was 18 when she got on her first flight out of Africa, headed for a summer program at the London School of Economics — accommodation, program fees, stipend, and flights fully covered. She wants to work on economic solutions for African economies. She came home with sharper ambitions, a community of friends from every corner of the world, and a story about finally seeing Big Ben in person.
She was also able to meet her UK grandparents for the first time in her life. Previous to the grant, Melissa had never left Malawi except to attend University in Namibia.
From her testimonial: "This fund really awakened a side of me I didn't even know existed — one that is braver, daring, alive and more willing to take risks."
Meet Melissa!
Azile — Cape Town to the stages of Europe
Azile Manxiwa, known as Blackish Muzic, is a DJ, producer, and composer who came to us in July 2025 through the Bridges for Music Academy in Cape Town. Both his parents were facing unemployment; a European tour was the kind of thing that happened to other people. The grant put him on his first-ever trip abroad and the first time on a plane for him. A WEF recurring theme. He played packed clubs across Europe. Back home, he has started DJ lessons for kids in his community, studio sessions for women, and a small record label for upcoming artists. He is on his second European tour right now, this one booked on his own steam, where he was also a featured talent at Africa Burn, which believe me, is a big deal.
From his testimonial: "It was a huge vote of confidence that made me believe in myself and my abilities even more."
The experience in 2025 gave Azile enough confidence and contacts to return to Europe where he is continuing another 2 month long tour through his own means. This year he landed a booking at Poland's Garbicz Festival, and connected with a promoter who has since confirmed him bookings in Canada and the Netherlands.
We can't wait to hear more about his journey and watch his growth. He is one determined young man and it's been a pleasure to take a small part in his growth.
Learn more about Blackish, from Cape Town to Europe.
Ayzoman — taking Gqom to Europe
Azonwabe "Ayzoman" Renqe, 23, is a Gqom DJ and producer from Cape Town with seven years behind the decks and confirmed bookings he lined up himself in France, Italy, and the Netherlands — including Nuits Sonores in Lyon. In April 2026 we committed $5,000 toward his two-month European tour. When he's not touring, he teaches through Future Beats Academy, opening doors for the next wave of South African producers.
Ayzoman is still out on tour and we don't have any footage of him yet but will update the blog when we do!
Rogger — 45 days in Lebanon and Syria
Rogger Oliveira, 25, is a photojournalist from Atalaia in the Brazilian Amazon, now studying social sciences in Rio on a merit scholarship. He taught himself four of the six languages he speaks fluently and is adding Levantine Arabic. In May 2026 we granted $2,500 toward "Despite the Sound of the Planes," a 45-day independent documentary series on resilience in Lebanon and Syria — his answer to coverage that flattens Middle Eastern people into a single story. His 2025 Palestine series ran thirteen episodes, so we know he delivers. Departure is conditional on de-escalation on the ground; safety is the one non-negotiable in his grant.
Rogger is currently in the field, and we will be proud to publish his latest documentary series once he has completed it.
Meet Rogger, who is currently braving the Middle East making his dreams come true telling the other side of the story from people that live in this zone during conflict.
Siya — Cape Town to Camp Matoaka, Maine
Siyamthanda "Siya" Zacharia walked out of a professional kitchen in Cape Town — Level 4 cook, four years of hospitality — and where we had accepted her for a grant to spend ten weeks this summer mentoring young girls and sharing South African music and dance. She leads the Isingqusho Arts Group at home and came to us through her mentorship with Bridges for Music. Her grant covers the $1,850 she asked for, plus up to $3,500 for solo travel inside the U.S. on the back end — because she may never get this window again, and if her heart wants an open mic in New York City, we want her to take it.
Siya hasn't left for her trip yet, but when she has footage, we will add to the blog.
Ayden — ten days of silence in Thailand
Ayden is a 22 year old from Vancouver, BC. After Kirsten and I attended a life changing 10 day silent meditation retreat in November of 2023, we decided to experiment with a Spiritual Vipassana Reset retreat. Ayden was accepted in June 2026 for a ten-day Vipassana meditation retreat in Thailand this fall, with $1,500 committed toward flights and on-the-ground costs. He came to us already prepared to make the trip happen with or without help, so we split the cost with him and backed the part that matters: a young man choosing to sit down and face his own mind. I'm pretty sure that this is the only type of grant that offers young adults the chance to fund a trip to do this type of spiritual work, in the world. If they're crazy enough to take us up on it.
Ayden hasn't left yet, but has vowed to do some before and after footage.
Still Going Strong
This week alone we have two new candidates in interviews, and we announced our approval as a registered US 501(c)(3) charity. We're now applying monthly for every grant we can find that fits the mission, and working continuously at making the Finn Wardman World Explorer Fund a legacy Finn would be proud of.
Consider this update official notice: we're raising the next $100,000 to carry the Fund into 2027 and beyond. The ten-year goal is set: 150 life-changing grants for young people aged 18 to 26. Eleven down.
Who knows. That goal may not be ambitious enough.