The Kai Pollai Story
Women have more financial resources now than ever, and they are showing up to give.
…Jesus went to all the cities and towns preaching the Good News…
Luke 8:1–3
The name
Cities and towns, three years, twelve men and Him. All funded by these women, out of their own means.
Luke names three.
Then he adds three words of great importance.
kaiand heteraiothers pollaimany
— Luke 8:3 —
They were not spectators. They were funders.
Out of their own personal wealth, they resourced the entire ministry. The travel. The teaching. The lives changed. Women funded it with their own wealth. And most of their names never made the record.
Kai Pollai takes the first and last of those words. And many. A nod to the women Luke named, and the ones he did not. The many who showed up, gave, and went uncounted.
A note from Mary
That realization reoriented everything for me. My understanding of Jesus. My understanding of women’s role. What I believed was possible for my own life.
It left me with a question I have never stopped asking.
Mary Shaw, Founder
Why we exist
What if she gave now the way they gave then?
To know what she is for. Specifically enough to say no.
Named people, not a directory.
That depends on what she walks into. Which is why we work the other side too.
There is a gap in how the generosity world serves women. We want to close it.
We build with women at the center. That is where the shift is and where the gap is widest. Clarity is not gendered, and neither is a well-built organization.
What we believe
Organizations do not fail women donors because they do not care. They fail them because their systems carry assumptions that no longer match who is giving, how much, and why. That is good news. Convictions are hard to change. Designs are not.
Working only with givers produces clarity that hits a wall. Working only with organizations produces readiness with no one walking through the door. We hold both because the gift needs both.
So we skip that part. We would rather tell you which area of your organization is weak and which step she is stalling at.
Meet the Founders
Founder
Mary has spent more than a decade in rooms where women discover generosity.
She entered the generosity space in 2012 and spent eight years with Generous Giving, designing and delivering the regional and national events. During that time she met the founders of Women Doing Well and joined as a volunteer. She went on to lead there, creating The Pathway, a transformational experience for women grounded in Women Doing Well’s research into what women need in order to live generously. It has reached thousands of women.
She has built programs at national scale that still land personally. She has led teams through complex builds and built the operations underneath them. This is a small field, and she has been in it a long time.
Kai Pollai carries her judgment on both sides of the gift. Everything it does, she has done in a room first.
Mary also runs Generosity Studio, her broader consulting and program work.
Co-founder, Technology
Albert Chen is an AI strategist and prompt engineer who helps philanthropy and nonprofit leaders put AI to work inside their organizations.
With 20 years across startups, corporations, and nonprofits, he brings a practical, builder’s approach to AI adoption: architecting solutions, training teams, and coaching the implementers. His career spans enterprise IT transformation and change management at State Street, and operating a holistic ministry among the urban poor in Mexico City.
Albert runs Anago, an AI consultancy that trains and guides foundations, nonprofits, and ministries through AI strategy and product development. He works alongside executives, technical teams, and field staff to incorporate generative AI into daily operations and strategic discussions. A regular conference speaker, he delivers keynotes and workshops that help non-technical audiences make sense of the future.
Albert also serves on the board of Mesa Global.
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The Guide and the Index are being built. The conversation is open now. Join us on this journey toward more impactful giving.
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