Send us a text In this episode we hear from author Amy Schiller about her fascinating and thought provoking new book The Price of Humanity: How philanthropy went wrong and how to fix it . Including: Has our understanding of philanthropy has become too centred on the idea that it is solely about funding things that make human life possible, rather than those that make it worthwhile? Is there a danger that philanthropy which becomes too focussed on seeing human life in terms of basic existence end...
Apr 11, 2024•58 min•Ep. 58
Send us a text In the fifth edition of our partnership with the European Research Network on Philanthropy (ERNOP), we hear from more academics whose work is featured in the latest batch of short, practitioner-focused ERNOP Research Notes. In this episode we hear from: Arthur Gautier from ESSEC Business School, about his work exploring how wealthy people's life experiences shape their views on the relationship between impact investing and philanthropy Isabel de Bruin from Erasmus University, abou...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Send us a text In this episode we talk to Australian philanthropy expert Krystian Seibert about his work with the Productivity Commission's Public Inquiry on philanthropy, including their recent draft report "Future Foundations for Giving" which sets out findings and recommendations on developing philanthropy in Australia. Including: How did the Productivity Commission report on philanthropy come about, and what is the aim behind it? What is the history and current context for civil society in A...
Mar 14, 2024•59 min
Send us a text On this episode we take an in-depth look at the 2023 documentary film "UnCharitable", based on the book and TED talk by Dan Pallotta, which argues that the current funding model for the nonprofit sector is broken. Including -An interview with the Director of the film, Stephen Gyllenhaal, in which he talks about how the film came about, what he learned through making it, and what the plans are next for taking the film's aims forward. -A critical assessment of the film -Some short p...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 28 min
Send us a text In this episode we discuss the 'Wealth Shared' project that took place in 2023 in Liverpool, UK - in which 12 randomly-selected citizens of the L8 postcode were given the chance to decide how £100K was given away. We talk to project founder David Clarke, who provided the money and designed the approach, and also hear briefly from Anne-Marie Gilleece, one of the 12 participants who got to make the decision. Including: What was the thinking behind the project? What primarily drove t...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Send us a text In this episode we speak to Mary Rose Gunn, Founder and CEO of The Fore, about why small charitable organisations are so valuable and how to support them to thrive. Including: How did The Fore come about, and what does the organisation exist to do? Is there too much competition and not enough collaboration in the charity sector? Why is this? How can we design more collaborative approaches? What kinds of resources and infrastructure will this require? How can philanthropic funders ...
Feb 01, 2024•52 min
Send us a text In the fourth edition of our partnership with the European Research Network on Philanthropy (ERNOP), we hear from more academics whose work is featured in the latest batch of short, practitioner-focused ERNOP Research Notes. In this episode we hear from: Pamala Wiepking (Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Arjen De Wit ( Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ), about developing a conceptual model to understand the benefits of core funding for ...
Jan 18, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Send us a text In this episode we talk to J. Bob Alotta - SVP, Global Progammes at Mozilla - about what is happening at the intersection of artificial intelligence, philanthropy and civil society. Including: What role can open source approaches play in ensuring that AI is developed in a way that benefits society? What is Mozilla funding in this area, and how much other philanthropic funding is currently focussed on these kinds of initiatives? How optimistic should we be about the potential for d...
Jan 04, 2024•46 min
Send us a text As is now tradition, in our final episode of the year we take a look at some of the key themes and trends in philanthropy and civil society right now and offer some thoughts on what the coming year might bring. In this second of two parts, we focus on the opportunities and challenges that technology will bring. Including: Will Twitter (oh, alright, "X") finally give up and die? Will we settle on a replacement? And should we even do that, or should we rethink the whole idea of soci...
Dec 14, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Send us a text As is now tradition, in our final episode of the year we take a look at some of the key themes and trends in philanthropy and civil society right now and offer some thoughts on what 2024 might bring. In this first of two parts, we explore developments in the wider political and economic landscape, as well as taking a deep dive into what to expect in philanthropy, everyday giving, grantmaking and the nonprofit sector. Including: Given the number of major elections worldwide, and th...
Dec 14, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Send us a text In this episode we talk to Dr Farahnaz Karim, Founder & CEO of Insaan Group, about catalytic philanthropy, impact investing and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Including: What does Insaan Group do, and how did the organisation come about? What does the current impact investing market landscape look like? Where is the money coming from, and where is it going? How do we ensure that the focus on social, as well as financial, returns is maintained in impact investing? Is it ...
Nov 30, 2023•55 min•Ep. 48
Send us a text In this episode we speak to Elizabeth Barajas-Román, President & CEO of the Women's Funding Network, about taking a feminist approach to funding and what more philanthropy should be doing to drive gender equity. Including: What does it mean to be a feminist funder? Is feminist funding just for those who are interested in gender and women's issues, or can the principles be applied by funders in other areas? What are the similarities and the differences in terms of the context f...
Nov 16, 2023•46 min
Send us a text In this episode we speak to Sara Lomelin, founding CEO of Philanthropy Together, about the rise of giving circles and the intersection between philanthropy, community and identity. Including: How did Philanthropy Together come about, and what is the organisation's mission? Who gets involved in giving circles? Are they different from"typical donors"? Do collective giving models appeal more to younger donors? What different approaches to giving circles take to decision-making? Are t...
Nov 02, 2023•48 min
Send us a text In this episode we talk to Joshua Amponsem, co-founder and Strategy Director of the Youth Climate Justice Fund, a newly-formed organisation that aims to support youth-led climate movements with trust-based funding, resources and youth-to-youth development. We discuss: How did YCJF come about? What is the organisation's mission and what does it aim to do? Why is so little philanthropy currently aimed at climate issues? Why is only a tiny fraction of that funding aimed at youth-led ...
Oct 18, 2023•57 min
Send us a text This is the third edition of our partnership with the European Research Network on Philanthropy (ERNOP), in which we talk to academics whose work is featured in the latest batch of short, practitioner-focused ERNOP Research Notes. In this episode we hear from: Marlou Ramaekers from Vrije Universitat in Amsterdam, on how behaviour modelling and encouragement from parents and partners influence our informal volunteering Nina Sooter from the University of Geneva, on using virtual rea...
Oct 05, 2023•52 min
Send us a text In this episode we talk to Aaron Horvath, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University's Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society, about his research on how nonprofits responded in an unexpected way to new regulatory reporting demands- going well above and beyond what was expected of them. Including: What is the notion of "supererogation" and how is it applied in this research to analyse the response of nonprofits to new accountability demands? Why did nonprofits choose...
Sep 21, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 43
Send us a text In this episode, we talk to Lorena Gonzalez and Jes Olvera from the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights about their work supporting unaccompanied child migrants in the US, and what it means to put justice at the heart of their approach to philanthropy. Including: What is the current landscape of philanthropic funding for immigrant rights like in the US? The issue of immigration is highly politicised (especially in the US), so when working as a funder in this field do you ...
Sep 07, 2023•48 min
Send us a text In this episode we talk to Martha Awojobi, Founder/CEO of JMB Consulting about the upcoming BAMEOnline conference and about what it means to bring the principles of anti-racism to bear on philanthropy, charity & fundraising. Including: How did the BAMEOnline conference come about, who is it for, and why is it needed? Does philanthropy and the charity sector have a diversity problem? What does it mean for organisations in the charity and philanthropy world, and those working in...
Jul 20, 2023•56 min
Send us a text In this episode we hear from three academics whose work is featured in the latest batch of short, practitioner-focused Research Notes from the European Research Network on Philanthropy (ERNOP). We have: Claire van Teunenbroek from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, talking about her work on crowdfunding and philanthropy Tobias Jung from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, talking about his paper on how the concept of spectrality can be applied to further our unders...
Jul 06, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Send us a text In this episode we take a deep dive into the opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence might bring for philanthropy and civil society. Including: Why is everyone talking about AI all of a sudden? What do we actually mean by "AI"? How much of the talk about "AI For Good" is substantive, and how much is hype? What are some of the best examples of nonprofits/funders currently making use of AI? What impact will the emergence of new AI capabilites around process automat...
Jun 22, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Send us a text On this episode, we talk to philosopher and lawyer Patricia Illingworth about her recent book Giving Now: Accelerating Human Rights for All , and about how we can apply the framework of human rights to some of the big questions about the nature and role of philanthropy. Including: What does it mean to use human rights as a framework for understanding donor responsibilities? Is philanthropy a choice or a duty? Do human rights responsibilities apply to all philanthropy, or just a ce...
Jun 08, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Send us a text In this episode we take a deep dive into an issue that has been generating a lot of debate recently: is pluralism in philanthropy a good thing, or not? Including: What has caused the latest furore, and what has the reaction been? Is philanthropic freedom genuinely under threat, and if so why? Or is this just a straw man? Should donors and foundations be free to "engage in the unfettered pursuit of their own mission, interests and prerogatives", or are there arguments for constrain...
May 25, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Send us a text In this episode we take a look at the long history of the relationship between philanthropy and music. Including: Philanthropy supporting music Patronage & philanthropy Who gets to decide which music count as "art"? How did Victorian paternalism tie in with the promotion of music? How and when did the state come to accept responsibility for funding music? Musicians as Philanthropists How does the fact that many musicians come from relatively modest or poor backgrounds inform t...
May 11, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 36
Send us a text In this episode we talk to philanthropist Dr Ewan Kirk, founder of the Turner Kirk Trust, about why he believes it is so important that philanthropists are willing to take risks and give the organisations they support 'permission to fail'. Including: Why is it so important to give charities permission to fail? What factors make something a “good” failure rather than a “bad” one? What is the nature of the risk in philanthropy? Is philanthropy as a whole too risk averse? Can we do a...
Apr 27, 2023•50 min•Ep. 35
Send us a text In this episode we talk to Michael Thatcher, CEO of US nonprofit rating service Charity Navigator, about why and how the organisation tries to help people to choose charities more effectively. Including: What is Charity Navigator? What is its mission and what services does it offer to try to achieve that goal? What criteria does the Charity Navigator rating system encompass? What are the biggest challenges when it comes to gathering and providing data on nonprofit organisations? W...
Apr 13, 2023•46 min•Ep. 34
Send us a text This episode is the first of what will hopefully be a regular series, in partnership with the European Research Network on Philanthropy (ERNOP), in which we discuss their quarterly Research Notes. This is a new project that will produce short, accessible summaries of recent academic research relating to philanthropy, with the aim of bringing research to a wider audience of practitioners, policymakers and others. In this initial episode, Rhod talks briefly to Barry Hoolwerf, Execut...
Mar 30, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 33
Send us a text In this episode Rhod talks to philanthropy adviser Emma Beeston and academic Dr Beth Breeze about their new book Advising Philanthropists . Including: What are some of the key elements of philanthropy advice? How much is philanthropy advice about objective, technical things (e.g. tax, structures etc) and how much is it about subjective things (about finding purpose, understanding values etc)? At what stage in their ‘philanthropic journey’ are donors most likely to seek advice? Whe...
Mar 16, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Send us a text On this episode, as part of our occasional mini-series in partnership with NPC, we talk to Tris Lumley about open philanthropy: what it is, why it is important, and how we make it happen. Including: What is NPC’s Open Philanthropy project? How did it come about? How has NPC been putting some of its thinking about open philanthropy into practice? What is the difference between “outward openness” and “inward openness” in philanthropy? Do foundations (and donors) need to be more tran...
Mar 02, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Send us a text In this episode we talk to historian and political scientist Claire Dunning about her book Nonprofit Neighborhoods: An urban history of inequality and the American state , and her work on the history of radical philanthropy in Boston. Including: -What are the “nonprofit neighborhoods” described in the book? -Can participation in nonprofits become an alternative to involvement in the mainstream structures of civic participation, rather than a route into them? Does this undermine th...
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Send us a text In this episode Rhod talks to Jake Ferguson and Vanessa Thomas, two of the Committee members of the Baobab Foundation - a new member-led endowed grantmaker that is seeking to address issues of systemic racism and intersectional injustice in the UK. Including: How did the Baobab Foundation come about? What has been the progress so far? Has the momentum behind addressing issues of racial justice that we saw in the nonprofit world following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 been mai...
Feb 02, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 29
