The Giving Done Right Podcast with Phil Buchanan

Phil talks with longtime friend Tracy Palandjian, co-founder and CEO of Social Finance, about the space between traditional grantmaking and traditional investing, and why donors, foundations, and DAF holders aren’t limited to only one or the other. Tracy explains how Social Finance's unusual structure, a nonprofit that is also a registered investment advisor, lets it stay impact-first while deploying capital across a spectrum of tools most philanthropists never consider. Tracy walks through how this works in practice. For example, a revolving, interest-free loan fund helping low-income students become registered nurses, where repayment scales with a graduate's income and no one is left in debt if the job doesn't materialize. Tracy and Phil also dig into why so few foundations use program-related investments despite decades of the tax code allowing it, what it actually takes for a foundation to do this work well structurally, and how individual donors can put their investments to work. Tracy closes with a simple framework for donors sitting on new wealth: give a lot, give effectively, and where possible, give in a way that lets the money come back and do good again. Resources: Social Finance The Social Finance Institute ReNEW Fund: Reinvesting in Nursing Education and Workforce New Jersey Pay It Forward Fund Slow Philanthropy by Jeff Bradach Unpacking the Impact in Impact Investing by Paul Brest

Daniel Stid, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the newsletter The Art of Association and host of a podcast by the same name, shares his provocative argument that large-scale philanthropic investment in national policy advocacy has, over time, deepened American polarization rather than healed it. Stid, who spent nearly a decade leading the Hewlett Foundation's U.S. Democracy Program, explains why he believes funders on the left and right have increasingly bankrolled advocates clustered at ideological poles, making it harder for either political party to build governing majorities near the center where most Americans actually sit. Phil pushes back, prompting a nuanced discussion of where philanthropy's influence on democracy is concentrated versus diffuse. The two also debate whether philanthropically funded efforts to directly oppose the current administration are effective or counterproductive, with Stid arguing for what he calls "responsible pluralism": funding advocacy aimed at building durable majorities through Congress, rather than unilateral executive action, regardless of which party wields that power. Phil challenges the underlying premise, arguing the current threat to democratic norms and civil society is categorically different from past administrations' overreach. The conversation closes on the nonprofit sector's dependence on federal funding, a relationship Stid traces back to the Great Society era, and what he sees as an unavoidable reckoning now that the decades-long bipartisan consensus supporting that funding relationship has broken down. Both agree that philanthropy cannot fill the resulting gap alone, but see real opportunity for donors to give more, given how flat charitable giving has remained relative to the wealth concentrated among the richest Americans. Resources: The Art of Association American Enterprise Institute Hewlett Foundation, U.S. Democracy Program Slow Philanthropy: Why giving by the ultra-wealthy often lags behind their ambitions—and what could help move money faster by Jeff Bradach CEP's State of Nonprofits report

Phil sits down with Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, for a wide-ranging conversation on what this moment of backlash demands of individual and institutional donors. Stevenson places the current retreat from racial equity commitments within a much longer arc: the recurring pattern stretching from Reconstruction through Jim Crow to today, in which periods of racial justice progress in America are met by a deliberate counter-narrative, and progress stalls until a new narrative takes hold. Drawing on his own personal history, Stevenson makes the case that philanthropy's work on racial equity has too often been reactive rather than grounded in real historical learning, and argues that donors who invest in understanding this history will be far better positioned to fund effective, defensible strategies, from addressing the legacy of Black displacement during the Great Migration to reframing what accountability should have looked like after the Voting Rights Act passed. He also responds directly to donors who worry that a racial equity focus alienates potential allies, distinguishing the problems of poverty from the problems of racial bias while insisting the two shouldn't be conflated. Stevenson reflects on his years serving on the board of the Ford Foundation, and what he learned about the gap between funders and grantees, and why he believes that foundation boards need more representation from people with direct nonprofit experience. Resources: Equal Justice Initiative The Legacy Sites (Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, Montgomery Square) Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

With the midterm elections just weeks away, Phil talks with Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and its Education Fund, about what donors and foundations concerned about the state of American democracy can do right now, and why the philanthropic response has so far fallen short. Maya shares findings from the Leadership Conference's landscape mapping of its coalition, which found that nearly half of the organizations surveyed are doing voter protection and engagement work on a quarter or less of the budget they say they need. Maya describes what voter engagement work actually looks like on the ground, from year-round canvassing and voter education to faith leaders trained to deescalate tensions at polling places. She also outlines how the current administration has used the power of government to intimidate and defund organizations doing lawful work. She and Phil dig into the decision by major donor-advised fund sponsors to block gifts to the Southern Poverty Law Center following its indictment, and discuss why institutional capitulation, whether by law firms, corporations, financial institutions, or foundations, has proven to be as damaging as the threats themselves. The conversation closes on a personal note, as Maya reflects on growing up as the daughter of civil rights organizer George Wiley, and on what she draws from the generations who came before her when the fight feels hardest. Resources: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Fifth Annual Civil Rights Monitor Poll Southern Poverty Law Center Ohio Organizing Collaborative Louisiana v. Callais (Voting Rights Act) Shifting Out of Neutral Evolving Foundation Responses to a Sector in Crisis

Phil Buchanan is joined by Elisha Smith Arrillaga, CEP's Vice President of Research, as co-host for a conversation focused on some of philanthropy's oldest tensions: who should decide how charitable dollars get spent and how to balance short-term needs with the long view? Their guests, Glen Galaich, CEO of the Stupski Foundation, and Jamie Allison, Executive Director of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, are usually the ones asking the questions, as frequent co-hosts on Glen’s podcast, Break Fake Rules. Glen makes the case from his new book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short, that too much charitable wealth sits parked in private equity and hedge fund accounts rather than moving out to the communities that need it, and that donors should treat public stewardship, not private control, as their guiding value. Jamie pushes back on the idea that this is a binary choice between spending down and staying perpetual, describing how the Walter & Elise Haas Fund has worked to increase payout and shift toward larger, unrestricted grants without abandoning a long time horizon. Together, they debate what foundations with large endowments owe to this moment of crisis for nonprofits, why "responsiveness" matters more than any single spending formula, and what foundations might learn from everyday donors. Disclosure Note: The Stupski Foundation is a CEP podcast sponsor and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund provides grant support to CEP. Resources: CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short Break Fake Rules Giving Done Right book Center for Effective Philanthropy State of Nonprofits 2026: What Donors Need to Know Ruby’s Pantry closes The Democracy We Are Making: Philanthropy and America’s Next 250 Years A Sector in Crisis: How U.S. Nonprofits and Foundations Are Responding to Threats Rethinking Payout: The Hidden Costs of Undervaluing Social Return A Call for Higher Payout from a Believer in Perpetual Foundations The Debate That Belongs in Every Foundation Boardroom Right Now US Firms That Kept DEI Policies Thrived