Givers, Doers, & Thinkers—A Podcast on Philanthropy and Civil Society

Kicking off the fourth season of Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with Tim Reichert to discuss philanthropy and restoring the middle class.

Tim Reichert is an economist and businessman living in Golden, Colorado, and running for Colorado's 7th district congressional seat. He is the founder and CEO of Economics Partners, a firm of economists with offices in the US and Israel. He was a Partner at both Ernst & Young and Duff & Phelps. Tim serves on the board of St. John Vianney Seminary, and is very active in supporting the disenfranchised and homeless through his support and participation in the mission of Christ in the City and the Missionaries of Charity.  

Jeremy and Tim begin their discussion by recalling their youths in the 1970s when America was in stagflation and the lessons learned from Tim's father that set him on a path to becoming an economist and putting forth a plan to restore the middle class. From there, Tim shared why he thinks St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity are so effective: they focus on changing hearts rather than pushing any political agenda or social policy. He believes that when grace is cultivated and shared within the mission of a nonprofit, then real change can happen. Jeremy also asks Tim about different aspects of his congressional platform, like lifting up the middle class, health care prices, college debt, and personal data property rights.

You'll also hear from the founder and CEO of Innovest, Rich Todd, on the importance of value-based investing and why a nonprofit should prioritize it. Rich identifies some of the challenges and reasons for investment committees and why he thinks value-based investing is on the rise.

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy talks to historian and journalist Christine Rosen about how American religious leaders, in partnership with philanthropy, helped grow the American eugenics movement in the first part of the 20th century.

Christine Rosen is a senior writer at Commentary Magazine, a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, and senior editor at the New Atlantis. Christine holds a Ph.D. in history from Emory University. Her writing has appeared in our most prestigious periodicals, from the New York Times Magazine to the Washington Post, the MIT Technology Review to the New England Journal of Medicine, often covering the science/bioethics/technology beat. Her books include Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement, My Fundamentalist Education, and the forthcoming book, The Extinction of Experience.

Jeremy and Christine kick off this conversation with a bang, diving right into the eugenics movements in America. Christine shares the key figures involved, like Charles Davenport, Herbert Spencer, Francis Galton, and Margaret Sanger, along with religious leaders, and the influence of eugenics on charity versus philanthropy, the rhetorical uses and misuses to which science is often put, and the dark side of American progressivism. Christine highlights some of the evil bargains made in the name of "charity" by eugenicists, like financial support in exchange for sterilization. This fascinating yet deeply troubling history is well worth your time and was very likely never part of your American history lessons. 

What is a feasibility study, and why do you need it? American Philanthropic's Dan Folta shares the key deliverables that offer insurance against failure in any sort of capital campaign. If you are about to embark on a campaign or already have started, you'll want to listen to this practicalities segment.

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with his close friend, Erik Twist, to discuss how school leaders can transform America’s K-12 education system. 

Erik Twist is the Principal Partner and President of Arcadia Education. From 2008 to 2022, Erik helped build Great Hearts Academies into the largest network of classical schools in the country. He served as president of Great Hearts Arizona from 2017 to 2022. Erik was a member of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools from 2016 to 2021, as well as a member of the Arizona Charter Schools Association.

Jeremy and Erik start by analyzing Great Heart Academies’ development into the largest provider of classical education in the public sphere. During this new age of ideological monism, classical education is the bright light for many parents and students looking for a sanctuary in education. Erik shares that the best classical school are apolitical. They foster rich discourse where students are challenged to hold an idea and pick it apart. To put it simply, they are learning how to disagree and then play together at recess. The hope is that children fall in love with this type of education and will become better citizens through it.

Erik also shares the advice he’d offer to education entrepreneurs, nothing the importance of systems and guidance on hiring teachers. He points out how the school must curate an environment where adults want to be. So often teachers are stuck doing the arduous work of educating students without proper support from leadership, leading to a host of issues within school faculties. And to close the conversation, Erik offers where he thinks the future of education is going—pointing out where it flickers with hope and where it grows increasingly dim.

Interested to learn more from Erik Twist and Arcadia Education? Join Erik Twist and renowned Shelby Steele about the impact of CRT in our school on Thursday, May 5, from 4:30-6:00 pm MT. 

Jeremy also chats with Jason Lloyd, a managing consultant at American Philanthropic. Jason shares three ways to effectively steward donor relationships if you’re a faith-based organization. You might find his call for humility a little hard to swallow. 

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

Today on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy speaks with Michael E. Hartmann about what he sees as the major problems in the philanthropy sector today, and about the ideas that are being put forth to address those problems.

The Giving Review co-editor Michael E. Hartmann is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Strategic Giving at the Capital Research Center (CRC) in Washington, D.C. He also curates RealClearPolicy’s “Philanthropy and Giving” section. For almost 20 years, Mike served in various roles on the program staff of The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee, including as its Director of Research. Mike is a past Visiting Fellow of the Philanthropy Roundtable in Washington, D.C., for which he researched and wrote Helping People to Help Themselves: A Guide for Donors. He is co-author of CRC’s The Flow of Funding to Conservative and Liberal Political Campaigns, Independent Groups, and Traditional Public Policy Organizations Before and After Citizens United, hailed as “an unprecedented study” by RealClearPolicy.

To start the conversation, Mike shares lessons from his time at the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and how philanthropy works well and other dynamics effecting major philanthropic institutions. They cover the concerns around wealth disparities and donor diversity in philanthropy. And lastly, Mike  turns to the populist critiques of establishment philanthropy, and talk about “Accelerating Charitable Efforts Act” introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley and Angus King. 

You'll also hear from Cecilia Diem, a managing consultant at American Philanthropic. She has written various articles on major gifts fundraising like how to avoid bombing a donor meeting or the importance of emailing your donors. Well, today Cecilia shares her five insights to a successful donor meeting.

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

During this episode of Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy chats with acclaimed journalist Christopher Caldwell about the surprising implications of the reforms of the 1960s, including civil rights legislation for the American community.

Christopher Caldwell is a contributing editor at the Claremont Review of Books and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. He was formerly a senior editor at The Weekly Standard and an opinion columnist for the Financial Times. Christopher is also the author of The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixities published in early 2020.

Jeremy and Christopher dive right in by discussing the “1960’s new order” that has shaped much of our modern politics. Christopher shares that the civil rights style of doing politics became a second constitution that overrode the first. He covers the two different perspectives on civil rights, the perpetrator perspective and the victim perspective, and the origins of critical race theory. They discuss the winners and losers of the “new order” and its influence on the Vietnam war and late 20th-century economics, along with the root of 21st-century populism. All of this and more on today’s episode with Christopher Caldwell.

You’ll also hear from the brilliant Nicole Rizkallah, managing consultant of talent recruitment and development for American Philanthropic. She shares the common mistakes nonprofits make when hiring. Some of which are quite unconventional. You won’t want to miss this practicalities segment!

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with Ismael Hernandez, founder of the Freedom and Virtue Institute, to discuss how civil society can come together to promote or to undermine healthy self-reliance.

Before founding the Freedom and Virtue Institute, Ismael was the executive director of the African Caribbean American Catholic Center (AFCAAM). Ismael frequently lectures at Acton University and the American Enterprise Institute, and he is the author of Not Tragically Colored: Freedom, Personhood, and the Renewal of Black America.

After growing up in a communist household in the 1960s, Ismael was shocked to experience his “lungs filled with the air of freedom” once on American soil. His unique history and experience suffering with the poor, asks the question civil society often forgets to ask: Is it working? Ismael suggests that true charity is both intelligent giving and intelligent withholding. He suggests that we infantilize the poor and see them as victims of circumstances that are outside their control instead of active participants in their own freedom. This compelling conversation will have you questioning more than welfare public policy. You might find that the bigger problem is in fact one’s superficial resolve to do something about it. 

You’ll also hear from American Philanthropic consultant, Jake Loel. If you’re a nonprofit looking for new donors—and who isn’t?—you’ll need a few research tools to find the right individual and foundation donors for your organization. Jake shares the three resources he suggests every nonprofit invest in to help identify prospective donors.

Are you a giver? A doer? Maybe a thinker? Join American Philanthropic and the Center for Civil Society on November 17th for a conference on Restoring American Community. You’ll hear from leading philanthropists, scholars, and nonprofit leaders, with ample opportunity for serious discussion of how concerned citizens might strengthen local communities, advance charity, and conserve the natural and cultural goods of our communities and our nation. Sign up by Wednesday, November 10th to secure your seat!

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

Today Jeremy speaks with Philip Hamburger about the surprising origins of the IRS's restrictions on a charity's political speech, and why those restrictions ought to be regarded as unconstitutional. 

Philip Hamburger is the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and President of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. He writes on constitutional law and its history—with particular emphasis on religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, judicial office, administrative power, and unconstitutional conditions. He also studies Anglican, Baptist, and Quaker history, early secularism, and the Ku Klux Klan. He has twice received the Sutherland Prize for the most significant contribution to English legal history, and has been awarded the Henry Paolucci-Walter Bagehot Book Award, the Hayek Book Prize, and the Bradley Prize.

Jeremy dives in by asking Philip about his book, Liberal Suppression: Section 501(c)(3) and the Taxation of Speech. His argument that the IRS essentially taxes speech is both compelling and provocative. Philip connects the origins of the 501(c)(3) free speech restrictions to former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard Hiram Evans and his hatred of the Catholic Church. Philip argues that the net effect is that all theologically orthodox speech is treated as a threat to democracy. He continues that the mere history behind this tax law should cause Americans to pause and ask whether it is constitutional or not. All of this and more during this week’s episode with Philip Hamburger.

On this week's Practicalities segment, American Philanthropic partner Matt Gerken discusses the influence and importance of donor surveys for nonprofits. Donor surveys provide the unique opportunity to cultivate and identify major gift opportunities in your donor file. This allows your organization to understand donor priorities and learn what they believe and care about. Learn more about American Philanthropic's donor surveys here.

Do you want to participate in the 2021 Performance Fundraising Survey that Jeremy mentioned at the end of the podcast? You can join the survey by clicking here. When you participate in this survey, you will receive a free digital copy of the final report and be entered into a drawing with prizes ranging $100-$3,000 in value. The survey closes October 31—participate before it is too late!

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to p

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

Today Jeremy speaks with Mark Roosevelt about what a genuine liberal arts education looks like, how it contributes to a healthy civil society, and how philanthropy can be deployed to make college more or less affordable again.

Mark Roosevelt is the president of St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. After running for governor of Massachusetts as the Democratic nominee in 1994, Mark turned his attention toward education and served in various roles over the years before becoming president of St. John's College in 2016. Another interesting fact, Mark is the great-grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

Jeremy and Mark discuss the unique structure of St. John's College's philanthropy-centered tuition model. What that means and how it's deployed. The college's distinct curriculum and the relationships that exist or don't exist between certain kinds of educational models and principles and outcomes with respect to civil society. 

As you prepare your upcoming Giving Tuesday and yearend digital campaigns, take a listen to this conversation with American Philanthropic's Carmen Natschke. During this practicalities segment, Carmen shares the three essential components of a yearend digital campaign.

If you want to participate in the 2021 Performance Fundraising Survey that Jeremy mentioned at the end of the podcast, click here. By joining this survey, you will receive a free digital copy of the final report and be entered into a drawing with prizes ranging $100-$3,000 in value. The survey closes October 31—participate before it is too late!

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy speaks with filmmaker John Papola about the power of storytelling and how it can be deployed to deepen our appreciation for the value of human freedom.

John Papola is CEO and chief creative officer of the Emergent Order Foundation (EO). The organization’s mission is to build a bottom-up movement that celebrates American freedom and the potential it unlocks in each of us. Prior to co-founding EO, John worked as a video producer and director for Spike TV, Nickelodeon, and MTV.

Jeremy and John cover entertainment media’s influence on politics and culture. The purpose and impact of heroic storytelling in preserving and enriching American ideals and the stories that are slowly destroying the American dream. John also comments on the dangers of the disease of wealth and the feedback loops crippling younger generations. All this and more on this week’s episode with John Papola.

Are you linking content correctly? How many emails does a nonprofit send to its donor base? American Philanthropic consultant Stephanie Walker shares a few tips to improve your next email to donors.

If you want to participate in the 2021 Performance Fundraising Survey that Jeremy mentioned at the end of the podcast, click here. By joining this survey, you will receive a free digital copy of the final report and be entered into a drawing with prizes ranging $100-$3,000 in value. The survey closes October 31—participate before it is too late!

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with longtime National Review publisher Jack Fowler to discuss the place of magazines of ideas in civil society, fundraising for periodicals, and how to manage those pesky creative types.

Jack Fowler is the Director of the Center for Civil Society. For over three decades he served at National Review in various capacities, including as publisher, and oversaw publishing, promotion, and fundraising and development operations. He also contributed articles regularly and hosts a popular podcast with Victor Davis Hanson. He has served on numerous boards, including the American Mental Health Foundation, The Human Life Foundation, The Frontier Center, and GenJustice, and for over a decade was a White House Fellows program regional judge.

Jeremy and Jack begin the podcast by discussing the early days of National Review and how it evolved, along with the great influence of William F. Buckley Jr. and both of their experiences of him. They tackle the uniqueness of fundraising for a magazine while managing donors who disagree with a writer’s point of view. And to wrap up, Jeremy and Jack share several insights into the importance of civic associations in combatting despotism in America, noting the prime differences between national and local associations and their effect on an unrepressed civil society.

Is your fundraising copy at the correct reading level for your donors? Are your visual assets resonating with your target audience? How are you managing all of your marketing efforts? American Philanthropic’s Chris Baggett shares the three digital tools that help answer these questions and why he thinks you should incorporate them in your toolbox.

Also, if you want to participate in the 2021 Performance Fundraising Survey that Jeremy mentioned at the end of the podcast, click here. By joining this survey, you will receive a free digital copy of the final report and be entered into a drawing with prizes ranging $100-$3,000 in value. The survey closes October 31—participate before it is too late!

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel