The Giving Done Right Podcast with Phil Buchanan

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

As nonprofits face sharply increased demand, deep federal funding cuts, and a fundraising climate unlike anything in recent memory, Lysa Ratliff, CEO of KABOOM!, joins Phil Buchanan for an unusually candid conversation about what it takes to lead right now, and why she refuses to soften the truth to make anyone comfortable.

Ratliff discusses KABOOM!'s new report, State of Our Kids, which finds that 28 million children in the U.S. don't have access to a quality park within a 10-minute walk from their home. She explains why play is the foundation of childhood development, and walks through the report's unflinching look at the mental health crisis facing young people, including the adultification of Black children and the impact of a rise in ICE arrests on Latino families. She also talks candidly about the promise and limits of a landmark, unrestricted MacKenzie Scott gift, why so few other funders have followed that lead, and why she believes donors need to stop nitpicking nonprofits' budgets and start trusting their expertise to solve solvable problems.

In a time defined by uncertainty, Ratliff makes the case for honesty over comfort: "It's not  someone's right and someone's wrong. It's how do we, as adults, have really honest conversations that allow us to see very clearly what's going on around us and what we need to do to solve those challenges."

Resources: 

KABOOM!

State of Our Kids Report

The 25 in 5 Initiative to End Playspace Inequity

Center for Effective Philanthropy State of Nonprofits 2026: What Donors Need to Know 

Youth Truth

Phil Buchanan sits down with spouses Jeff Atwood, co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse, and Dr. Betsy Burton, a scientist who has helped develop cancer therapies, to talk about their commitment to give away $50 million, half their family's wealth, over five years, with the bulk of it going toward guaranteed income programs in rural America.

Jeff and Betsy describe a two-part strategy that began with $1 million, no-strings-attached gifts to eight organizations they trusted to excel with the money, before turning to what they call "fire abatement": tackling the systemic conditions that create so much need in the first place. That work led them to guaranteed income pilots in West Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi, run in partnership with GiveDirectly and built on research from Open Research's landmark basic income study. They share what that data actually shows about how people spend unconditional cash — including a drop in substance use and unexpectedly high rates of people sharing their payments with neighbors in need — and push back hard on the assumptions that so often shape how donors think about giving directly to people.

The conversation also gets personal, as Jeff reflects on his father's own path out of generational poverty in West Virginia, and the two discuss raising philanthropically minded kids, their admiration for MacKenzie Scott's trust-based approach, and their frustration with slow-moving giving pledges that lack a real timeline for getting money out the door.

Resources: 

Stay Gold, America

"We Have Everything We Need": Jeff Atwood and Betsy Burton's Bold Mission to Guarantee Minimum Income in Rural America - Denver Frederick

Giving Cash to Those in Need with Paul Niehaus of GiveDirectly

Fighting Poverty with Direct Cash Transfers, Featuring Jesús Gerena

UBI Data

SEED Project

Breaking the Mold: The Transformative Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Big Gifts

Federal policy shifts continue to upend the landscape for domestic nonprofits, civil society, and international aid alike, leaving donors facing urgent questions about where and how to give. 

This season on the Giving Done Right podcast, host Phil Buchanan sits down with philanthropic and nonprofit leaders to explore what effective giving looks like in a moment of real strain and real opportunity. Together, these conversations dig into the questions donors are asking today: how to give when trust and partnership matter more than ever, the tension between short-term needs and a long-term view, and what good stewardship really demands of those with the resources to act. Follow along with season six of Giving Done Right for candid, urgent, and ultimately hopeful conversations about how to make your charitable giving as effective, and as meaningful, as it can be.

After 15 years at CEP and more than 50 episodes co-hosting Giving Done Right, Grace Nicolette is stepping away. In this special episode, Phil Buchanan turns the microphone to her. Together they look back on how philanthropy has shifted over the past decade and a half, from the rise of multi-year general operating support to the risks of inaction in a moment of crisis?

Grace shares the guests and stories that have stayed with her, including April Tam Smith, Jeremy Lin, and a give and take with GiveDirectly's Paul Niehaus over effective altruism. She also opens up about the personal threads running through her career: her faith, her parents' own story of generosity, and the family reasons drawing her toward her next chapter. Through it all, one idea keeps surfacing for Grace: in philanthropy, relationships matter most.

Resources:

A Fond Farewell to a Catalyst of CEP’s Growth and Evolution

Relationships Matter: Program Officers, Grantees, and the Keys to Success

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As the current federal administration makes sweeping cuts to social safety net programs, political divisions deepen, and the guardrails of American democracy are tested, what is philanthropy’s role in this precarious time? 

In the final episode of this season, Phil Buchanan and Grace Nicolette interview New York Times columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein live at CEP’s 2025 conference. Klein contends that America needs to renew a politics of plenty, face up to the failures of liberal governance, and abandon what he calls the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life. But what does this analysis mean for philanthropy, particularly at a moment of so many competing and urgent crises?

Additional Resources:

“Mounting Pressure: U.S. Foundations and Nonprofits on the 2025 Political Climate”

Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Ph.D. on the Giving Done Right podcast

“Abundance,” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson