Break Fake Rules: Change Big Giving For Good

What will it take for philanthropy to unlock the extraordinary potential of 501(c)(4)s? In this episode, co-hosts Glen Galaich and Ralph Lewin, Executive Director of the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund, challenge the fake rules telling philanthropy to stay neutral, avoid risk, stick to funding 501(c)(3)s, and keep political work at arm’s length.

They’re joined by Leah Greenberg, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Indivisible, a nationwide movement of everyday people organizing across all 50 states. Leah pulls back the curtain on what happens after the protest: local organizing, voter registration, advocacy, mutual aid, relationship-building, and the hard work of turning moments of public anger into sustained political participation. She also challenges funders to stop treating 501(c)(3) status as a moral status and to take seriously what well-resourced 501(c)(4) work can unlock. Together, Leah, Ralph, and Glen pose a sharper question to philanthropy: if the goal is real democratic change, are funders willing to back the people actually organizing to win?

💡Leah Greenberg: “Anybody who's frustrated with, “why am I not unlocking the impact that I should have with the amount of resources that I am putting in,” should really think about whether they're actually putting their resources in in a way that allows us to tap into that impact.”

💡Ralph Lewin: “Organized people shift what's possible, and then institutions and politicians follow.”

Learn more and get involved with Indivisible. Check out its Hands Off Our Vote movement, supporting efforts to ensure eligible voters can cast their ballots and have those ballots counted.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Ralph Lewin & Glen Galaich

Guest: Leah Greenberg

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Video Editing: Edith Belmont

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

Philanthropy needs a reboot. Youth are nearly non-existent in the rooms where decisions are made about where charitable dollars flow. So what changes when we bring in young people to help direct these dollars?

In this episode, co-hosts, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and Malila Becton-Consuegra, Stupski’s Bay Area Postsecondary Success Program Officer, welcome two young leaders in philanthropy, Gilbert Murillo and Godswill Uyong, for a conversation about youth voice, power, and who gets to decide where dollars go. Part case study, part vision for the future, they use Stupski’s six-year internship program as an example of how philanthropy can give young people real grantmaking responsibility, space to question established practices, and access to a field whose decisions directly affect their communities.

Gilbert and Godswill share their perspectives on philanthropy and what they learned from interviewing nonprofit leaders about Stupski’s spend down. They challenge the idea that foundations should preserve wealth in perpetuity, question why the 5% payout minimum so often becomes a ceiling, and call on philanthropy to move beyond transactional giving. Glen and Malila also consider how foundations can teach young people about the sector without training away the fresh perspectives that make their participation so valuable.

At the heart of the conversation is a call to recognize youth leadership as essential to better decision-making and bring relationship, accountability, and love back into philanthropy.

💡Gilbert Murillo: “The rules aren't fake. They are designed the way they're designed, and it's been like that for 400 plus years already.”

💡Godswill Uyong: “When youth help drive grant making, factually, there's more collective knowledge and experience being used to make decisions.”

Learn more about California Youth Power Fund, its youth leadership work co-led with Youth Organize! California (YO! Cali), and its partnership with Northern California Grantmakers.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Glen Galaich & Malia Becton Consuegra

Guests: Gilbert Murillo and Godswill Uyong

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly & Gary Community Ventures

Video Editing: Edith Belmont

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What could we change if we broke out of boom-and-bust election-cycle funding to support long-term generational transformation? In this episode, Glen and co-host Ari Datta, Stupski Foundation’s Food Justice Program Manager, sit down with Emily Lee, executive director and co-founder of Seed the Vote Action, for a conversation about voter organizing, political power, and the fake rules that keep philanthropy funding too little, too late. Emily has dedicated her career to grassroots organizing, multiracial coalition building, and growing people-powered political movements. Through Seed the Vote Action, she mobilizes volunteers in battleground states while building lasting political power in working-class communities and communities of color.

Emily challenges funders to move beyond short-term grant cycles and invest in the relationships, organizing, and risk-taking required to meet this moment. At the heart of the conversation is a clear call to philanthropy: stop funding like this is a two-year fight, and start funding like democracy depends on what we build for generations.

💡Ari Datta: “Get really clear on what fake rules you're operating with, and those will be rules set by your board, by internal culture, by your mindset or your belief system, and get really clear on what the real rules are.”

💡Emily Lee: “Don't fund for the grant cycle, fund for the generational fight.”

Learn more about Seed the Vote and support its work to build people-powered movements through voter organizing, deep canvassing, and long-term community power.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Ari Datta & Glen Galaich

Guest: Emily Lee

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What changes when we embrace impermanence instead of trying to live forever?

In this episode, Glen Galaich sits down with Santhosh Ramdoss, president and CEO of Gary Community Ventures, for a conversation about impermanence and legacy. Guided by Gary’s commitment to move all its assets into the community by 2035, Santhosh debunks the fake rule that philanthropic impact depends on institutional permanence. He invites the sector to imagine a legacy rooted in stronger systems, durable public funding, and the beauty, love, and care we leave behind. In a Break Fake Rules exclusive, Santhosh rolls out a new game, The Philanthropy Challenge, that funders can play to respond to urgent crises and see where philanthropic funds can have the greatest impact.

At the heart of the conversation is a more expansive question for wealth holders and foundation leaders: what if ending an institution is not a loss, but a strategic opening? And what becomes possible when philanthropy brings more joy, wonder, and imagination into the work of building a world that can outlast any one foundation?

💡Santhoush Ramdoss: “I think one of the practices that philanthropy does need a lot more of is joy and wonder. I think we've lost our capacity to see what's possible, and sometimes the moment of being in that wondrous possibility of what systems could be is lost.”

Learn more about Gary Community Ventures and play The Philanthropy Challenge for yourself!

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Santhosh Ramdoss

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly & Gary Community Ventures

Video Editing: Edith Belmont

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when philanthropy’s sharpest critique comes from inside the sector itself? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and co-host Eric Brown sit down with Gara LaMarche - longtime philanthropic leader, democracy advocate, and one of the OG fake rule breakers. Gara worked with George Soros at Open Society Institute, and Chuck Feeney at The Atlantic Philanthropies, and famously served as the “prosecutor” where he put philanthropy on trial in a 2011 mock trial before thousands of foundation leaders.

Gara takes on the fake rule that people inside philanthropy are not supposed to criticize it, arguing that philanthropy should release its obsession with ego and that foundations should treat their resources as a public trust. Along the way, he digs into investing in power building, questions philanthropy’s instinct to be overly cautious, and calls on foundation leaders to use their influence to support communities, even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient.

💡 Gara LaMarche: If you can't speak out about authoritarianism or attacks on the very communities that you're purporting to protect, if not now, when?

Learn more about Gara LaMarche and his work advancing philanthropy, democracy, human rights, and social justice. Watch Gara put philanthropy on trial.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Eric Brown & Glen Galaich

Guest: Gara LaMarche

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Video Editor: Edith Belmont

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

Fake rules tell us funding reparations is too complicated, too controversial, or too distant. So what will it take for us to see that repair is a responsibility we all carry?

In this episode, Glen Galaich and co-host Malia Becton-Consuegra, Stupski Foundation’s Bay Area post-secondary success program officer (who also leads reparations work at the foundation), sit down with a visionary leader in the reparations movement, Aria Florant, co-founder and executive director of Liberation Ventures. They discuss repair, narrative power, and what it takes to build a truly multiracial democracy. As the U.S. gears up to celebrate Juneteenth and its 250th anniversary, Aria challenges the fake rule that supporting reparations is politically impossible, unprecedented, or simply too hard. Instead, she invites us to imagine a country where reparations lay the foundation for enduring generational change.

Aria shares how Liberation Ventures is investing in heart-and-mind change, with a Beloved Repair campaign to move reparations from the margins to the mainstream. At the center of it all is a bold, hopeful question: What becomes possible when reparations stop feeling radical and become common sense?

💡Aria Florant: “We should be contending for the hearts and minds of everyone. This is not just about Black people, and all people can and should be doing this work, and in particular, doing it in their own communities with their own people, because we know that peer-to-peer organizing is one of the most effective ways to change culture.”

Learn more about Liberation Ventures’work to support Black-led efforts for repair, racial healing, and reparations. Check out their Beloved Repair campaign.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Glen Galaich & Malia Becton Consuegra

Guest: Aria Florant

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Video Editing: Edith Belmont

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

There’s a dirty word philanthropy doesn’t like to talk about - politics. But does staying above the political fray actually prevent us from supporting the communities and issues we claim to care about? In this live audience episode, Glen Galaich sits down with Vu Le, author of Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy and the voice behind Nonprofit AF, for a funny, urgent, and table-flipping conversation. With his signature humor and candor, Vu challenges the fake rule that serious work has to be humorless, and pushes the sector to look at what conservative funders have built, what progressive funders keep avoiding, and what it would take to actually fund the future they say they want.

Together, Glen and Vu dig into the power dynamics that keep nonprofits begging for crumbs, the limits of donor-centered philanthropy, and the need to make transformative, generational investments to support our democracy today, rather than waiting for it to crumble around us. At the center of it all is Vu’s challenge: philanthropy cannot fight for democracy, equity, justice, and a livable future while staying detached from power. We must harness our imagination and give all our resources like our future depends on it.

💡Vu Le - “We say foundations are not effective, philanthropy is not effective. That's not true. Progressive-leaning philanthropy is not effective because conservative funders have been extremely effective for like four decades now, and we're still here scrambling to do stuff to catch up."

Buy your copy of Vu Le’s book, Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy, and read Vu’s latest musings on NonprofitAf.com.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Vu Le

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

Philanthropy has a mindset problem, and it’s harming the very communities it claims to support. But what if philanthropy shifted its perspectives to see people through their aspirations, contributions, and power instead of their challenges?

Co-hosts Glen Galaich and Eric Brown sit down with Trabian Shorters, a leading social entrepreneur, founder of BMe Community, and developer of the award-winning cognitive framework Asset-Framing®. Together, they explore why Asset-Framing is far more than a communications strategy—and how it fundamentally shifts how the brain understands people, problems, and possibilities.

Trabian challenges the fake rule that fear is the strongest motivator, making clear that fear may trigger an initial reaction, but it cannot move us toward justice, equity, or lasting change. From there, he reframes what philanthropy can become when it stops treating communities as problems to solve and starts investing in people as the protagonists of their own lives.

💡Trabian Shorters: When you think about folks just based on what is wrong with them, you won't even consider the other half of their life and the types of options that are available. There's more going on in your life than what's wrong with you. So if you can understand it for yourself, then you can understand it for other people.

Learn more about Trabian Shorters and his work with BMe Community, where he is helping leaders across philanthropy, journalism, and social impact change how people and communities are understood, funded, and supported.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Eric Brown & Glen Galaich

Guest: Trabian Shorters

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

Nonprofit leaders are ringing alarm bells, but foundations are still deciding whether this moment is different enough to act. In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO, Glen Galaich, and co-host Eric Brown sit down with Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Ph.D., vice president of research at the Center for Effective Philanthropy, to discuss what CEP’s recent research reveals about the widening gap between how foundations think they are showing up and how nonprofits are experiencing this moment.

Together, they dig into the findings in CEP’s latest report, State of Nonprofits 2026, including rising deficits, CEO burnout, possible mergers, foundation caution, and the risks facing the people who rely on nonprofit services. Elisha challenges one of philanthropy’s most familiar fake rules: that every urgent problem needs a long strategy process before funders can take action. Sometimes the data is already clear. Sometimes the need is immediate. And sometimes the bridge from foundation thinking to nonprofit reality is not another plan, but the courage to move resources now.

💡Elisha Smith Arrillaga: I believe the most important fake rule to break is that we need a strategy to solve every problem...sometimes we get caught up in the need to have a plan. Sometimes it doesn't necessarily require a plan, but requires some action.

Learn more about The Center for Effective Philanthropy and its research, including the State of Nonprofits 2026 and A Sector in Crisis: How U.S. Nonprofits and Foundations Are Responding to Threats

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Eric Brown & Glen Galaich

Guest: Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Ph.D.

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What will it take for us to stop treating failure like a private embarrassment and start seeing it as a way to learn, grow, and take better risks? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich sits down with Nwamaka Agbo, CEO of the Kataly Foundation, for a candid conversation about the fake rules that keep philanthropy playing it safe when communities need funders to move with more courage.

Together, Glen and Nwamaka explore philanthropy’s complicated relationship with the F word: failure. Nwamaka makes the case that failure is already happening across the sector, but when foundations fail in secret, they miss the chance to learn and help others avoid the same mistakes. She also pushes philanthropy to think beyond what feels legally convenient and toward what is morally necessary in this moment, including moving capital beyond traditional 501(c)(3) structures. The conversation invites funders to lower the wall between investment and grantmaking, question their own risk tolerance, and consider what becomes possible when failure is treated not as a source of shame but as a powerful tool for change.

💡Nwamaka Agbo: If you run a really good experiment, chances are every once in a while that experiment is going to fail, and the failure actually gives you more information, more indication for how to improve your work going forward. And so if we can share our failures with our colleagues in philanthropy, more widely, more broadly, then all of us don't have to fail as frequently, and we don't have to fail alone.

Learn more about the Kataly Foundation and how they are challenging philanthropy to move capital with greater accountability, transparency, and courage.

Check out their failure series.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Nwamaka Agbo | Kataly Foundation

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when philanthropy stops treating women and girls as a side issue and starts seeing them as a powerful lens through which we can better understand the major fights for justice, democracy, safety, and human dignity? In this live episode, recorded at The Giving List Women “Doing It Differently” Summit in Santa Barbara, Glen Galaich, CEO of the Stupski Foundation, and co-host Gwyn Lurie, Co-Founder and CEO of The Giving List Women, sit down with two leaders who have spent their careers challenging the stories, systems, and assumptions that shape our society: Jennifer Siebel Newsom, First Partner of California and award-winning documentary filmmaker behind Miss Representation and the new documentary Miss Representation: Rise Up, and Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, host of Intersectionality Matters!, and author of the new book Backtalker.

Together, they take on one of the most dangerous fake rules in philanthropy and culture— the idea that women and girls are a “lane” instead of a lens for understanding the defining issues of our time. Drawing on law, media, narrative, movements, and lived experience, they call out the short‑sighted practice of measuring impact in one‑ or two‑year cycles while anti‑democratic backlashes are funded for generations, and challenge funders to abandon outdated frameworks. They make clear that investing in women’s health, safety, financial security, and leadership is central to building a healthier democracy and a more just future.

💡Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw: The old frameworks that we've used to determine how to spend money, where to invest. We've got to throw that out. We’ve got to look at what this war is right now, and it's very, very different from the way we typically think about it.

💡 Jennifer Siebel Newsom: “When we center women, when we invest in women's health, their safety, their financial security, women will be the most transformative leaders in world history.”

Learn more about The Giving List Women, created to inspire donors, leaders, and changemakers to apply the lens of women and girls to philanthropic and other forms of investment, and to build partnerships that fuel a more gender-balanced world.

Order your copy of Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s book, Backtalker.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Gwyn Lurie & Glen Galaich

Guests:

Jennifer Siebel Newsom - The Representation Project | Miss Representation: Rise Up

Dr. Kimberlé W. Crenshaw- Backtalker | Intersectionality Matters!

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Video Production Team: SeeBoundless

Audio Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when journalism stops pretending objectivity is the same thing as truth telling? In this episode, Glen Galaich and co-host Dr. Carmen Rojas take Break Fake Rules to Kansas City for another conversation from Common Thread, the national event series from the Marguerite Casey Foundation bringing people together around the issues shaping working-class life in America. They welcome Faiz Shakir, founder of More Perfect Union, the Emmy Award-winning nonprofit newsroom redefining what news can look like when it actually centers working-class people. Together, they explore how More Perfect Union’s reporting has become a powerful tool for policy change and corporate accountability.

The conversation takes on one of the media's biggest fake rules: the myth of objectivity. Faiz makes the case for an honest form of advocacy journalism, one that stays grounded in facts while refusing to hide its investment in the lives of working people. As Glen, Carmen, and Faiz talk through the stories that much mainstream media still fails to tell, a bigger idea comes into focus: journalism can do more than describe a rigged economy. It can help people understand the forces shaping their lives, see themselves as actors in that story, and build power to change it.

💡Faiz Shakir: We used to live in an America in which earning a paycheck was the way you got wealth, and was the way you helped take care of your family. Now your labor, your W2 paychecks, are really the source of pain and angst for you, because you can't get by with that.

Learn more about More Perfect Union and how they are building power through advocacy journalism.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Dr. Carmen Rojas & Glen Galaich

Guest: Faiz Shakir | More Perfect Union

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when philanthropy stops assuming young people are not ready to lead and starts trusting them when it matters most? In this episode, co-hosts Glen Galaich and Ralph Lewin, Executive Director of the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund, bust open a fake rule that assumes young people do not know enough to help shape the future of our democracy. Together, they reflect on their own first experiences making grants, what philanthropy misses when it decides what is best for young people without them, and why involving youth in funding decisions can strengthen both grantmaking and democracy.

They are joined by Josh Lee, director of the Youth Power Fund, a California collaborative fund where young people do not just advise on funding decisions, they drive them. Josh makes the case for involving young people where it matters most: where resources are allocated.

💡Josh Lee: Contrary to what we might think, young people, in my opinion, are not the leaders of tomorrow. They're leading right now, today.

Learn more about Youth Power Fund and how they are working to ensure more young people, the Boldest Among Us, can shape funding decisions, build power, and drive change in their communities.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Ralph Lewin & Glen Galaich

Guest: Josh Lee | Youth Power Fund

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when one of the most dreaded days on the calendar gets reimagined as a celebration of collective care? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and co-host Jamie Allison, executive director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, use Tax Day to open up a bigger conversation about public responsibility, private wealth, and what taxes make possible. Jamie makes a joyful case for loving Tax Day, not in spite of what it asks of us, but because taxes fund the schools, roads, clean water, and public systems that hold our lives together. Together, she and Glen ask what it would mean to stop treating taxes as something to avoid and start seeing them as an investment in one another, while also asking whether philanthropy is putting its own tax-advantaged dollars to work with that same sense of responsibility.

They are joined by Elizabeth Cushing, CEO of Playworks, a national nonprofit that helps nearly 1 million children each year build belonging, resolve conflict, and return to class ready to learn through structured play and recess. Elizabeth lays out the damaging impact of federal education funding cuts and tightening state budgets on kids across the country. She reframes the question of “how can philanthropy possibly backfill federal funding cuts” to “how can philanthropy act as a bridge in this moment to help nonprofits survive the next few hard years instead of forcing nonprofits to go it alone?”

💡Elizabeth Cushing: I'm hopeful that the midterms put some folks in Congress that prioritize children's well being, and I don't care which side of the aisle they're on, that is what our country is responsible for.

Learn more about Playworks and how they help kids build belonging, resolve conflict, and experience the power of play every day.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Jamie Allison & Glen Galaich

Guest: Elizabeth Cushing | Playworks

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when we stop designing philanthropy around preservation, control, and donor comfort, and start asking how to put more capital, trust, and collective action to work? In this episode, Glen Galaich speaks with Renee Kaplan, CEO of Forward Global, in a conversation recorded at the Forward Global Summit in Whistler. They challenge the fake rules that keep philanthropy cautious and exclusive, and explore what opens up when wealth holders, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, and other changemakers come together to solve problems side by side.

Renee shares how Forward Global has evolved into a global community and impact platform built to amplify what works, accelerate collective action, and move resources at the pace this moment demands. If you’re ready to replace judgment and rigid boundaries with trust, openness, and a shared belief that no single person can drive lasting change alone, this episode is for you.

💡Renee Kaplan: Are you ready to deploy, or are you only into preservation?

Learn more about Forward Global and how you can join their global community.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Guest: Renee Kaplan | Forward Global

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Visual Production Team: SeeBoundless

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when we stop chasing individual freedom and start asking what it would mean to be free together? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich sits down with Mia Birdsong, founder and executive director of Next River, where she is creating the cultural conditions necessary for a truly free world to emerge. Together, they break the fake rules of individualism, redefine what freedom actually is, and explore how we might pivot from a society organized around separation and scarcity to one rooted in care, connection, and collective well being.

💡Mia Birdsong: I understand the kind of fear and anxiety that has us wanting to grip tightly to what's familiar, because it feels safe, but it's not safe. It's never been safe.

💡Mia Birdsong: If we can find the courage to let go of trying to hold on to this thing, trying to fix this thing, and trust that together, if we are oriented toward our collective care and well being, we can build something better.

Learn more about Next River and their work to create the cultural conditions for a truly free world to emerge.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Guest: Mia Birdsong | How We Show Up

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

We’re excited to share a special feed swap this week from our friends, Eric Brown and Kirk Brown, on the Let’s Hear It podcast! In this episode, you’ll get to hear directly from Glen Galaich and frequent Break Fake Rules co-host and Let’s Hear It host, Eric Brown, as they talk about Glen’s newly released book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short. Join Glen on the book tour!

CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short, out now, makes an argument as simple as it is explosive: when a donor takes a tax deduction to give money away, they've made a deal with the public. That money isn't theirs anymore. But the system we've built lets donors park billions in foundations and donor-advised funds indefinitely — dribbling out 5 cents on the dollar while the rest sits on Wall Street going absolutely nowhere.

Glen isn't an outside critic. He's a sitting foundation CEO who spent years reinforcing every rule he's now trying to break. Eric read an early draft, argued with him about it, and told him his central framing was too polite. Glen ignored him. They pick up that conversation here.

Follow Let's Hear It and leave a rating so more people can find the show.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation and Glen Galaich.

This week, the co-hosts of Break Fake Rules are taking control of the show to talk behind Glen Galaich’s back about his new book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short, out today!

Eric Brown, principal of Brown Bridge Strategies and co-host of Let’s Hear It, locks Glen out of the Break Fake Rules studio to bring you a conversation with all of your favorite co-hosts: Jamie Allison, executive director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund; Ralph Lewin, executive director of the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund; and Dr. Carmen Rojas, president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

Together, they dig into the book— what resonated, where they differed, and what it made them reconsider in their own work. What starts as a conversation about CONTROL opens into something larger: a candid conversation about leadership, power, accountability, and what philanthropy owes the communities it claims to serve. They also make a compelling case for why CONTROL is worth reading. Not because it offers easy agreement, but because it forces harder questions to the surface so we can change Big Giving for good.

💡Jamie Allison: I think what's more important is breaking the fake rule that proximity to resource, proximity to wealth, equals wisdom…wealth does not necessarily equal wisdom.

💡Jamie Allison: I think Control is worth reading because it invites philanthropy to look honestly in the mirror and ask whether our systems are truly serving the communities that we say that they're meant to.

💡Carmen Rojas: I think we need a different operating model and control offers us a different pathway to operate as a society in response to these current crises.

💡Ralph Lewin: The fake rule that stuck out to me from this book is that we spend all our time on 5% of our resources, when 95% of our resources is not necessarily mission aligned.

Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short. Join Glen on the book tour!

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co Hosts: Eric Brown, Jamie Allison, Carmen Rojas & Ralph Lewin

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

What happens when philanthropy treats this moment like a true crisis and local organizers refuse to let cruelty become normal?

In this episode, Glen Galaich is joined by co-host Dr. Carmen Rojas, President and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, for a conversation filmed at the first of a series of events called Common Thread, a new initiative designed to bring people together through conversation, culture, and connection. Glen and Carmen talk about how people can get involved and attend future Common Thread events this year, then turn to the urgent realities of immigrant rights and due process as communities confront detention, deportation, and government overreach.

Carmen reflects on using her LinkedIn community and platform to humanize the lives affected by disappearances and deportations. She also challenges some of philanthropy’s most entrenched assumptions, including the idea that institutions must hold tightly to wealth even in moments they themselves call a crisis.

Then local organizer, Nikki Marín Baena, co-founder and co-director of Siembra NC, joins the conversation to talk about who pays when philanthropy plays it safe on immigrant rights. Nikki shares what organizing for immigrant rights looks like on the ground in North Carolina. From helping neighbors connect, making communities safer, supporting Know Your Rights efforts, building Fourth Amendment workplace trainings, and responding to immigration operations that reshape daily life for workers and families. Together, Nikki, Glen and Carmen uncover the fake rules forming around immigration and mass deportation in America, and call on philanthropy to embrace risk in support of the people doing this work.

💡Nikki Marín Baena: I think that we are taking it for granted that this moment of big hatred that we're in is the way that it has to be. We don't have to accept that there's just widespread hatred. We can find another way.

Learn more about Siembra NC and their work to protect immigrant communities and build collective power in North Carolina. Sign up to volunteer!

Preorder your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Carmen Rojas & Glen Galaich

Guest: Nikki Marín Baena - Siembra NC | Defend and Recruit | LinkedIn

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when philanthropy stops treating the people doing the work as an unnecessary expense and starts funding nonprofit partners like it actually wants them to win? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and returning co-host Jamie Allison, Executive Director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, react to a Chronicle of Philanthropy piece on the high cost of low nonprofit salaries and the dangerous backlash nonprofits are facing right now.

They are joined by guest Rusty Stahl, president and CEO of Fund the People, a leading advocate for investing in nonprofit workers, to make the case that strengthening the nonprofit workforce is not just a strategic investment, it is crucial to protecting democracy itself.

💡Rusty Stahl: What we're seeing in our research is the more money you put into the staff and the people doing the work, the better the program is, and the greater the impact and results.

Learn more about Fund the People and their work to strengthen the nonprofit workforce so organizations can win for their missions.

Preorder your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Jamie Allison & Glen Galaich

Guest: Rusty Stahl: Fund the People | Fund the People Podcast

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when we stop pretending that systems will fix themselves, and ask what it really takes to change them? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and returning co-host Jamie Allison, Executive Director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, first discuss the Endeavor Fund and what it means to back organizations with long-term, trust-based support. Then they sit down with guest Catherine Bracy, founder and CEO of TechEquity and author of World Eaters: How Venture Capital Is Cannibalizing the Economy, to examine how venture capital shapes our everyday lives.

Catherine traces how venture capital shifted from funding innovation to driving financialization, and why wealth inequality functions as a strategy as much as an outcome. She breaks down the power law logic that underwrites the entire system, what it extracts from workers and communities, and why it matters when foundations are more invested in venture than the organizations doing the work on the ground. The conversation lands on a challenge that’s hard to ignore: if philanthropy wants different outcomes, it has to question the assumptions behind where its money is parked, and prioritize community benefit over donor comfort.

💡Catherine Bracy: The dirty little secret of venture capital is that it’s organized like a power law itself. The vast majority of these funds do not outperform the S&P 500, so what are you actually getting for that money?

Learn more about TechEquity and their work to build a more equitable tech economy.

Preorder your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Jamie Allison & Glen Galaich

Guest: Catherine Bracy | World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when someone born into a family fortune decides that keeping control of that wealth is the real problem? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and co-host Eric Brown, principal of Brown Bridge Strategies and co-host of Let’s Hear It, sit down with Austria-based activist Marlene Engelhorn, co-founder of Tax Me Now. Marlene inherited many millions of dollars and chose to give most of it away by creating a Citizens’ Council of 50 everyday Austrians to decide where the money should go. Together, they dig into what it means to institutionalize philanthropy, and what it takes to dismantle it.

Glen and Eric start with a jaw-dropping snapshot of the sector from the Center for Effective Philanthropy report: A Sector in Crisis. In it, 40% of surveyed nonprofit leaders say funders are less helpful now, while 20% of foundations believe they have little responsibility to help nonprofits navigate this moment. It’s a stark disconnect: foundations feel secure while nonprofits face existential crises. Against that backdrop, Marlene talks about “rich fragility,” the ways wealth holders defend their privilege, and why she believes any philanthropic approach that keeps people dependent on private goodwill misses the point.

💡 Marlene Engelhorn: I don't want to protect my privilege. I want it gone. I think that's the only genuine approach to philanthropy. It's to basically make sure that it abolishes itself.

Learn more about taxmenow and their campaign to challenge inherited wealth and push for democratic tax reform.

Explore the Guter Rat (Citizens’ Council) and how the process works.

Preorder your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Eric Brown & Glen Galaich

Guest: Marlene Engelhorn

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

This is philanthropy’s rainy day.

Across communities, the escalation of ICE activity is terrifying. Families are living in fear. Core pillars of our democracy are under attack. Meanwhile, too many funders are still holding back, waiting for a crisis that’s already here.

In this episode, Glen and Ralph Lewin weigh in on why escalating ICE actions should be a wake-up call for philanthropy to step up in real ways to protect our communities. They challenge the persistent myth that philanthropy must conserve resources for a future emergency.

Spoiler alert: this is the emergency.

Special guest, Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward, joins the conversation to share how ongoing litigation is actively defending our democracy. Skye brings both urgency and hope—reminding us that, despite efforts to flood the zone, the people are winning more than they’re losing. But we will only win if philanthropy fully funds the legal, advocacy, and organizing efforts that make those wins possible.

💡 Skye Perryman: The cost of inaction in this moment is far higher than the cost of taking action.

Learn more about Democracy Forward and their initiative, Democracy 250, and find out how you can support the work of defending democracy

Preorder your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Ralph Lewin & Glen Galaich

Guest: Skye Perryman

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

Why does philanthropy resist risk? Ralph Lewin, Executive Director of the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund, joins Glen as co-host to bust one of the biggest fake rules in philanthropy. In this episode, Ralph and Glen make the case for embracing “philanthropic reformers” (not critics!) and courageous risk-taking rather than clinging to a comfortable but broken status quo.

Special guest, María Teresa Kumar, Emmy-nominated MSNBC contributor and founding president and CEO of Voto Latino, stops by to reflect on what it really means to be “American” in today’s political climate. As fear-driven narratives and ICE raids targeting immigrants intensify ahead of the midterms, María Teresa reminds us why reengaging and delivering on promises made to the Latino electorate has never been more urgent.

💡 María Teresa Kumar: “Recognize that no is for everybody else. Everybody will say no to you. And that's okay, because you only need one yes.”

Get involved with Voto Latino.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast that brings today’s news and big philanthropic issues into focus to change Big Giving for good.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Ralph Lewin & Glen Galaich

Guest: María Teresa Kumar

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

Welcome back to Break Fake Rules! In the season three premiere, Jamie Allison, Executive Director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, co-hosts with Glen Galaich to discuss the fake rules we need to break to relieve the pressure nonprofits are under at the outset of 2026.

Special guest, Representative Lateefah Simon (CA-12), joins from Capitol Hill to reflect on her journey from nonprofit leader to federal policymaker. At a moment of intensifying fear and political division, Representative Simon calls on us to reject division, protect nonprofits, and do more for our communities.

💡Representative Lateefah Simon: “If we’re not going to go hard, we should go home.”

Tune in for a candid conversation about breaking through partisan divides and making real change in our communities.

Learn about Representative Lateefah Simon’s work and subscribe to her newsletter.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast that brings today’s news and big philanthropic issues into focus to change Big Giving for good.

Learn more about the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Co-Hosts: Jamie Allison & Glen Galaich

Guest: Representative Lateefah Simon

Executive Producer: Claire Callahan

Production Team: Podfly

Break Fake Rules is back! Join us for a new season of rulebreaking to change the future of Big Giving for good.

Get ready for more episodes, more often! This season, we're excited to welcome a few of our favorite rule breakers as recurring co-hosts. Alongside Glen Galaich, CEO of the Stupski Foundation, they will call on us to rethink the stories we tell about money, wealth, and power—and imagine a future where resources are shared, not hoarded. If you have ever questioned why we live by certain rules and wondered what becomes possible when we do things differently, this show is for you.

New episodes drop weekly starting January 28, 2026.

That’s a wrap on season 2! In this bonus episode of Break Fake Rules, hear some of Glen and Claire’s favorite moments from the season. And spoiler alert - they drop exciting updates about what’s coming next season on Break Fake Rules. 

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest & Producer: Claire Callahan

In the season wrap of Break Fake Rules, Carmen Rojas (CEO & President, Marguerite Casey Foundation) and Jamie Allison (Executive Director, Walter & Elise Haas Fund) bring the vibes to a year-defining conversation with host Glen Galaich. Together, they reflect on how philanthropy showed up in 2025—and how it needs to evolve in 2026.

Jamie Allison calls on the sector to embrace courage and purpose: “Our communities and nonprofit leaders need from us what they've always needed from us. They need us to be courageous and to show that the project of philanthropy is about redistributing privilege and resources.”

Carmen Rojas offers a bold vision for the road ahead, challenging philanthropy to think generationally and confront its own complicity: “We have an opportunity… to reset that table.” And: “We need to reconcile and have a meaningful conversation about the ways each of our institutions is enabling… this political movement.”

Looking ahead at 2026, Glen Galaich reminds us why imagination matters: “So many foundations limit themselves to a cap… It stops us from dreaming and imagining things that could be leveraged for a better society.”

Tune in for a finale filled with the kind of rule-breaking energy that sets the stage for a transformative 2026.

Learn more about the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and the We Initiative to cultivate belonging. 

Explore the Marguerite Casey Foundation and learn about their decision to significantly increase grantmaking to protect communities under attack.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guests: Jamie Allison & Carmen Rojas

Producer: Claire Callahan

Progressives have lost sight of a central issue: class. Lawyer, professor, and author Joan C. Williams joins Break Fake Rules to unpack how the Left lost touch with working-class Americans—and how we can win them back. As income inequality deepens across the U.S. and Europe, Joan explains how class blind spots and broken promises have fueled distrust and driven voters toward the far right. Joan offers actionable, research-backed steps for funders and policymakers to rebuild trust, restore credibility, and reconnect with the working class.

Joan C. Williams: “Not only have we been class clueless, we've often been class condescending.”

Read Joan’s book, Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Joan C. Williams

Producer: Claire Callahan

“It's only when you show your own courage that the performativeness of being inspired by others moves to allied-ness.”

Ludovic Blain returns to Break Fake Rules, this time at a live recording at California Donor Table’s 20th anniversary convening and celebration! Last season, Ludovic delivered a master class in philanthropic giving across tax statuses. Now he’s back to urge us to play offense — by funding bold, long-term investments to counter the well-coordinated efforts of conservative groups and donors that harm our communities. How can donors fund initiatives that not only defend democracy but also create a better government for all? What lessons can we take from local-level wins to build progressive power at the national level? Tune in to find out. 

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn more about the California Donor Table.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Ludovic Blain

Producer: Claire Callahan

Mentioned in this episode:

Designing Tomorrow Podcast

Check out another social impact podcast called Designing Tomorrow. It’s hosted by Eric Ressler — founder of the creative agency Cosmic — and Jonathan Hicken, executive director at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. If you’re looking for a show that’s real, smart, and made for this moment in social impact — give Designing Tomorrow a listen. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Farhad Ebrahimi: “What utility is it for grantmakers to survive this political moment if none of the organizations we believe in survive?”

In this episode, Farhad Ebrahimi—Philanthropic Transformation Strategist and co-founder at Solidaire Network—joins Break Fake Rules to deliver a total takedown of philanthropy’s most pernicious fake rules. And he comes with receipts! Hear why Farhad spent down the Chorus Foundation’s endowment in 2023 and what it really means to organize and mobilize funders to support a just transition to a regenerative economy that no longer feeds the philanthropic industrial compex. In a period when fear and political retribution are on the rise, Farhad calls us to prioritize grantee survival over grantmaker self-preservation. 

Learn about and join the Solidaire Network.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Farhad Ebrahimi

Producer: Claire Callahan

Designing Tomorrow Podcast

Check out another social impact podcast called Designing Tomorrow. It’s hosted by Eric Ressler — founder of the creative agency Cosmic — and Jonathan Hicken, executive director at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. If you’re looking for a show that’s real, smart, and made for this moment in social impact — give Designing Tomorrow a listen. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts.

💡Ari: “Spending less now only protects institutions. Spending more now protects communities.”

💡Malila: “Foundations in general have the least to lose. This is the time to step up and take on more risk.”

What happens when philanthropy stops playing it safe? In this episode, we go behind the scenes at the Stupski Foundation to reveal why we’re speeding up our spend down and putting 76% of our remaining grant funds to work now.

Hear from two of Stupski’s resident rule-breakers, Malila Becton-Conusegra, our Bay Area postsecondary success program officer, and Ari Datta, our food justice program manager. They shared why they advocated to push more dollars out today: because communities can’t afford for us to wait and see. 

Tune in to hear Malila and Ari share how all foundations—not just spenddowns—can spend more to respond to urgent needs in our communities today and prevent future harm. 

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski's Foundation decision to accelerate its spend down.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guests: Ari Datta and Malila Becton-Consuegra

Producer: Claire Callahan

💡Marc Philpart: “I do have fear, but I refuse to be paralyzed by it. I refuse to not take action. I refuse to shy away from our commitment to our community.”

How can we respond amid growing fear and political backlash against racial justice? In this inspiring episode, Marc Philpart, President and CEO of the Black Freedom Fund, discusses the Fund’s unwavering commitment to advancing Black freedom through the largest transfer of wealth to Black organizing in history. Tune in to hear Marc speak to the courage required to act in this moment and why we must stay the course.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about and donate to the Black Freedom Fund.

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Marc Philpart

Producer: Claire Callahan

💡Richard Tate: “It’s time we recognize that there is an increased level of risk, but it's a risk worth taking.” 

What keeps philanthropy from speaking out? And how can funders overcome fear and use our voices to protect communities against forces that seek to silence us? In this episode, Richard Tate from the California Wellness Foundation takes the mic to talk about how his foundation made the decision to speak out against the rise of authoritarianism. Risky? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. Tune in to hear Richard’s vision for how much more we can accomplish in philanthropy by standing up together.

Read more from Richard about the impacts of funding cuts to health services and why “We Shall Not Be Moved.”

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Richard Tate

Producer: Claire Callahan

💡Leah Hunt-Hendrix: “The 501(c)(3) is a social construct meant to protect wealth and give wealthy people a tax break for making a charitable contribution. It's not a necessity. You don't have to abide by it. A lot of mutual aid can happen outside of that structure.”

Can solidarity heal our fractured democracy? 

In this episode, organizer, donor, and writer, Leah Hunt-Hendrix, shares how solidarity can be the antidote in divisive times. Hear Leah challenge traditional models of philanthropy that limit social change and call for a transformative approach rooted in solidarity. In her recent book, Solidarity for Social Change: The Past, Present, and Future of a World Changing Idea, Leah highlights how standing together can help us overcome the forces that seek to divide us. 

How can we shed the constraints of how philanthropy "has always been done?” Tune in to find out from Leah.

Meet Leah: Leah Hunt-Hendrix is an organizer and writer who works on economic inequality and democracy. She has a Ph.D from Princeton University and is co-author of Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World Changing Idea, with Astra Taylor, which was published by Pantheon in 2024. Leah is the co-founder of Solidaire Network, a network that supports progressive social movements, and Way to Win, a fund that resources progressive electoral strategies. She currently leads Democracy Takes Work, a new project which aims to bolster worker organizing. 

Read Solidarity for Social Change: The Past, Present, and Future of a World Changing Idea by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Leah Hunt-Hendrix

Producer: Claire Callahan

Dr. Sulma Gandhi: “This is what I mean by the 'frustrating funder.’ When I was a grantee for all those years, I was always trying to fit my proposal or how I was pitching into the box of the funder who had a particular strategy from some other community, not that of ours.”

What does it take to break free from frustrating funding practices? This month, Stupski Foundation’s Hawaiʻi health program officer, Dr. Sulma Gandhi, shares her journey from grant-seeker to grant-maker and how she embraces trust-based practices to fully invest in community-led holistic health initiatives across Hawaiʻi. Think multi-year general operating support grants without the burdens of proposals, term limits, and cumbersome reporting— how refreshing! Hear how Dr. Gandhi is giving at the intersection of trust and urgency so communities can direct resources where they know they’ll work best.  

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Dr. Sulma Gandhi

Producer: Claire Callahan

In this episode of Break Fake Rules, author and philanthropic rule-breaker Dimple Abichandani joins us at the Global Philanthropy Forum Leaders Summit to spill the tea on her new book, A New Era of Philanthropy. 

💡Dimple Abichandani: “Philanthropy is unique because the rule that we need to move towards is that these funds are not meant to be maintained and grown. They're actually meant to be transformed.”

Learn more from Dimple in her new book, A New Era of Philanthropy: Ten Practices to Transform Wealth into a More Just and Sustainable Future. 

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Dimple Abichandani

Producer: Claire Callahan

Sarah Longwell returns to Break Fake Rules, this time at the Forward Global Summit! In this episode, Sarah breaks down the state of American democracy and the fractured media landscape in the wake of the election. How can philanthropists play a positive role in the effort to defend democracy and counter misinformation? Listen to Sarah to find out. 

💡Sarah Longwell: “What is the point of having FU money if you don't tell bad people to FU?”

Hear more from Sarah and learn what real American voters think on The Focus Group podcast. For honest news and smart analysis, check out The Bulwark.  

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Sarah Longwell

Producer: Claire Callahan

In the season two premiere of Break Fake Rules, powerhouse rule-breaking duo Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, and Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse, Director of Inequality Media join Glen Galaich to explore the challenges of polarity and the corrosive forces of wealth and power on democracy. How we can hold onto hope for a more just future in these challenging times? Tune in to find out. 

💡Robert Reich: “It has become far more important, even than it was 10 years ago, for people to cause good trouble, to poke the bear, to be courageous, to take on the powers that are now dominating America.”

💡Heather Lofthouse: “This is an incredibly important time to be getting the truth out and to use these platforms where so many people are consuming information, news, and fake news.”

Check out Robert Reich’s substack and learn more about Inequality Media. 

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guests: Robert Reich and Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse

Producer: Claire Callahan

Welcome back to Break Fake Rules with Glen Galaich, CEO of the Stupski Foundation. This season, we're excited to bring you a new slate of inspiring rule-breakers in media, government, philanthropy, and more. Listen to a preview of the new season. Full episodes drop monthly starting February 26, 2025.

Wait, there’s more! Tune into a bonus episode to hear some of our favorite rule-breaking moments from the season. Stay tuned for a special announcement about what’s next for Break Fake Rules.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and explores ways it can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest & Producer: Claire Callahan

“We have to find a way to break down the dynamic of power that has created this gulf between us and who gets funded.” - Julián Castro

For the finale of Break Fake Rules, Glen sits down with longtime political rulebreaker, Julián Castro! Filmed in front of a studio audience at the National Forum on Family Philanthropy, hear Glen and Julián discuss the fake rules Julián encountered throughout his career in government and what he is discovering in his new philanthropic role as CEO of the Latino Community Foundation. 

Learn more about the Latino Community Foundation and their work to unleash the civic and economic power of Latinos. 

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and explores ways it can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Julián Castro

Producer: Claire Callahan

“Philanthropy has these ways of carving out money and setting it aside. Is there another way to think about what to do with money that exists in this world? Shouldn’t we be thinking about different ways of activating it now?” - Jennifer Risher

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

In this episode, Glen talks with Jennifer Risher, an author and rulebreaking philanthropist who is motivating donors to move philanthropic wealth off the sidelines and into communities where it is needed today. Hear Jennifer share her initiative, #HalfMyDAF, which is challenging the wealth management system and motivating others to unleash dollars from donor-advised funds. 

Check out #HalfMyDAF and learn more from Jennifer in her book, “We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth”. 

Learn about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Jennifer Risher

Producer: Claire Callahan

“Spending down enables us to make larger investments in our grantees to take bigger swings at addressing the barriers that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face when accessing health care.”

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

In this episode, Glen talks with Ryan Easterly, executive director of the WITH Foundation, who is dedicated to advancing comprehensive care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Hear Ryan encourage funders to break the fake rules that prevent resources from flowing to people with disabilities who need them today.

Learn more about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Ryan Easterly

Producer: Claire Callahan

It’s time to Break Fake Rules, this time with two remarkable rule breakers who delve into race, philanthropy, and humanity. In this episode, Glen speaks with leading antiracist scholar and award winning author, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Marcus Walton. Which rules must we break to create an antiracist world? Tune in to find out. 

”Racist ideas and bigotry across different areas not only prevents us from recognizing the full humanity of the other, but in being unable to recognize the full humanity of the other, we're actually not able to live in the full humanity of ourselves.” - Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

“Institutionalizing a thing that has existed within human relationships since the beginning of humanity, that is philanthropy, dehumanizes it by definition.” - Marcus Walton

Sign up for The Emancipator newsletter for up-to-date news on the people, organizations, and topics shaping the antiracism movement today.

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and explores ways it can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Host: Glen Galaich

Guests: Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and Marcus Walton

Producer: Claire Callahan

“When we're trying to make the change that we want by only using the tools that have tax benefits to the donors, we should be very explicit about that. And that dynamic is a fake rule that we need to interrupt.”

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and explores ways it can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

In this episode, Glen talks with Ludovic Blain, Executive Director of the California Donor Table. Ludovic dispells the myth of unrestricted 501(c)(3) funding and highlights how we can we better leverage philanthropic dollars to advance a multiracial democracy.

Learn more about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Ludovic Blain

Producer: Claire Callahan

“A.B.C. Always be challenging.”

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and explores ways it can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

In this episode, Glen talks with Rachel Pritzker, President and Founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund. Rachel encourages us to lean into humility and curiosity to challenge our assumptions and discover new solutions that lead to progress. 

Resources:

As mentioned in the discussion, find more information about the important function of in-group moderates here. 

Learn how to navigate conflict in Amanda Ripley’s book, High Conflict. 

Learn more about the Democracy Funders Network, the Breakthrough Institute, Third Way, and the Energy for Growth Hub.

Learn more about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Rachel Pritzker

Producer: Claire Callahan

“We only see one side of the story, which is the giving of money but not the getting of money.”

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

In this episode, Glen talks with Dr. Carmen Rojas, president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. Carmen outlines how we can break the fake rules of philanthropy to support a just economy and fully realized democracy that is accountable to communities.

Learn more about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Dr. Carmen Rojas

Producer: Claire Callahan

“We're stuck in our own infrastructure that we've created and we've bought into it. If we were just to take a pause and just think about that for a moment, what could we do more today to mitigate the problems down the road? I mean, we could solve a lot right now.” 

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

In this episode, Glen chats with Priscilla Enriquez, CEO of the James B. McClatchy Foundation. Hear them discuss her foundation’s commitment to spend down by 2030 through their Sunrise Plan to fund the people and support a brighter future for California’s Central Valley. 

Learn more about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Priscilla Enriquez

Producer: Claire Callahan

“People should go push to liberate themselves. What do they want to do more of?”

Break Fake Rules is a podcast from the Stupski Foundation that questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and looks for ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting change. 

Glen talks with Sarah Longwell, president and CEO of Longwell Partners, founder of The Bulwark, and host of The Focus Group podcast. In this episode, they discuss her decision to fight against Trump as a Republican and the need for the nation to build strong coalitions to restore Americans’ trust in our institutions and each other.

Learn more about the Stupski Foundation’s work.

Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Sarah Longwell

Producer: Claire Callahan