Tactical Philanthropy Podcast

The Tactical Philanthropy Podcast is a series of conversations with influential people in the philanthropic sector. Below you’ll find the full archive of interviews. If you would like to suggest a guest for an upcoming interview, have comments or questions, please let me know. Starting with the June 7, 2007 interview, the interviewees fielded questions and comments from readers. Click through to the original post to see these follow up discussions.

Subscribe to this show via iTunes, Miro, or RSS

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Brian Gallagher

June 13, 2008 – 8:48 am

Today’s podcast is with Brian Gallagher, CEO of the United Way of America. In the interview, Brian discusses how United Way is transitioning from a fundraising organization to having a focus on community impact. He comments on the prediction I made in the Chronicle of Philanthropy that the nonprofit field would adopt a United Way impact statement as a potential reporting replacement for the 990. And he explains the way he thinks the changes at the United Way will affect nonprofits.


Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Sean Stannard-Stockton: Hello and welcome to the Tactical Philanthropy podcast. I’m Sean Stannard-Stockton, author of the Tactical Philanthropy blog and principal and director of tactical philanthropy at Ensemble Capital. My guest today is Brian Gallagher. Brian is the Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of America. United Way of America is the national organization charged with leading the 1,300 local United Ways. Brian has spent his entire career, going back to 1981, at the United Way, and as chief executive since 2002, has been busy redefining the role of the organization. In May of this year, the United Way announced a new 10-year plan that focused the organization on a specific set of new goals. Brian thanks for being here today.

Brian Gallagher: Sean, it’s great to be with you. Thanks.

Sean Stannard-Stockton: Why don’t you begin by talking about the transition of the United Way from a fundraising conduit to an organization focused on community impact and explain the role of your new 10-year plan, titled “Goals for the Common Good” in that shift.

Brian Gallagher: Sure. You know, we really started – local United Ways started this shift 10 or 12 years ago, probably, to get to the real beginning. As a United Way movement, we started it formally just before I came into the CEO role. And fundamentally, it was because of the economic shift in the country. As we move from an industrial to a service to a global knowledge economy…

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Effective Giving, Fundraising, Philanthropy, multimedia | Comments (1)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Mark Kramer

May 23, 2008 – 9:52 am
Today’s post cast is with Mark Kramer of FSG Social Advisors. Mark and I talk about mission aligned investing, information sharing in philanthropy and whether achieving social impact means limiting financial returns. My favorite line from the interview, “I’ve actually talked to a couple foundation CEOs who, when I’ve said what was your greatest achievement, said putting a nonprofit out of business that just wasn’t doing a good job.”



Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play


Sean Stannard-Stockton: Hello, and welcome to the Tactical Philanthropy podcast. I’m Sean Stannard-Stockton, author of the Tactical Philanthropy blog, and principal and director of Tactical Philanthropy at Ensemble Capital. My guest today is Mark Kramer. Mark is the founder of FSG Social Impact Advisors. FSG is a nonprofit organization that seeks to advance the practice of philanthropy via consulting with foundations, corporations, and nonprofits to increase their effectiveness and their impact. They publish research on philanthropic value creation and evaluation and create tools and best practices within philanthropy. Mark, I really appreciate you joining us today.


Mark Kramer: Thank you, Sean. I’m delighted to be here.

Sean Stannard-Stockton: Mark, FSG recently published a report called “Compounding Impact”, about mission-related investing. Would you start off just by defining what MRI means and maybe talk a little bit about the difference between SRI, PRI, and MRI?

Mark Kramer: Sure, and as that alphabet soup suggests, terminology is actually a huge problem in this field. I would not say that there are consistent definitions for any of those terms out there. But in the broadest sense, what we’ve seen is foundations increasingly taking into account their mission and the social impact of their investments when they think about investing their endowment funds. And there really are a couple different ways to think about the social dimension of your investments. One is simply to screen your portfolio. In other words, to avoid stocks and companies that you think do bad things, like tobacco companies. Or to have a positive screen, where you put more of your assets in companies that are doing what you think of as good things, like, perhaps, alternative energy, green energy.

A second way to have impact with your investments is through your vote of the proxy that you have as a shareholder. And there’s some very interesting work that Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and some other organizations, have done around the role that foundations can play by influencing corporate behavior through their proxy votes. The third area, and the area that…

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Impact Measurement, Information Sharing, Mission Related Investing, Philanthropy, multimedia | Comments (0)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Fred Krupp

April 17, 2008 – 2:14 pm

Today’s podcast is with Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense Fund. Fred has been the leader of EDF since he took over in 1984 at age 30. Known for embracing partnerships with corporations and advocating market based solutions, EDF has become a powerful force in the environmental movement. Last year, Fred was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders. Fred is co-author of the new book Earth: The Sequel, which Michael Bloomberg has said “[puts] optimism back into the environmental story”.




Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play


Sean Stannard-Stockton: Hello, and welcome to the Tactical Philanthropy podcast. I’m Sean Stannard-Stockton, author of the Tactical Philanthropy blog and principal and director of Tactical Philanthropy at Ensemble Capital. My guest today is Fred Krupp. Fred is president of the Environmental Defense Fund. EDF uses public-private partnerships to tackle the world’s most serious environmental problems. They are known for their long success of leveraging market forces to further their mission, and their strategy of partnering with the world’s largest corporations. Fred and his co-author, Mariam Horn, have recently released the book, Earth: The Sequel. Fred, thank you so much for joining us.Fred Krupp: Delighted to be here.


Sean Stannard-Stockton: Fred, your book is full of stories about innovative ways that for-profit entrepreneurs frequently are creating powerful new business models that they believe, or that you believe, has the potential to save the planet. Why don’t you begin by telling us a story or two about some of these entities that are competing in a marketplace in a way that you think has this potential to save the planet.

Fred Krupp: Sure, Sean. We tell the story of Bernie Karl, up in Alaska, who had this for-profit idea that he could have a lot of tourists visiting his resort if he built an ice hotel. But he had a find a way to keep that ice hotel frozen in the summer. Unfortunately, he built the hotel, summer came, the hotel melted. And Forbes dubbed this the dumbest business idea of the year. But he persevered…

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Philanthropy, multimedia | Comments (0)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Alberto Ibarguen

March 4, 2008 – 9:13 am

Today’s podcast interview is with Alberto Ibarguen, the CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Knight Foundation has its roots in the newspaper business and today makes grants that transform journalism and communities. Alberto was publisher of the Miami Herald before he joined the foundation in 2005.

During the interview, Alberto discusses the foundations effort to hire an “online community manager”, why one of the Knight Foundation’s major projects might make some people “vomit on the table” (and why he’s OK with that), how the foundation is planning on funding “wonderful strangeness”, and the promise of “prize philanthropy”.

(Please be patient while you wait for the audio file to download. The transcript is below.)




Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play


Alberto will be responding to comments, so let us know your thoughts. You can read the transcript by clicking on the link below.


(Full disclosure: my brother is currently on a Knight Fellowship at Stanford. However, he was not involved in any way with the production of this content nor in setting up the interview).

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Philanthropy, Prize Philanthropy, Social Media, multimedia | Comments (2)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Phil Buchanan

January 14, 2008 – 10:42 am

Today’s podcast is with Phil Buchanan, executive director of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. The mission of the Center for Effective Philanthropy is to provide management and governance tools to define, assess, and improve overall foundation performance. As the Center’s first executive director, Phil has led the organization to play an increasingly important role in the philanthropic sector. His comments have appeared in numerous national publications, and he is a member of the Nonprofit Times Power and Influence Top 50.

During the podcast Phil and I discuss why most foundations are not strategic, the role of intermediaries in fixing the philanthropic capital markets, and a “secret club” of foundations that seem to be responsible for all of the innovation in philanthropy.

If you post comments and questions in the Comments section, Phil will respond.

Click on the link below to read the transcript…

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Philanthropy, multimedia | Comments (15)

Forces For Good Podcast

December 5, 2007 – 11:13 am

Today’s podcast is with Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie Crutchfield, the authors of the new book Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits. Forces for Good examines the characteristics of nonprofits that are achieving high impact. Heather’s been an advisor to the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, as well as to many nonprofits. She holds an MBA and worked at McKinsey, consulting with for-profit companies. Leslie is a managing director at Ashoka, a research grantee at the Aspen Institute, and a philanthropic advisor to foundations and high net worth individuals.

During the podcast Heather and Leslie discuss the importance of nonprofit groups engaging in political advocacy, the difficult in measuring impact (and the flaws in Charity Navigator’s system of measuring efficiency), the need for nonprofits to engage their volunteers, and the ways in which nonprofits can learn from Web 2.0 companies.

If you post comments and questions in the Comments section, Heather and Leslie will respond.

You can read some background about the book and both authors here.

Click on the link below to read the transcript…

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Impact Measurement, New Philanthropy, Philanthropy, Social Entrepreneurship, multimedia, nonprofits | Comments (1)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Robert Egger

October 22, 2007 – 9:23 am

Today’s interview is with Robert Egger. Robert is a driving force behind the Nonprofit Primary Project and is the Founder and President of the DC Central Kitchen. During the interview, Robert explains the political clout of the nonprofit sector, says it is an urban myth that nonprofits cannot be political involved, and calls me “brother” twice. I think that this is one of the more important conversations I’ve recorded. Whether you are a donor, work for a nonprofit, or at a foundation, you’ll find a lot to stimulate your thinking. You can learn more about Robert via the background notes I posted last week.

Robert will be answering your questions and comments in the Comments section of this post, so fire away.

You can click on the link below to read the transcript.

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Philanthropy, Social Entrepreneurship, multimedia | Comments (11)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Cheryl Dahle

September 17, 2007 – 10:15 am

Today’s interview is with Cheryl Dahle. Cheryl was employee number 24 at Fast Company Magazine and spearheaded the launch of the Fast Company Social Capitalist Awards. During the interview, Cheryl talks about mainstream media coverage of philanthropy, the importance of social enterprises and the challenges faced by nonprofits that try to grow rapidly. You can learn more about Cheryl via the background notes I posted last week.

Cheryl will be answering your questions and comments in the Comments section of this post, so fire away.

You can click on the link below to read the transcript.

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Media, Philanthropy, Social Entrepreneurship, multimedia | Comments (16)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: Stacy Palmer Interview

August 16, 2007 – 8:06 am

Today I’m happy to present the delayed podcast with Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Stacy was involved in founding the paper in 1988, the leading newspaper in the philanthropic sector. During the interview, I ask her about her thoughts on philanthropy blogs, the Chronicle’s plans for their own blogs, the mainstreaming of philanthropy, and whether all of the hoopla over Buffet and Gates is warranted.
You can learn more about Stacy via the background notes I posted last week.

Stacy will be answering your questions and comments in the Comments section of this post, so fire away.

You can click on the link below to read the transcript.

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Media, Philanthropy, multimedia | Comments (11)

Tactical Philanthropy Podcast: James Canales Interview

July 25, 2007 – 7:41 am

Today’s interview is with James Canales. Jim is president and CEO of the James Irvine Foundation, a 1.7 billion dollar private foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California.

You can read a complete background report on Jim here (feel free to add your own background notes via the comments). Briefly: Jim was one of the panelists at the Demonstrating Impact session at the Council on Foundations conference in Seattle this year (you can read my write-ups here and here). The Irvine Foundation recently released a report called Midcourse Corrections (I wrote about it briefly here). After committing to a $60 million initiative, the biggest in their history, the Irvine Foundation realized that all was not going as planned. They released the Midcourse Corrections report to help other foundations avoid the mistakes they made. This is exactly the sort of knowledge sharing that I’ve been advocating.

Make sure to enter the Comments section at the bottom of this post to follow along with and participate in a follow up conversation with Jim.

Expand this post using the link below to read the transcript.

Read More »

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

By Sean Stannard-Stockton | Also posted in Cross-Disciplinary Conversations, Foundations, Philanthropy, Transparency, multimedia, nptech | Comments (25)