The Philanthropists

Google earned about as much profit in 2024 as all of U.S. institutional philanthropy gives away in a year. Now AI is coming for every issue philanthropy cares about.Mike Kubzansky led Omidyar Network for more than eight years. He tells us why the sector is underestimating AI. He explains why only 9% of investors in one survey say they understand the AI risk in their portfolios. And he makes the case for why “we have 108,000 philanthropies in this country; we don’t need 109.”We also get into:How Omidyar Network invested in Anthropic and lobbied for AI bills in CaliforniaHis “five cities” theory of social changeWhy chasing the tax deduction misses the pointWhat he’s building now at Andaris AI00:00 Introduction00:52 From politics to business school04:47 Thinking in systems07:29 What microcredit taught him10:47 Joining Omidyar Network12:47 Investing in Anthropic and lobbying on AI17:15 The five cities of social change23:36 What philanthropy is missing about AI28:17 What worries him most31:19 Is AI a distraction from older fights?35:01 Advice for new philanthropists39:12 The tool philanthropy is afraid to use41:10 Building Andaris AI46:04 Our signature question48:50 Lightning round50:53 Where to start with your own givingListen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and thephilanthropistspodcast.orgWrite to us: [email protected]#Philanthropy#ArtificialIntelligence#AIPolicy#ImpactInvesting#ThePhilanthropistsPodcast

Should philanthropy stay out of politics? Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley revisit their conversation with MTV co-founder and former Viacom CEO Tom Freston to look at how philanthropy, public policy, and advocacy work together.The question gets more complicated once you separate partisan politics from policy: the budgets, laws, and government decisions that determine whether millions of people can get healthcare, education, economic opportunity, and basic services.Tom’s global work spans hospitals, schools, media in Afghanistan, and nearly two decades of leadership with the ONE Campaign. It’s a clear example of direct giving and policy advocacy working side by side.In this 1 More Thing episode, we ask when charitable giving is enough, when policy becomes essential, and why some of philanthropy’s most important impact happens far from a ribbon cutting or a name on a building.This isn’t a conversation about partisan allegiance. It’s about whether donors who want lasting change can afford to ignore the public decisions shaping the problems they hope to solve.📖 Tom’s memoir: Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu🎧 Full interview with Tom Freston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuHjBpG_M_w🌐 Show notes and resources: https://thephilanthropistspodcast.org✉️ [email protected]:00 Tom Freston on giving with curiosity01:04 Setting the stage: Tom’s story04:42 Philanthropy as refuge and meaning07:29 Travel, proximity, and the gap year11:07 Afghanistan and the people behind the work16:09 Fired from Viacom: designing a second act20:19 Purpose, identity, and life after a title23:38 Five steps for a second-act transition26:52 Time and talent as philanthropic capital30:05 The ONE Campaign and PEPFAR31:36 Should philanthropy engage policy?36:09 Does scale distort how we see impact?38:36 Humility vs. imposter syndrome40:29 How to act on your own curiosity43:15 What stayed with usSubscribe for honest conversations about giving with purpose.#Philanthropy #TomFreston #ONECampaign

MTV co-founder and former Viacom CEO Tom Freston on getting fired twice, rebuilding media in Afghanistan, and nearly two decades chairing the ONE Campaign.Before MTV, Tom was running a clothing import business between New Delhi and Kabul. It made millions, then disappeared almost overnight when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and new US quotas cut off imports from India. He was 33, back in New York, and in debt.What came next: helping build MTV into a network in 75 countries, running Viacom, making an offer to buy Facebook in 2005 (Zuckerberg said no), being blocked from buying YouTube, and getting fired over MySpace.Then the third chapter. An orphanage, hospital, clinic, and school in Burma. Twelve years helping build Afghanistan's leading independent TV network. And after the Taliban returned, turning that network into a classroom for girls shut out of school, with nearly 2,000 episodes of biology, math, and more.We talk with Tom about why injustice moves people more than pity, why his biggest philanthropic risk has been his time, and why he thinks you should give to the things you're most curious about.LINKS FROM THIS EPISODETom's memoir, Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to TimbuktuBookshop: https://bookshop.org/book/9781668089798Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/unplugged/id6741072419ONE Campaign: https://www.one.orgMOBY Group (Afghan media company behind TOLO TV): https://mobygroup.comNew America: https://www.newamerica.orgCHAPTERS0:00 Introducing Tom Freston1:43 Quitting advertising for Kabul and New Delhi3:00 Building a clothing business between India and Afghanistan5:12 Losing everything at 336:34 "Travel's the greatest classroom in the world"9:06 "I Want My MTV": how MTV broke through12:47 Taking MTV global14:20 Running MTV Networks and Viacom19:02 Trying to buy Facebook and YouTube22:00 MySpace, Sumner Redstone, and getting fired24:13 The chainsaw and the walk out of 1515 Broadway27:19 Reinvention: Burma, Oprah, and Bono29:14 Joining the ONE Campaign32:06 Building Afghanistan's leading TV network36:48 Teaching girls on TV under the Taliban41:40 Finding purpose in a third chapter44:13 What moves people from awareness to action51:57 Board leadership at ONE56:59 Imposter syndrome58:01 "My main risk has been in my time"1:01:47 Foreign aid and soft power1:05:41 Three Questions and a TipHosted by Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley.More episodes: thephilanthropistspodcast.orgApple Podcasts:Spotify:#ThePhilanthropists #TomFreston #Philanthropy#MTV #ONECampaign #Afghanistan #GirlsEducation #ForeignAid

What is the difference between giving someone access—and making them feel that they truly belong?In this 1 More Thing conversation, Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley reflect on their interview with museum philanthropist Amy Meadows and examine a central question facing arts organizations, museums, nonprofits, and donors:Is opening the door actually enough?Free museum admission may remove one barrier, but transportation, confidence, language, familiarity, staffing, education, cultural relevance, and repeated engagement can determine whether people ever develop a meaningful relationship with an institution.Quanda and Meredith explore Amy’s approach to museum philanthropy, why proximity can make donors better listeners, the role of artists and frontline staff in shaping philanthropic decisions, and how donors can balance long-term support with the flexibility organizations need to adapt.They also discuss trust-based philanthropy and a practical principle for donors:Don’t fund only the invitation. Fund the relationship that follows it.thephilanthropistspodcast.org

What makes someone give more than $10 million to a museum?For Amy Meadows, the answer begins decades before the gift—with childhood art classes, repeated visits to museums, and the experience of learning that cultural institutions could feel like places where she belonged.Amy joins Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley to discuss her lifelong relationship with art and museums and the more than $10 million promised gift she and her husband Marc made to establish an education endowment at the Baltimore Museum of Art.Their gift supports far more than museum admission. It helps fund transportation, family access, museum educators, apprenticeships, adult learning, and the infrastructure that allows people to build lasting relationships with art.The conversation also explores museum philanthropy, donor trust, board service, artists’ voices, the Obama portraits, Congressman Elijah Cummings, and what Amy learned through decades working directly with museum visitors and staff.Ultimately, this is a story about the difference between access and belonging—and why the real impact of a major gift cannot always be measured by its dollar amount.Links:Amy Sherald: American Sublime Videohttps://artbma.org/press-release/bma-announces-transformational-10-million-promised-gift-from-amy-and-marc-meadows-to-establish-education-endowment/thephilanthropistspodcast.org

Does effective philanthropy really require more applications, more reports, more committees, and more bureaucracy?In this 1 More Thing episode, Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley use Craig Newmark’s unusually simple approach to giving to ask a bigger question:Are donors making philanthropy more complicated than it needs to be?They explore trust-based philanthropy, donor due diligence, nonprofit reporting burdens, philanthropic intermediaries, governance, accountability, succession planning, and the difference between simplifying the process and simplifying the thinking.Craig’s approach suggests that donors can conduct serious diligence without forcing nonprofits to repeatedly prove themselves through unnecessary paperwork—and that trusting strong leaders can be compatible with rigorous accountability.Quanda and Meredith also discuss why philanthropy should leave room for joy, personality, and the causes people simply love.For donors, foundations, nonprofit leaders, wealth advisors, family offices, and anyone interested in making charitable giving more effective, this episode challenges some deeply embedded assumptions about what “serious philanthropy” is supposed to look like.thephilanthropistspodcast.org

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark built one of the internet’s most recognizable companies. Now he is directing much of his wealth toward philanthropy.In this conversation with Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley, Craig talks about his approach to charitable giving, cybersecurity, scam prevention, trustworthy journalism, veterans and military families, women and girls in technology—and even pigeon rescue.But beneath the range of causes is a remarkably consistent philosophy: find capable people, do your homework, give them meaningful resources, and try not to make their work harder.Craig also talks candidly about charitable gifts that did not work as expected, why prestigious organizations are not automatically effective ones, and why donors should be willing to change course when evidence tells them something is not working.The conversation explores wealth, the Giving Pledge, philanthropic responsibility, trust-based giving, simplicity, due diligence, and the question every donor eventually confronts:How much is enough?Subscribe for conversations about philanthropy, charitable giving, wealth, social impact, cybersecurity, journalism, and purposeful generosity.https://craignewmarkphilanthropies.org/thephilanthropistspodcast.org

Writing a charitable check takes minutes. Becoming deeply engaged with a cause can take years.In this 1 More Thing conversation, Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley unpack their interview with Charles DeSantis and ask what really happens between a donor’s good intentions and meaningful impact.They explore Charles’s Believe. Verify. Engage. framework, why relationships matter in philanthropy, how board service can deepen a donor’s understanding of an organization, and why bringing other people to the table can sometimes be as valuable as the money you contribute.Quanda and Meredith also examine the “transaction trap”—what happens when giving is reduced to an ask followed by a check—and why donors can end up feeling disconnected from causes they genuinely care about.The central question: What if the check is actually the easiest part of giving well?For anyone interested in strategic philanthropy, board service, nonprofit leadership, charitable giving, family philanthropy, or simply becoming more intentional about generosity, this conversation offers a practical place to begin.thephilanthropistspodcast.org

Is philanthropy really about the money—or about what happens after you decide to care?Charles DeSantis, a legendary community builder, joins The Philanthropists to share a philosophy of generosity built around relationships, service, community leadership, and one deceptively simple idea: show up.Charles introduces his practical framework—Believe. Verify. Engage.—and explains why effective philanthropy requires more than making a donation.In this conversation with Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley, Charles explores how family, community, board service, personal relationships, and formative experiences shaped the way he gives. They discuss why your network can be a form of philanthropic capital, why introductions and relationships matter, and how board service can completely change the way someone understands a nonprofit organization.This episode is ultimately about the difference between transactional giving and relational philanthropy—and why the strongest giving often develops over years of learning, service, trust, and engagement.Subscribe for conversations about philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, board service, generosity, community building, and giving with purpose.thephilanthropistspodcast.org

Can grief change not only what we care about—but how we choose to give?In this 1 More Thing episode of The Philanthropists, Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley reflect on their conversation with Norm Ornstein and Judy Harris and explore what their story reveals about grief, proximity, advocacy, mental health, and philanthropy.They examine why lived experience can create a kind of understanding that cannot be gained from a distance, why philanthropy sometimes means building infrastructure rather than simply writing a check, and why staying engaged with difficult systems can itself become an act of generosity.The conversation also explores storytelling as a tool for social change, the role of advocacy in philanthropy, and the surprising place of joy and hope alongside grief.1 More Thing is where Quanda and Meredith take one or more ideas from a guest conversation and go deeper—connecting the personal story to broader questions about generosity, impact, responsibility, and how we give.Listen to the full Norm Ornstein and Judy Harris conversation in Episode 1.thephilanthropistspodcast.org