Break Fake Rules: Change Big Giving For Good

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 GalaichGuest: Elizabeth Cushing | Playworks Executive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 CallahanVisual Production Team: SeeBoundlessProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 LewinExecutive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction 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 GalaichGuest: Nikki Marín Baena - Siembra NC | Defend and Recruit | LinkedIn Executive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 GalaichGuest: Rusty Stahl: Fund the People | Fund the People PodcastExecutive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 GalaichGuest: Catherine Bracy | World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy Executive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 GalaichGuest: Marlene Engelhorn Executive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 democracyPreorder your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.Learn about the Stupski Foundation.Co-Hosts: Ralph Lewin & Glen GalaichGuest: Skye PerrymanExecutive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 KumarExecutive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic 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 GalaichGuest: Representative Lateefah SimonExecutive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction 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 GalaichGuest & 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 GalaichGuests: Jamie Allison & Carmen RojasProducer: 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 GalaichGuest: Joan C. WilliamsProducer: 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 GalaichGuest: Ludovic BlainProducer: Claire CallahanMentioned in this episode:Designing Tomorrow PodcastCheck 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 GalaichGuest: Farhad EbrahimiProducer: Claire CallahanDesigning Tomorrow PodcastCheck 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 GalaichGuests: Ari Datta and Malila Becton-ConsuegraProducer: 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 GalaichGuest: Marc PhilpartProducer: Claire Callahan