The Business of Giving

When Sarah Bouchie became CEO of Helen Keller International, she led a listening process across the organization and sharpened how they told their story. That preparation proved critical. Within months, a third of the organization’s revenue disappeared. What followed: 300 layoffs, a refusal to close a single country office, and six months later, the Kristof Holiday Impact Prize that raised nearly $13 million. But the reason any of that matters comes down to what this organization actually does. For about a dollar a dose, twice a year, they can save a child’s life. That math hasn’t changed. But the funding landscape has. Here is my conversation with Sarah Bouchie, CEO of Helen Keller International.

Imagine a child,  nine years old, who has never once held a pencil or opened a book. Not because she doesn’t want to learn, but because poverty or conflict or displacement slammed the schoolhouse door before she ever reached it. Across Africa, that is the reality for 80 million children. And once they fall behind, most education systems simply move on without them.My next guest refused to accept that.Caitlin Baron built something most education systems never bothered to create — a way back in. One intensive year in which children cover three years of learning and walk into a classroom with kids their own age. The evidence says it works. A new book, The Luminos Method, lays out exactly how. It’s Caitlin Baron on The Business of Giving.

Kyle Clifford took over as CEO of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, on January 1st of this year. Founded in 1985 and championed by Elizabeth Taylor, amfAR has invested nearly a billion dollars in the fight against HIV and is now expanding its research into cancer, neurocognitive conditions, and immune dysfunction. What makes Kyle’s leadership unlike any in the organization’s history is that he is amfAR’s first CEO who is openly living with HIV. And as he shared with me, his path to leading this organization was anything but planned.It’s Kyle Clifford on The Business of Giving

What if the entire strategy for fixing how we produce meat has been wrong from the start?For fifty years, advocates have tried to convince people to eat less. Yet,  consumption has broken a new global record every single year since 1961. Every. Single. Year. So Bruce Friedrich decided to stop fighting human nature and start working with it.Bruce is the founder of The Good Food Institute, a global science think tank, and the author of a new book called Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food and Our Future. His argument is simple and a little mind-bending: the goal isn’t a world where people sacrifice. It’s a world where they can’t tell the difference.That’s the vision. And in the conversation that follows, Bruce explains exactly how close we actually are to making it real, why companies like Tyson are essential to getting there, and why he puts the odds at 95 percent, but only if one critical thing happens.It’s Bruce Friedrich on The Business of Giving.

Most organizations approaching their 100th anniversary would be looking back and celebrating past achievements. United Way of Rhode Island is doing the opposite. Under Cortney Nicolato’s leadership, they’re taking bigger swings than ever, from meeting a $100 million racial equity commitment ahead of schedule to becoming the go-to source of real-time community data for state policymakers.Cortney returned to her home state after building a national career because she wanted to help the communities that helped her growing up as a latchkey kid in Pawtucket. She transformed United Way from the inside first, rebuilding the board and staff to reflect Rhode Island’s diversity, before asking anyone else to change.And when others began backing away from equity commitments, her response was clear.This is a conversation about what it takes to be both an emergency responder and a long-term systems builder, about earning a seat at the policy table with data instead of survey results, and about building organizational culture that will outlast any single leader.It’s Cortney Nicolato on The Business of Giving.

From the person who co-founded the first nonprofit software company to tackle social problems at scale, Jim Fruchterman returns to share insights from his new book “𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗡𝗼𝗻𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗨𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀.”In this conversation, Jim explains why boring plumbing saves more lives than sexy AI moonshots, and introduces the Better Deal for Data - a new framework launching in 2026 to prevent data colonialism in vulnerable communities. He also makes the case that the current tech recession presents the biggest opportunity in years to recruit disillusioned engineers into meaningful work, and shares his vision that by 2050, technology will finally deliver universal access to quality mental health services globally.It’s Jim Fruchterman on The Business of Giving.

Bob Chapman didn’t set out to write a leadership manual when he transformed Barry-Wehmiller from a traditional manufacturing company into what a world peace negotiator would call “the answer to world peace.” He simply started caring for his 12,000 team members the way he’d want his own children cared for if they worked somewhere else.Ten years after publishing “Everybody Matters,” Chapman has added 90 pages to the expanded anniversary edition, not because the original message changed, but because the evidence became overwhelming. Ninety-five percent of feedback from people learning Truly Human Leadership wasn’t about business metrics - it was about how the skills transformed their marriages, their relationships with their children, and their capacity to care for others at home.In this conversation, Chapman explains why listening without judgment is the greatest of all skills, how the Chapman Foundation has taught human skills to 20,000 people across hospitals, police departments, and school districts, and why he believes education must blend academic skills with human skills if we want to heal the brokenness in our society.It’s Bob Chapman on The Business of Giving.

Scott Brighton returns to The Business of Giving to discuss Bonterra Que, the first truly agentic AI platform designed specifically for nonprofits. Unlike traditional chatbots, Que can actually perform complete jobs for nonprofit staff, from donor segmentation and campaign creation to grant writing. Through January 31st, Bonterra is offering Que at no cost to its customers during the critical year-end giving season. Scott shares how organizations are already seeing 20 to 40 percent lifts in fundraising results and why now is the time for nonprofits to experiment with this emerging technology.

Hala Hanna is the Executive Director of MIT Solve, a platform connecting social impact innovators with the resources they need to scale solutions that close gaps in equity, learning, health, and climate response. Over the past decade, MIT Solve has selected 600 innovators from around the world, collectively impacting 370 million lives. But what sets this work apart is how they do it. With a 94% five-year survival rate for their entrepreneurs compared to 70% at Y Combinator, they have cracked a code that traditional venture and philanthropy often miss. Hala brings a unique perspective shaped by her childhood in war-torn Lebanon, where she learned to hold joy and injustice in the same breath. In this conversation, she reveals why courage matters more than capital, how AI could either amplify inequality or bend toward justice, and what it takes to unlock the potential of entrepreneurs serving the last mile.  It’s Hala Hannah on The Business of Giving.

When Ike Anand flew into Memphis in the summer of 2020—just one of four passengers on an otherwise empty plane, double-masked with a face shield—he was answering what he calls a calling he couldn’t ignore.  After 15 years scaling Expedia’s global network in Seattle, Anand left the tech world to become the seventh CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Now he’s leading the charge on a $12.9 billion strategic plan while reimagining what it means to be a tech-forward nonprofit in an age of viral content and AI-driven personalization.In this conversation, Anand reveals how speed, data, and culture are reshaping one of America’s most beloved charitable institutions. It’s Ike Anand on The Business of Giving.