Break Fake Rules: Change Big Giving For Good

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