Break Fake Rules: Change Big Giving For Good

What will it take for philanthropy to unlock the extraordinary potential of 501(c)(4)s? In this episode, co-hosts Glen Galaich and Ralph Lewin, Executive Director of the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund, challenge the fake rules telling philanthropy to stay neutral, avoid risk, stick to funding 501(c)(3)s, and keep political work at arm’s length.
They’re joined by Leah Greenberg, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Indivisible, a nationwide movement of everyday people organizing across all 50 states. Leah pulls back the curtain on what happens after the protest: local organizing, voter registration, advocacy, mutual aid, relationship-building, and the hard work of turning moments of public anger into sustained political participation. She also challenges funders to stop treating 501(c)(3) status as a moral status and to take seriously what well-resourced 501(c)(4) work can unlock. Together, Leah, Ralph, and Glen pose a sharper question to philanthropy: if the goal is real democratic change, are funders willing to back the people actually organizing to win?
💡Leah Greenberg: “Anybody who's frustrated with, “why am I not unlocking the impact that I should have with the amount of resources that I am putting in,” should really think about whether they're actually putting their resources in in a way that allows us to tap into that impact.”
💡Ralph Lewin: “Organized people shift what's possible, and then institutions and politicians follow.”
Learn more and get involved with Indivisible. Check out its Hands Off Our Vote movement, supporting efforts to ensure eligible voters can cast their ballots and have those ballots counted.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Co-Hosts: Ralph Lewin & Glen Galaich

Guest: Leah Greenberg
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly
Video Editing: Edith Belmont
Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

Philanthropy needs a reboot. Youth are nearly non-existent in the rooms where decisions are made about where charitable dollars flow. So what changes when we bring in young people to help direct these dollars?
In this episode, co-hosts, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and Malila Becton-Consuegra, Stupski’s Bay Area Postsecondary Success Program Officer, welcome two young leaders in philanthropy, Gilbert Murillo and Godswill Uyong, for a conversation about youth voice, power, and who gets to decide where dollars go. Part case study, part vision for the future, they use Stupski’s six-year internship program as an example of how philanthropy can give young people real grantmaking responsibility, space to question established practices, and access to a field whose decisions directly affect their communities.
Gilbert and Godswill share their perspectives on philanthropy and what they learned from interviewing nonprofit leaders about Stupski’s spend down. They challenge the idea that foundations should preserve wealth in perpetuity, question why the 5% payout minimum so often becomes a ceiling, and call on philanthropy to move beyond transactional giving. Glen and Malila also consider how foundations can teach young people about the sector without training away the fresh perspectives that make their participation so valuable.
At the heart of the conversation is a call to recognize youth leadership as essential to better decision-making and bring relationship, accountability, and love back into philanthropy.
💡Gilbert Murillo: “The rules aren't fake. They are designed the way they're designed, and it's been like that for 400 plus years already.”
💡Godswill Uyong: “When youth help drive grant making, factually, there's more collective knowledge and experience being used to make decisions.”
Learn more about California Youth Power Fund, its youth leadership work co-led with Youth Organize! California (YO! Cali), and its partnership with Northern California Grantmakers.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Co-Hosts: Glen Galaich & Malia Becton Consuegra

Guests: Gilbert Murillo and Godswill Uyong
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly & Gary Community Ventures
Video Editing: Edith Belmont
Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What could we change if we broke out of boom-and-bust election-cycle funding to support long-term generational transformation? In this episode, Glen and co-host Ari Datta, Stupski Foundation’s Food Justice Program Manager, sit down with Emily Lee, executive director and co-founder of Seed the Vote Action, for a conversation about voter organizing, political power, and the fake rules that keep philanthropy funding too little, too late. Emily has dedicated her career to grassroots organizing, multiracial coalition building, and growing people-powered political movements. Through Seed the Vote Action, she mobilizes volunteers in battleground states while building lasting political power in working-class communities and communities of color.
Emily challenges funders to move beyond short-term grant cycles and invest in the relationships, organizing, and risk-taking required to meet this moment. At the heart of the conversation is a clear call to philanthropy: stop funding like this is a two-year fight, and start funding like democracy depends on what we build for generations.
💡Ari Datta: “Get really clear on what fake rules you're operating with, and those will be rules set by your board, by internal culture, by your mindset or your belief system, and get really clear on what the real rules are.”
💡Emily Lee: “Don't fund for the grant cycle, fund for the generational fight.”
Learn more about Seed the Vote and support its work to build people-powered movements through voter organizing, deep canvassing, and long-term community power.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Co-Hosts: Ari Datta & Glen Galaich

Guest: Emily Lee
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly
Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What changes when we embrace impermanence instead of trying to live forever?
In this episode, Glen Galaich sits down with Santhosh Ramdoss, president and CEO of Gary Community Ventures, for a conversation about impermanence and legacy. Guided by Gary’s commitment to move all its assets into the community by 2035, Santhosh debunks the fake rule that philanthropic impact depends on institutional permanence. He invites the sector to imagine a legacy rooted in stronger systems, durable public funding, and the beauty, love, and care we leave behind. In a Break Fake Rules exclusive, Santhosh rolls out a new game, The Philanthropy Challenge, that funders can play to respond to urgent crises and see where philanthropic funds can have the greatest impact.
At the heart of the conversation is a more expansive question for wealth holders and foundation leaders: what if ending an institution is not a loss, but a strategic opening? And what becomes possible when philanthropy brings more joy, wonder, and imagination into the work of building a world that can outlast any one foundation?
💡Santhoush Ramdoss: “I think one of the practices that philanthropy does need a lot more of is joy and wonder. I think we've lost our capacity to see what's possible, and sometimes the moment of being in that wondrous possibility of what systems could be is lost.”
Learn more about Gary Community Ventures and play The Philanthropy Challenge for yourself!
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Host: Glen Galaich

Guest: Santhosh Ramdoss
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly & Gary Community Ventures
Video Editing: Edith Belmont
Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when philanthropy’s sharpest critique comes from inside the sector itself? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and co-host Eric Brown sit down with Gara LaMarche - longtime philanthropic leader, democracy advocate, and one of the OG fake rule breakers. Gara worked with George Soros at Open Society Institute, and Chuck Feeney at The Atlantic Philanthropies, and famously served as the “prosecutor” where he put philanthropy on trial in a 2011 mock trial before thousands of foundation leaders.
Gara takes on the fake rule that people inside philanthropy are not supposed to criticize it, arguing that philanthropy should release its obsession with ego and that foundations should treat their resources as a public trust. Along the way, he digs into investing in power building, questions philanthropy’s instinct to be overly cautious, and calls on foundation leaders to use their influence to support communities, even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient.
💡 Gara LaMarche: If you can't speak out about authoritarianism or attacks on the very communities that you're purporting to protect, if not now, when?
Learn more about Gara LaMarche and his work advancing philanthropy, democracy, human rights, and social justice. Watch Gara put philanthropy on trial.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Co-Hosts: Eric Brown & Glen Galaich

Guest: Gara LaMarche
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly
Video Editor: Edith Belmont
Graphic Design: Middle MGMT