Giving Ventures

As the landscape of nonprofits continues to grow, trying to stay current on all the good work going on can be overwhelming--especially if you target your support to efforts that help reduce government's size and people's dependence on it. Giving Ventures is designed to help charitable givers discover new opportunities to change the world for the better. Twice a month, the Giving Ventures podcast will highlight several non-profit efforts, initiatives, and projects that leverage private philanthropy to solve public problems. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Giving Ventures is a society podcast hosted by DonorsTrust, with 120 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

DonorsTrust hosts Giving Ventures, a society show with 120 episodes published.

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  Giving Ventures

  Ep. 118 - Navigating Family Dynamics While Protecting Donor Intent

  Sep 29, 202647 min

  The legendary businessman and philanthropist Ed Snider was a titan of Philadelphia sports. He was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame, owned Philadelphia's NBA team, the 76ers, and even ran the Philadelphia Eagles NFL team back in the 1960s. But Ed's philanthropic legacy is just as illustrious. He helped found the Ayn Rand Institute, created the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets at his alma mater the University of Maryland, and established a charitable family foundation to involve his six children in his philanthropic endeavors. Ed's son Craig joins Peter on this episode of Giving Ventures to discuss his father's giving, the importance of donor intent, and the complexities that come with charitable giving in a large family. Craig served as executive director of the Snider Family Foundation.

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  Giving Ventures

  Ep. 116 - Do Politicians Even Listen to Think Tanks?

  Aug 25, 202650 min

  Nonprofit think tanks conduct research, prepare policy reports, and hold briefings for lawmakers. But does anyone in the halls of power really care? That's the question that guides this conversation with Scott Centorino. Scott previously served as President Trump's Special Assistant for Domestic Policy in the White House and as a senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank. His experiences give him special insight into what makes a think tank effective and how donors should evaluate their success.

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  Giving Ventures

  Ep. 115 - The Mental Health Foundations of Freedom

  Aug 11, 202646 min

  John Adams famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Perhaps he should have included "a mentally healthy people." In recent years, Americans have become more willing to discuss mental health and seek professional help for anxiety, depression, and other maladies. But this commendable development has had side effects: self-fulfilling self-diagnoses, social media doom scrolling, and a decline in the feeling of agency. As a result, Americans increasingly believe improving their own lives is beyond their control and look to government for help. Clay Routledge is a research psychologist and Executive Vice President of the Archbridge Institute. In this episode of Giving Ventures, he breaks down the latest mental health trends, charts a course for improved mental health, and explains the dangers a mentally unwell population poses for freedom.

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  Giving Ventures

  Ep. 114 - The State of American Philanthropy

  Jul 28, 202639 min

  Americans are known to be the most generous people in the world, giving to charitable causes at rates that far outstrip our peers in other nations. In 2025, giving totaled more than $600 billion. And that number is driven primarily by individuals. At the same time, federal and state-level laws and regulations sometimes disincentivize philanthropy. Attempts to expose the names of anonymous donors, weaponize the IRS against nonprofits for perceived political bias, and add new strictures around giving threaten to undermine America's privately funded civil society. This episode of Giving Ventures explores the latest charitable giving statistics from Giving USA as well as a new report, the Free to Give Index, a recent publication of the Philanthropy Roundtable. Claudia Cummings serves as senior vice president of public affairs at Philanthropy Roundtable, where her bird's-eye view of the philanthropic landscape gives her a unique perspective to break down the new Giving USA numbers. Matthew Mitchell is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author with Jack Salmon of the Free to Give Index, which draws on the methods of Fraser's often-cited Economic Freedom Indices.

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  Giving Ventures

  Ep. 113 - Bridging Theory and Practice for Long-Run Impact

  Jul 14, 202643 min

  The work of preserving, cultivating, and advancing liberty is a long-term game. Fads come and go, but the principles underlying a free society are fixed. And for decades, one of the shining stars in the constellation of liberty has been the Mercatus Center. Mercatus was founded in 1980 and has grown into a talent cultivator, idea incubator, policy influencer, and all around force for free-market ideas. Its aim is to bridge the gap between ideas and real-world problems while investing in the long-term infrastructure for liberty. In fact, Mercatus does so much and does it so effectively, the organization can be tricky to pin down in your mind. On this episode of Giving Ventures, Mercatus Center Executive Director Ben Klutsey sits down with Peter to explore the history, vision, and scope of Mercatus.

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