Redefining Educational Equity: Neeru Khosla on Philanthropy and the Future of Learning
“It is very hard to change systems, but you must keep trying, and do so alongside people who are equally, if not more, committed to making change in whatever issue you care about. There is no one way to do good in the world.” -Neeru Khosla Neeru Khosla is the...
Empowering the Next Generation: A Conversation with President Levin and Mellody Hobson on Financial Literacy and Leadership
“Learning to make financial decisions is a path to greater confidence and freedom, and gives young people in particular more autonomy and agency over their life.” -President Jonathan Levin The 2025 Philanthropy Innovation Summit hosted by the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), brought together more than 200...
2025 Philanthropy Innovation Summit: Session Rapid Recaps
The 2025 Philanthropy Innovation Summit, a signature event of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS), brought together over 200 philanthropic leaders globally to explore new strategies and approaches to giving and impact. We were honored to welcome a dynamic lineup of plenary speakers including Alice Waters, Cari...
The Antidote to Polarization
My wife Kathleen and I recently hosted a salon dinner for a small but diverse group of Summit community members at our home in San Francisco for a conversation with Robb Willer, Stanford PACS Faculty Co-Director and Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab. Robb’s recent groundbreaking work on...
Food – and a New Generation of Leaders – Could Change the World
In my line of work, feeding people around the world, you cannot ignore the fact that our global food systems are broken. Rampant hunger and poverty, deteriorating public health and nutrition, a rising epidemic of diet-related diseases, and systemic inequities that put these problems on the shoulders of those who’ve...
How Philanthropy is Driving Innovation in Psychedelics and Mental Health, and Why Policy Must Now Follow
As a child of the 80s who grew up in the “just say no to drugs” era – and actually listened to Nancy Reagan! – never could I have imagined that I would be interviewing two of my health heroes about psychedelics. And yet as I sat on stage with Michael Pollan...
The Faults in Our Macro Models, and How to Fix Them
During a breakout session at the latest Stanford PACS Philanthropy Innovation Summit, Mike Kubzansky shared a fact that elicited gasps in the room: The Penn Wharton Budget Model, one of the leading tools designed to provide policymakers with accurate analyses of the fiscal impact of various public policies, is based...
The Biggest Driver of Mass Incarceration? Maybe Mass Incarceration
Three months ago during a PACS summit panel on “Women, Girls, and Mass Incarceration” that I co-led with Lateefah Simon, I was asked to enumerate the drivers of our country’s explosive 700% rise in female incarceration between 1979 and 2019 – a rate of growth twice as high as that...
Why We Need White People Talking about Race
At this year’s Stanford PACS Philanthropy Innovation Summit, I had the opportunity to share the stage with Darren Walker, head of the Ford Foundation, to talk about what philanthropy can do to advance racial equity. I respect and admire Darren deeply. He’s one of the preeminent leaders in philanthropy and...
Homelessness in San Francisco is Visible, Tragic, and Solvable
Lessons from Tipping Point’s Historic Five-Year Investment in Addressing Chronic Homelessness San Francisco is known for many things. Beautiful scenery, diversity of its people, world-class food, groundbreaking ideas, and increasingly, homelessness. Whether you are a long-time resident or a tourist here for a few days, the suffering we see on...