Are We Listening? Redefining ‘Youth Empowerment’
On International Youth Day, lessons from Washington’s youth homelessness success reveal why investing in young people is essential to our future. Gen Z is often misunderstood. Recent research shows that Gen Z Americans are more likely than all other generations to say that the country is on the wrong track,...
Whatever your first issue is, this should be your second: The rationale for funding local news
In the philanthropic sector, we’re used to funding public goods like emergency response, education, government accountability and the arts. What many of us have failed to see, however, is the vital role local news plays in supporting these public goods – and serving as its own public good, something many...
How Philanthropy Can Help Tackle the Worst-Case Climate Change Scenarios
About five years ago, stuck at home during the pandemic, I began researching what I could personally do to help address climate change. There were and are many ways to help reduce emissions, which we need to do faster and better. But after a career in Silicon Valley focusing on...
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...