The Giving Done Right Podcast with Phil Buchanan

What Does a Trump Victory Mean for Nonprofits and Donors Focused on Democracy? With Stephen Heintz

The Giving Done Right Podcast with Phil Buchanan

Show Notes

Stephen Heintz, president and CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, joins Phil and Grace to discuss the results of the 2024 presidential election, whether there is merit to the argument of journalist Ezra Klein and others that certain nonprofit organizations are having an outsized impact on the Democratic party, the role of nonprofits in a functioning democracy, and what it will take to rebuild trust across ideological divides. Stephen offers insight into the long-term, community-based work he believes will help nurture civic engagement and bolster democracy, suggesting both where donors can give as well as actions they can take. He also shares the story behind the Rockefeller Brothers Fund decision to be a leader in the movement to divest from fossil fuels, and the unexpected ripple effects that created.

Additional Resources When Will Democrats Learn to Say No? by Adam Jentleson in the New York Times The End of the Obama Coalition - Michael Lind on The Ezra Klein Show “The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite” by Michael Lind Ezra Klein on Where Democrats Go From Here - Pod Save America Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century American Academy of Arts and Sciences Brennan Center for Justice Dēmos Eric Liu on Revitalizing Faith in American Democracy - The Giving Done Right Podcast Citizen University Habits of the Heart and Mind: How to Fortify Civic Culture Trust for Civic Life

More from The Giving Done Right Podcast with Phil Buchanan

Oct 22, 2026

Daniel Stid, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of the newsletter The Art of Association and host of a podcast by the same name, shares his provocative argument that large-scale philanthropic investment in national policy advocacy has, over time, deepened American polarization rather than healed it. Stid, who spent nearly a decade leading the Hewlett Foundation's U.S. Democracy Program, explains why he believes funders on the left and right have increasingly bankrolled advocates clustered at ideological poles, making it harder for either political party to build governing majorities near the center where most Americans actually sit.

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Phil sits down with Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, for a wide-ranging conversation on what this moment of backlash demands of individual and institutional donors. Stevenson places the current retreat from racial equity commitments within a much longer arc: the recurring pattern stretching from Reconstruction through Jim Crow to today, in which periods of racial justice progress in America are met by a deliberate counter-narrative, and progress stalls until a new narrative takes hold.

Oct 8, 2026

With the midterm elections just weeks away, Phil talks with Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and its Education Fund, about what donors and foundations concerned about the state of American democracy can do right now, and why the philanthropic response has so far fallen short. Maya shares findings from the Leadership Conference's landscape mapping of its coalition, which found that nearly half of the organizations surveyed are doing voter protection and engagement work on a quarter or less of the budget they say they need.

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Phil Buchanan is joined by Elisha Smith Arrillaga, CEP's Vice President of Research, as co-host for a conversation focused on some of philanthropy's oldest tensions: who should decide how charitable dollars get spent and how to balance short-term needs with the long view? Their guests, Glen Galaich, CEO of the Stupski Foundation, and Jamie Allison, Executive Director of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, are usually the ones asking the questions, as frequent co-hosts on Glen’s podcast, Break Fake Rules.

Sep 24, 2026

As nonprofits face sharply increased demand, deep federal funding cuts, and a fundraising climate unlike anything in recent memory, Lysa Ratliff, CEO of KABOOM!, joins Phil Buchanan for an unusually candid conversation about what it takes to lead right now, and why she refuses to soften the truth to make anyone comfortable.

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