Giving Compass' Take:

• In this episode of Giving With Impact, Jeff Raikes, Fred Kaynor, and Michael Gordon Voss discuss how to achieve more effective individual and corporate philanthropy. 

• Raikes mentions that only 32 percent of philanthropists are doing substantive research, despite the majority of them wanting to make an impact. How are you using research to inform your giving practices? 

• Read about the principles and practices of impact-driven philanthropy.

In this episode of Giving With Impact, an original podcast series from Stanford Social Innovation Review developed with the support of Schwab Charitable, host and SSIR publisher Michael Gordon Voss speaks about the redefinition of philanthropy and social innovation with Jeff Raikes, cofounder of the Raikes Foundation, and Fred Kaynor, vice president of business development and marketing at Schwab Charitable. The full transcript of the episode can be read below.

[MICHAEL VOSS] Welcome to Giving with Impact, an original podcast series from Stanford Social Innovation Review developed with the support of Schwab Charitable. In this series, we hope to create a collaborative space for leading voices from across the philanthropic ecosystem to engage in both aspirational and practical conversations around relevant topics at the heart of achieving more effective philanthropy.

In recent years, the landscape of modern philanthropy, whether on an individual or corporate level, has changed dramatically. It is no longer just the domain of social enterprises. Large for-profit corporations are embracing a shared-value approach to their businesses, in addition to their existing corporate social responsibility efforts. While individual donors are still responsible for the largest portion of total US philanthropic dollars, they are becoming more sophisticated in their approach to philanthropy, focusing much more on valuation impact and outcomes than in the past.

What is the role of philanthropy today? And what can we as a philanthropic community be doing better to support the nonprofits with which we work? How are philanthropy and social innovation being redefined in an era of increasing socially responsible businesses? How can we engage more individuals in the process of effective giving, with an eye toward impact? And perhaps, most importantly, how do we do this with an equity lens that not only celebrates and respects diverse perspective, but also empowers those closest to these issues in helping to co-create solutions?

[JEFF RAIKES] Well, first, let me say thank you very much, Michael and Fred, for allowing me to join you in this discussion.

Now, let me address some of the things that I think could be better. As I mentioned, the framework is the heart and the mind. And the research would show that while 85 percent of philanthropists would say they want to have great impact, only about 32 percent are doing any substantive research, and only about 9 percent are doing comparative benchmarking. So I think that is one signal as to what we need to do to improve in order to have greater impact.

So let me add a couple of other pillars that I think should be there. We’ve talked about give big, we’ve talked about give now. I mentioned the research showing that we’re not doing enough investigation in where our dollars can make a difference, and so I would say a third pillar is to give smart. And then a fourth pillar is to give to address inequity.

And this is not easy. One of the things that we’ve done at the Raikes Foundation is funded the creation of givingcompass.org. We did that with the support of Schwab Charitable and other partners. And what givingcompass.org does is it’s a web platform to help philanthropists get connected with the resources that will help them achieve their aspirations for greater impact.

[MV] So let me… Fred, let me turn to you for a moment because Jeff just shared some important insights with regards to what donors could be doing, including the idea of giving smart and focusing on impact. How do these ideas align with what you’re seeing among Schwab Charitable donors?

[FRED KAYNOR] Thank you, Michael. And it’s also a pleasure to be here with you and Jeff. We are committed to providing resources of varying degrees to our individual donors in a way that enables them, empowers them to give with maximum impact. And what we define as maximum impact is twofold. It’s maximum impact in terms of the resources that they donate and its maximum impact, ultimately, with the charities and the causes they choose to support. We are seeing donors today taking a much more deliberate, thoughtful, strategic approach to their philanthropy, much less of a transactional one, where they would simply identify a charity that they like and write a check and be done with it.

Read the full article about social change through individual and corporate philanthropy at Stanford Social Innovation Review.