A podcast about courage in philanthropy - what it looks like, why it matters, and how we grow it. This series shines a light on leaders who are working at the edge of change, disrupting entrenched power dynamics, and seeding new collaborations in service of justice-rooted, values-driven philanthropy. It also challenges philanthropy’s outdated models of risk and pace, pushing the field to move from slow strategy to bold action.
A podcast about courage in philanthropy - what it looks like, why it matters, and how we grow it. This series shines a light on leaders who are working at the edge of change, disrupting entrenched power dynamics, and seeding new collaborations in service of justice-rooted, values-driven philanthropy. It also challenges philanthropy’s outdated models of risk and pace, pushing the field to move from slow strategy to bold action.
What if everything you've been told about philanthropy is actually designed to preserve inequality?
Dimple Abichandani spent 20 years inside the sector and she's here to tell you how it really works. This conversation will change how you see wealth, power, and who gets to decide what justice looks like.
In this episode of Funding Bravely, host Marvin Smith sits down with Dimple Abichandani, philanthropic leader, lawyer, and author of A New Era of Philanthropy to unpack a question that's been haunting the sector: Can philanthropy actually meet this moment?
Dimple takes us back to her college days at UT Austin, where she learned what courage really costs. Then she pulls back the curtain on 140 years of "gilded philanthropy," a system designed not to solve problems, but to cover them up.
From Andrew Carnegie's legacy to today's $1.9 trillion sitting in endowments, this conversation exposes:
- Why spending only 5% annually preserves the status quo
- How tech billionaires use foundations to whitewash harm
- What "transformative alchemy" looks like when you mix capital with trust, imagination, and community voice
- Practices that actually redistribute power (not just resources)
This isn't about tweaking the system. It's about transforming wealth into justice.