Givers, Doers, & Thinkers—A Podcast on Philanthropy and Civil Society

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with William A. Schambra to explore the tension between establishment philanthropy and what he calls “everyday philanthropy”—the grassroots efforts that often go unnoticed but play a vital role in strengthening civil society.

They discuss the influence of progressivism on modern giving and why top-down approaches can miss the real work happening in communities. He makes the case for trust-based philanthropy, local leadership, and a renewed focus on empowering individuals and neighborhoods to drive change from the ground up.

Let’s go!

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Nathan Bond, co-founder of Rifle Paper Company, to explore entrepreneurship, education, and philanthropy. Nathan reflects on how his personal experiences have shaped his approach to giving, the importance of clear criteria in philanthropy, and why investing in local communities remains essential.

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Romanita Hairston, CEO of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, to explore the power and challenges of regional philanthropy. Reflecting on the legacy of Jack Murdock, Romanita shares how the Trust is investing in nonprofits through capacity building, leadership training, and a deeply relational approach to grantmaking. They discuss the shifting landscape of nonprofit funding, the growing pressure on organizations amid increasing demand, and why collaboration and innovation are more important than ever. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Sadie Elliott, Director of the Herzog Foundation, to explore how innovative philanthropy is transforming K–12 Christian education. They discuss the challenges facing Christian school leaders, the importance of treating donors as mission-driven partners, and the measurable impact of strong donor development on long-term sustainability and growth. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Destiny Rojo of the PY Foundation to explore how place-based giving can transform a community. Rooted in the legacy of Peyton Yates, the Foundation is deeply invested in Artesia, New Mexico—supporting everything from education and public art to economic development and nonprofit growth. Destiny shares how local philanthropy strengthens community identity, and why unrestricted and operational funding matters. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Hanna Skandera, President and CEO of the Daniels Fund, to discuss the urgent need for renewed civics education as America approaches its 250th anniversary. Building on the legacy of Bill Daniels, Hanna shares how the Fund is investing in initiatives like the Civics Bee to inspire active citizenship and civic knowledge among young people nationwide.

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Rob Hays—business leader, philanthropist, and nonprofit board member. Rob reflects on the experiences that shaped his resilience in business and his approach to philanthropy.

They also dive into his work with institutions like the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Aquinas Institute, and unpack what boards get right and where they often go wrong.

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Steve Zabilski, president and CEO of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, to explore how investing in fundraising and capacity can transform nonprofits. Drawing on his experience leading St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix, Steve shares how bold bets on development and marketing led to sustained growth for the organization and its programs. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

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Season 9 of Givers, Doers, & Thinkers launches this Wednesday, April 8! 🎉

This season, we’re celebrating the “Givers”—foundation leaders and individual donors who are transforming our country by giving to charities and organizations making a real difference.

Join us as we explore why they give and where they choose to make an impact.

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Eric Cook, president and CEO of the Society for Classical Learning, to discuss the remarkable rise of classical education and its impact on American schooling. Eric unpacks the philosophy behind classical learning—its focus on wisdom, virtue, and human flourishing—and explains why so many families are turning to this timeless approach amid today’s cultural and educational challenges. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer speaks with David Bobb, president of the Bill of Rights Institute, about the pressing need to revitalize civic education in America. Together, they explore how a deeper understanding of American history and civic virtue can strengthen citizenship and civil society. Bobb discusses the Institute’s mission to provide teachers with balanced, high-quality resources that highlight both the triumphs and shortcomings of the American story. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Dr. John Rhee, co-founder of the Hippocratic Society, to explore how the medical profession can recover its moral and spiritual roots. They discuss the challenges facing today’s healthcare professionals—from burnout and loss of meaning to the erosion of moral formation in medical education—and why healing must once again be understood as a deeply moral act. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Peter Murphy, senior advisor at the Invest in Education Foundation, to explore the growing movement for education freedom and school choice in America. Their conversation dives into the origins of Invest in Education, the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new federal legislation—the Educational Choice for Children Act—that introduces a tax credit to encourage donations to scholarship-granting organizations. 

Jeremy and Peter discuss how this landmark policy could reshape the education landscape, from empowering parents and students with more options to challenging the tradi...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with Richard Avramenko (Arizona State University), Justin Dyer (University of Texas at Austin), and Josh Dunn (University of Tennessee)—three professors leading new civic education initiatives at major public universities. They discuss the rise of civic schools, the challenges of ideological homogeneity in higher education, and why students are increasingly drawn to serious conversations about American civics, political thought, and citizenship.

Let’s go! 

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer talks with Andrew Laubacher about the silent epidemic of digital addiction and what it’s doing to our mental health—especially among young people. Andrew shares his journey from social media burnout to working for Humanality, a movement helping people reclaim their lives from their screens. They dig into the psychology behind smartphone dependency, the launch of Humanality clubs on college campuses, and practical ways to form healthier relationships with technology. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.c...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer talks with Pastor Corey Brooks about his mission to transform one of Chicago’s most underserved neighborhoods through Project Hood. From launching a leadership and economic opportunity center to building a classical Christian school, Pastor Brooks shares how education, job training, and conservative values can drive lasting community change. They discuss what it means to promote self-reliance in a culture of dependency and why mindset shifts—not just resources—are key to real transformation.

Let’s go! 

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more mone...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Cary Sanders of JumpStart and Ralph May of St. Vincent de Paul in Boise to talk about what it really takes to break the cycle of incarceration. They share personal stories of re-entry, the challenges returning citizens face, and how their organizations are building paths to rehabilitation through community support, employment, and addiction recovery. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer talks with Joel Penton about how LifeWise Academy brings Bible education to public school students—legally—during school hours. They dive into the 1952 Supreme Court decision that makes it possible, the role of local communities in launching programs, and how a small nonprofit exploded from 2 schools to over 1,100 in just a few short years. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer speaks with Pano Kanelos about why he launched the University of Austin (UATX), what’s broken in American higher education, how UATX blends liberal arts with real-world skills, and why academic freedom needs defending. 

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Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

Season 8 of Givers, Doers, & Thinkers is here! This special three-part season dives deep into the past, present, and future of American exceptionalism as we look ahead to America’s 250th birthday.

This season, we're spotlighting "Doers"—the bold leaders and innovative organizations tackling some of the country’s biggest challenges: from higher education and prison reform to religious liberty and the growing crisis of social media addiction.

Join us as we explore how these trailblazers are strengthening civil society and advancing human flourishing in America.

Let’s go! 

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Jeremy speaks with Patrick Deneen about the ambiguities inherent in the American founding, the differences between progressive liberalism, classical liberalism, Marxism, and conservatism, and how our elites mask their eliteness.

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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Jeremy speaks with Wendy Wang about the evolving state of marriage and family in America as we approach the semiquincentennial, what the lack of good jobs for men is doing to the marriage market, and, most alarmingly, what a shockingly high percentage of Gen-Zers are looking forward to an AI boyfriend or girlfriend.

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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Jeremy speaks with Aaron Renn about his influential book, Life in the Negative World. They speak about his framework for understanding the three eras in which American Evangelicals have found themselves in the post-war context—the positive world, the neutral world, and the negative world—and we talk about the decline of institutions, Evangelical strategies for surviving and flourishing in the negative world, and much more.

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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Jeremy speaks with Joshua Hochschild about the principle of subsidiarity, the idea of the order of charity, and the challenges presented by contemporary technology.

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy is joined by political scientist and philanthropic leader James Piereson, who discusses his time at the helm of the Olin Foundation and William E. Simon Foundation. They also discuss the impact of conservative philanthropy since Reagan, the successes and missteps of conservative philanthropy during that time, what the future holds for the conservative movement, and what Trump’s ultimate influence will be. 

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/.

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Center for Civil Society's YouTube Cha...

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy is joined by one of America’s foremost thinkers on philanthropy, Indiana University’s Les Lenkowsky, about the Jewish philanthropic tradition in America. They highlight, in particular, Julius Rosenwald, who funded over 5,000 schools for African Americans in the Deep South in the first half of the 20th century. They also discuss the impact of the Trump administration on contemporary philanthropy and touch on the troubling rise of anti-Semitism. 

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This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy is joined by historian John Pinheiro to discuss the negative role philanthropy has sometimes played in American history. They discuss the “second great awakening,” anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic prejudice, the popularity of eugenics, how experts have turned apocalyptic, and the harm caused by even a well-intentioned technocratic mindset.

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy interviews historian Wilfred McClay about his best-selling book Land of Hope, which offers a more balanced view of American history than the hypercritical perspective popular today. Wilfred expands on the importance of teaching history accessibly and free of academic jargon, the selective application of criticism to historical figures, what the adoption of technology says about the adaptability of American culture, the “unsettlement of Europe,” and his experiences as a member of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission and the challenges it has faced.

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

The seventh season of the Givers, Doers, & Thinkers podcast is here! In this special three-part season, we’ll explore the past, present, and future of American exceptionalism as we approach America’s 250th birthday. 

In this season, we will explore how American civil society came about, what challenges threaten its flourishing, and what the future promises for our great country. 

To end the sixth season of Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, we are opening the archive to share three particularly relevant episodes. The third episode features Patrick Deneen. 

Patrick Deneen, author of Why Liberalism Failed, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the David A. Potenziani Memorial College at the University of Notre Dame. Patrick specializes in the history of political thought, American political thought, religion and politics, and literature and politics.

Jeremy and Patrick dig into why liberalism struggles to sustain itself, today's threat of a new kind of totalitarianism, and the future of A...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, we are opening the archive to share three particularly relevant episodes. The second episode features Timothy P. Carney.

Timothy P. Carney is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on economic competition, cronyism, civil society, localism, and religion in America. He is also the a senior columnist at the Washington Examiner.

Jeremy sits down with Jeremy asks about Timothy’s latest book, “Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse,” how social capital patterns predict voting patterns—including fun insights on the midweste...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, we are opening the archive to share three particularly relevant episodes. The first episode features social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who shares his thoughts on the moral intuitions and untruths that separate us but perhaps don't need to.

Jonathan Haidt is a You might know him from his New York Times bestseller, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure.  He is also a pr...

This week on Givers, Does, & Thinkers, Jeremy talks with Amy Sherman about how people of faith can go beyond politics to seek good for their communities. 

Amy Sherman is the director of the Sagamore Institute's Center on Faith in Communities. She obtained her PhD in international economic development from the University of Virginia and is the author of Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society. 

During this episode, Amy challenges believers to reconsider the role of churches in society, focusing on how they can extend their influence beyond their walls to...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with Matthew Crawford about the rise of the Humanitarian Party and what it means for civil society and self-governance.

Matthew Crawford is the author of Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction, and the New York Times best seller Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. He has also written several highly penetrating essays and articles, including "The Workings...

This week of Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy sits down with Dr. Russell James to unveil why donors give.  

Russell James, J.D., Ph.D., CFP® is a professor of the CH Foundation Chair of Personal Financial Planning and Charitable Giving Program Director at Texas Tech University’s School of Financial Planning. Before joining Texas Tech University, Dr. James was the Director of Planned Giving for Central Christian College in Moberly, Missouri, and later served as president of the college. His research has been quoted numerous times by various news outlets, including The Economist, The New York...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy speaks with innovator and educator Jeff Sandefer about entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and education. 

Jeff Sandefer founded Sandefer Offshore and Sandefer Capital Partners, both of which performed exceedingly well, the former generating $500 million in profits over a five-year period, before going on to found the Acton School of Business and Acton Academy. Jeff has been a longtime board member of National Review , the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Philanthropy Roundtable, and the Harvard Business School. He belongs to the Mont Pelerin Society and is one of the youngest people ever e...

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy chats with Christie Herrera about the threats facing the American charitable sector and what we might do to protect it.

Christie Herrera is President and CEO of the Philanthropy Roundtable. At the Roundtable, Christie works with her team to foster excellence in philanthropy, protect philanthropic freedom, and help donors advance liberty, opportunity, and personal responsibility. Christie specializes in turning ideas into action by working nationwide with elected officials, nonprofit policy organizations, and coalition partners. She has testified before Congress and legislative committees in 27 states, and her policy work...

Today on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy speaks with Permanent Equity CEO Brent Beshore about what's wrong with private equity, what good organizations have in common, and why small private companies matter. 

Brent Beshore founded Permanent Equity in 2007 and is the author of The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers. He is originally from Joplin, Missouri, but now lives in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife, Dr. Erica Beshore, and three daughters. 

What is private equity, and how does it work? Jeremy and Brent delve into the basics before exploring what sets a...