Impact investing has grown exponentially over the past 20 years. How is the field evolving? What are the new approaches and strategies that are making impact investing more accessible and appealing to funders of all sizes? How can the curious get started? In this episode — the first of season six of Giving With Impact — host Barbara Wheeler-Bride talks with Megan Kashner from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management about the growth of impact investing, critiques levied at the field, and how to tell if an investment is actually having an impact. Giving With Impact is developed with the support of DAFgiving360®.

Giving With Impact is back with season six! Join us each week starting Monday, October 5 for new and insightful interviews with leaders from across the philanthropic ecosystem about what's at the heart of achieving more effective philanthropy. This season will cover topics that are top of mind for donors, philanthropists, nonprofit leaders, advisors, and other social innovators. Giving With Impact is produced by Stanford Social Innovation Review with support from DAFGiving360.

Today we're going to talk about family philanthropy, how families can manage conflict when it arises, and strategies for preparing a new generation of philanthropists to take the lead at family funds. We have three guests who have a vast amount of experience with family philanthropy across generations.

More and more people are displaced by droughts, storms, and floods that are exacerbated by a warming planet. And everyone from farmers to workers to the elderly are at greater risk when temperatures soar. In this episode, we’ll talk to two nonprofits on the front lines of mitigating the effects of climate change, and address more broadly an idea in climate philanthropy that supporting local leadership and local wisdom is the most just and most effective way to save and heal the planet.

Participants:Host: Barbara Wheeler-Bride, Editor, Stanford Social Innovation ReviewKyle Endres, Executive Director of We Don’t Waste, a food recovery organization working with communities across the Denver Metro region Vince Hall, Chief Government Relations Officer at Feeding AmericaAlisia Robin, Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Non-profit Outreach at DAFGiving360

In today’s episode, we’ll discuss St. Jude Global, an innovative endeavor at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to take lifesaving cancer treatments to children around the world. With the launch of St. Jude Global, the research hospital has set an ambitious goal to cure at least 60% of children with the most common cancers worldwide by 2030. By sharing research and knowledge globally, St. Jude and its network of researchers and institutions seek to amplify their nonprofit social impact on a global scale. Their global approach is focused on capacity building and partnership, two ideas that have increasingly been part of conversations about effective philanthropy.

In this episode, we’re going to share a conversation about the impact of elections on charitable giving, and how non-profits can engage in advocacy for policies that are crucial to the communities they serve.

Today, we’re going to talk about the impact of recent cuts to foreign aid, and how donors can step in to fill the funding gap. Humanitarian aid plays a critical role in saving lives and alleviating suffering around the world. What do these cuts mean to the people in communities facing ongoing crises, such as war and climate disaster? How do non-profits and NGOs pick up the pieces and continue to provide things, like lifesaving medical treatments, preventative measures to protect against disease outbreaks or programs for things like education, maternal and child health, and nutrition?

In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about funding and supporting the arts, and art education. In recent years, many school districts across the United States have made the difficult decision to cut arts programs, including drama, music, and visual arts. Today, we’ll talk about the value of funding arts education in our public schools, as well as in communities outside the formal education system where the value of experiences with art are helping develop life skills, social and emotional skills, civic engagement, and more.

Today, we are discussing social impact, from defining what impact means to the how and why behind it. Our guests will share how they think about impact in the work that they do, and the processes they use to measure impact and how those approaches have changed over time.