GDT Podcast / Episode 42Philanthropy Daily

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy is joined by leading philanthropy scholar Les Lenkowsky to talk about the current state of giving in this country and what lies ahead for philanthropy.

Leslie Lenkowsky is a leading scholar on philanthropy and has been a faculty member of Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Policy since 2004, and, for five years, was the director of Graduate Programs at IU’s Center on Philanthropy in Indianapolis. From 2001 to 2004, he was appointed by the Bush Administration as CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Among his other positions, he served as president of the Hudson Institute (’90–’97), president of the Institute for Educational Affairs, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University, and director of the Philanthropy Roundtable. His writing has appeared in such publications as Commentary, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, The Public Interest, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the Indianapolis Business Journal.

During this conversation, Les shares where he thinks giving is headed in America and trends worthy of note. Is the decline of churchgoers the reason behind the decline in household giving? Jeremy and Les discuss the politicization of philanthropy, donor privacy, the origins of the ACE Act, and whether tax rates influence charity. To close, we hear the oft-forgotten story of Julius Rosenwald, one of the most impactful civil rights philanthropists of the early twentieth century. 

You can find Givers, Doers, & Thinkers here at Philanthropy Daily, and at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Buzzsprout, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, questions, and recommendations for the podcast! You can shoot Katie Janus, GDT’s producer, an email anytime!