In recent years, the landscape of free speech on college campuses has become a battleground, with incidents of censorship and cancel culture making headlines. Yet, out of this challenge, a new wave of hope is rising—one led by passionate alumni who are taking action to restore open discourse.

This episode features three leaders from organizations working tirelessly to promote free speech: Charles Mitchell from the Open Discourse Coalition, Todd Rulon-Miller from Princetonians for Free Speech, and Peter Bonilla from the MIT Free Speech Alliance. Each brings a unique perspective and strategy to this shared mission, showcasing how alumni can be pivotal in reshaping the academic environment.

Affordable housing is a persistent challenge in American politics. Bad public policy leads to artificial housing supply restrictions which causes prices to rise. But stimulating housing supply to bring costs down is a thorny issue.

The latest episode of Giving Ventures brings together Sonja Trauss from Yes in My Backyard and Charles Gardner from the Mercatus Center to explore how grassroots advocacy and deregulation can make housing more abundant and more affordable. Sonja is the Founder and Executive Director of Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY), a grassroots organization that aims to address the housing shortage by advocating for policies that promote affordable housing. Charles is a Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, where he explores housing policy, zoning, and land use. He brings a legal background and experience as an elected official in Connecticut to his work on housing policy.

From the challenges posed by technology use to political biases creeping into the therapist’s office, America is experiencing something of a mental health crisis. To help address this critical issue, the Philanthropy Roundtable recently compiled a Mental Health Playbook that provides philanthropists with an introduction to the most effective organizations working to solve this crisis while remaining faithful to the principles of liberty, opportunity, and personal responsibility. As the Roundtable explained in a recent article, private philanthropy is “essential to confronting our nation’s mental health crisis” because “it’s flexible and nimble, allowing the most effective, unique approaches to emerge.”

To learn more about the Playbook and to get a look at two of the organizations it highlights, Peter assembled a panel for this episode of Giving Ventures.

This episode of Giving Ventures features a special interview with Senator James Lankford (R-OK), who provides a charitable-minded view from Capitol Hill. As one of the few U.S. Senators with extensive experience running a nonprofit, Lankford understands the needs and challenges of the charitable community and appreciates the role public policy can play in fostering a vibrant nonprofit sector.

In this conversation, Peter and Senator Lankford discuss the state of charitable giving in America, the dangers posed to donor privacy, and how a new tax bill could incentivize more philanthropy.

When conservatives discuss K-12 education, it can be tempting to cede public schools to their leftward drift and look to alternatives. And while Giving Ventures has featured some fantastic groups working in the school choice field, this episode is all about improving the public schools that educate 80% of our nation’s school children.

Giving our kids the best public education possible means engaging on the ground and at the local level, especially in our school boards. This episode features two impressive groups working to effect change at the school-board level.

It’s important that our elections earn the confidence of American voters. In recent years fraud allegations, lawsuits, and elections rules changes have cast doubt on the integrity of our elections. Thankfully, groups like Public Interest Legal Foundation and the Foundation for Government Accountability are working hard to ensure elections are administered fairly.

In this episode of Giving Ventures, Peter checks in with J. Christian Adams of PILF and Madeline Malisa of FGA for a post-election breakdown. Together, Christian and Madeline address issues like mandatory voter identification, ranked-choice voting, and the importance of holding elections for one day only rather than letting ballots trickle in for weeks after Election Day.

With the 2017 tax cuts about to expire and major leadership changes in the executive and legislative branches coming in January, now is a critical time for the future of philanthropy. Reforms to the tax code and IRS regulations about charitable giving will affect not only your tax bill and deductions but also the future of donor privacy, donor intent protection, and key considerations for estate planning.

To think ahead about what’s in store for conservative and libertarian charitable givers, DonorsTrust recently held a webinar conversation with three experts to explore coming policy changes. This episode of Giving Ventures brings that discussion to you. In the episode we hear from:

This Election Day, Giving Ventures brings you interviews with three groups working to expand the coalition of limited government, pro-liberty Americans by engaging independents who aren’t already among the free-market fold.

Earlier this month, DonorsTrust partnered with the Goldwater Institute and the Arizona Free Enterprise Club for a special event in Phoenix, Arizona. At the event, Peter was joined by DonorsTrust philanthropic advisor Lukas Dwelly and Yellowstone Trust Administration executive vice president Randy Huston for a discussion about the powerful charitable tools you can employ in your planned giving.

What is America’s role in the world? It’s a hotly contested question in American politics that cuts across the left-right divide. Whereas a Reaganite policy view of a strong and robust national defensive capability coupled with American-led diplomacy around the world used to be the norm, leaders on both the left and right can now be found on either side of this issue.

While curmudgeonly complaining about “kids these days” is nothing new, it’s hard to deny that there’s cause for genuine concern about America’s youngest generations. The combination of radicalism and ignorance displayed in campus protests may be a variation on an old theme in higher education, but the fragility and emotional instability of these Gen Z students is notable. And even among their younger peers the effects of pandemic learning loss and years of screen addiction are evident in the aimlessness and prevalence of mental health issues in America’s children. Underneath all of these trends are a set of ideas and attitudes toward parenting that have grown in their prevalence in recent decades.

Autocracy is on the rise. There are only 34 liberal democracies – the lowest number in more than 25 years – and they are home to just 13 percent of the world population. How can we reverse that trend?

Stories have incredible power to shape us. From the bedtime tales we tell our children to the latest installments of multi-billion-dollar film franchises, compelling characters and skillful storytelling grab our attention like nothing else. On the most recent episode of Giving Ventures, Peter is joined by guests from a trio of groups whose visual storytelling is capturing audiences with the message of freedom. First, Nick Reid and Lana Link from the Moving Picture Institute describe how their incubator and workshop programs cultivate the talents of young creatives with stories about human freedom. Then, Free the People president Matt Kibbe considers the power of video content to reach America’s young and “liberty curious.” Finally, Jim Tusty of Sky Films draws on his extensive career to explain how compelling documentaries can persuade without telling the audience what to think.

How do you know if an organization you support is really effective? What are the metrics you as a donor should be looking for? And are they hard metrics like numbers of policy wins, softer metrics like the amount of press coverage, or really amorphous metrics like a feeling that the organization is going in the right direction?

With just 27 words, the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights secures gun rights for millions of Americans—at least in theory. In practice, the text of the Second Amendment has been subject to legal, political, and cultural controversies, and Americans’ gun rights are not always respected. In this episode of Giving Ventures, we hear from two of the most accomplished organizations in the gun rights space: Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition’s FPC Action Foundation.

Today, we’re digging into the media landscape and talking to three groups helping people to make sense of the narratives that are out there as well as challenge those narratives when they stray from the truth. First up is our watch dog, the Media Research Center. Then we’ll hear from a group that has become a watchdog with teeth, Accuracy in Media. We’ll round things out digging into investigative journalism from a more free-market perspective with Real Clear Foundation. It’s easy to be despondent about the state of media. These three groups will help you lift your chin a little higher and see that all is not lost.