Charity Talks

Joey Savoie, the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Charity Entrepreneurship, is this episode’s guest.  CE’s core mission is to launch high-impact nonprofits by connecting entrepreneurs with effective ideas, training and funding.  As Joey and Brooke discuss, each year CE dedicates hundreds of research hours to identifying the most effective charity ideas.  It then recruits aspiring entrepreneurs, and through its two-month incu...

Titus Syengo, the Executive Director of Teaching at the Right Level Africa (“TaRL”), is this episode’s guest.  TaRL began as a joint venture between Pratham and J-PAL (whose Global Executive Director — Iqbal Dhaliwal — was a guest on Charity Talks last year).  Its primary goal is to strengthen children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills by using its evidence-based approach.  As Titus and Brooke discuss, TaRL is supporting ...

Sean Mayberry, the founder and CEO of StrongMinds, joins Charity Talks.  StrongMinds treats depression suffered by women largely in Africa. For African women, depression is a leading cause of disability. Yet, due to the lack of investment in mental health services, approximately 85% of people in low-income countries – if not more – receive no treatment.  As Sean and Brooke discuss, StrongMinds addresses ...

Catherine Spencer, the CEO of Cochrane, is this episode’s guest.  Cochrane is a global organization that collaborates to produce trusted health evidence, make it accessible to all, and advocate for its use.  Its work is internationally recognized as the benchmark for high-quality information about the effectiveness of health care.  During the podcast, Catherine and Brooke discuss the process by which Cochrane produces this informat...

Dr. James Deutsch, the CEO of Rainforest Trust, joins Charity Talks.  For more than 30 years, Rainforest Trust’s primary mission has been to raise funds in order to make grants in Africa, Asia and South America that preserve and protect land and habitats there.  As James and Brooke discuss, by protecting millions of acres of land, Rainforest Trust is saving endangered species from extinction.  But its impact goes well beyond that. ...

Princess Padmaja Kumari Parmar, the Founder and President of Friends of Mewar, is this episode’s guest.  Padmaja is the daughter of the House of Mewar, which was founded in 734 AD and is the world’s longest, unbroken serving dynasty.  She founded Friends of Mewar to address three pressing problems - women’s empowerment and education, lack of preventive healthcare, and preservation of Mewar’s cultural heritage.  Over the past ten ye...

Michael Chuter, the Chief Executive of Pump Aid, joins Charity Talks.  Pump Aid works primarily in Malawi, and its goal is to achieve lasting positive change in the poorest and most disadvantaged communities there by implementing water, sanitation, and hygiene programs. As Michael and Brooke discuss, over the last twenty years, over 10,000 communities and almost 2 million people have been provided with access to safe, clean water t...

Christopher Cassidy, the President and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation (“NMOHMF”), is this episode’s guest. Chris attended the U.S. Naval Academy and became a Navy SEAL, before becoming a commander of SEAL units in Afghanistan. After Chris left the SEALs, he joined NASA as an astronaut, flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavor and Russian Soyuz spacecraft, commanded the International Space Station, and eventually ros...

Dr. Michael Plant, the Founder and Director of the Happier Lives Institute, joins Charity Talks. While studying for his PhD in moral philosophy at the University of Oxford, Michael realized that there was a pressing need for more research on the most cost-effective, evidence-based ways to improve global happiness. That led him to found the Happier Lives Institute. Michael and Brooke discuss how by drawing on the fields of philosoph...

Iqbal Dhaliwal, the Global Executive Director of MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), is this episode’s guest. J-PAL’s mission for the last twenty years has been to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of hundreds of affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts rigorous research to find solutions to the world’s greatest challenges,...

Dr. Vicky Bond, the President of The Humane League, joins Charity Talks. As Vicky and Brooke discuss, animals raised for food (including predominantly chickens) suffer from abuses in factory farms at a scale that is shocking. THL exists to end the abuse of these animals. It does so by influencing the policies of the world’s largest food companies, demanding legislation, and empowering others to take action. Through its efforts, THL...

Bonnie Carroll, the President and Founder of the Tragedy and Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), joins Charity Talks.  Since 1994, TAPS has offered compassionate care to all those grieving a military loss.  As Bonnie and Brooke discuss, TAPS has a variety of programs that help so many affected families cope with the loss of a loved one, including a peer support network available 24 hours a day and women’s empowerment retreats....

Ellen Agler, the CEO of the END Fund, and Mark Stoleson, the CEO of Legatum, are this episode’s guests. In 2006, Legatum realized that millions of people in Rwanda and Burundi were needlessly suffering from treatable neglected tropical diseases, such as intestinal worms, so it decided to fund programs to address this huge problem. After its work demonstrated the feasibility of scaling these programs, Legatum created the END Fund. A...

Siegrid Holler, a partner and founding member at Instiglio, joins Charity Talks. Instiglio is based in Bogota, Columbia, and its mission is to ensure that every dollar spent on social programs in low and middle-income countries has the greatest possible impact. By focusing on three areas — systems strengthening and performance management, outcomes-based and innovative financing, and thought leadership — Instiglio is partnering with...