by Denver Frederick | Aug 16, 2025 | Guest Interview
A child is drowning in a pond. You’re wearing an expensive suit. Do you jump in and save them? Of course you do. But philosopher Peter Singer asks the uncomfortable follow-up: If you’ll ruin a $300 suit to save that child, why won’t you donate that same $300 to save a child dying from malaria in Africa?
Welcome to The Business of Giving. I’m Denver Frederick. Today we’re exploring one of the most challenging moral arguments of our time with Peter Singer, whose simple thought experiment has fundamentally changed how we think about our obligations to strangers.
Singer’s philosophy forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: if helping distant strangers is moral obligation, not charity, then most of us might be living fundamentally unethical lives.
Peter reveals the Oxford moment that transformed him from graduate student to moral revolutionary, explains how effective altruism survived its biggest scandal, and shares why he believes thinking people can literally change the world.
Get ready for a conversation that might just change how you see your own moral choices. This is Peter Singer on The Business of Giving.
by Denver Frederick | Aug 12, 2025 | Guest Interview
Today I’m thrilled to have Bertina Ceccarelli, CEO of NPower, joining us from their headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.
What happens when you combine military-trained problem solvers with cutting-edge cybersecurity skills? Magic. Under Bertina’s leadership since 2016, NPower has scaled from $6 million to $35 million while achieving something remarkable: many of their veteran graduates are earning three to four times their military salaries within months of completing the program.
But here’s what makes Bertina’s approach revolutionary – she sees barriers as badges of resilience.
Today, we’ll discover how NPower is creating AI-resilient workforces, why their corporate partnerships go far beyond traditional funding, and what happens when you treat students as whole people rather than just future employees. This is a conversation about the future of economic mobility in America. So let’s get started.
by Denver Frederick | Aug 12, 2025 | Guest Interview
Today we’re joined by David Coman-Hidy, who leads The Navigation Fund, a $100 million philanthropic organization tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. From his punk rock roots to running a major foundation, David brings a unique do-it-yourself mentality to philanthropy that’s shaking up how we think about creating change.
David will share how The Navigation Fund is moving faster than traditional foundations, why they’re funding everything from AI consciousness research to youth justice reform, and what the future of philanthropy might look like when the next generation takes the reins. Let’s get started.
by Denver Frederick | Aug 7, 2025 | Guest Interview
What if the secret to fixing America’s democracy isn’t in Washington, but in neighborhood meetings and local organizing? Emma Bloomberg believes that’s exactly where our civic future lies.
After seven years at Robin Hood Foundation, Emma saw a critical gap: while philanthropy addressed today’s crises, it couldn’t prevent tomorrow’s. The community organizations working to create systemic change were stuck with yellow legal pads, lacking the data tools they needed.
So she founded Murmuration – named after flocks of starlings that move as one while staying individual. Her nonprofit provides cutting-edge civic engagement tools to grassroots organizations across the country, helping neighbors drive change at the block level.
Today we’ll explore why Emma believes real systemic change happens between elections, how she’s reimagining philanthropy, and why local conversations might be our path through national polarization.Â
This is democracy from the ground up. Stay with us.
by Denver Frederick | Aug 5, 2025 | Guest Interview
Welcome to The Business of Giving! Today, we’re thrilled to have Dr. Russell James, a trailblazing professor at Texas Tech University, renowned for his groundbreaking work in charitable giving and planned giving. With a Ph.D. in consumer economics, experience as a tax attorney, and a passion for neuroimaging, Russell blends hard data with the art of storytelling to uncover what drives generosity. In this episode, we dive into how stories, not just numbers, ignite major gifts and how fundraisers can tap into donors’ life narratives to inspire impactful philanthropy.
Stay tuned for a fascinating conversation that will reshape how you think about giving!
by Denver Frederick | Jul 29, 2025 | Guest Interview
Most nonprofit boards treat technology as an operational afterthought—a cost center to manage rather than a strategic lever for mission achievement. But with AI reshaping everything, that approach isn’t just outdated, it could be existential.
My guest today is Alethea Hannemann, Co-founder and CEO of Board.Dev. Working alongside Aaron Hurst, she’s helping nonprofit boards become more tech-fluent and values-aligned by placing senior technology leaders in governance roles and upleveling entire boards around strategic technology decision-making.
In our conversation, we explore their Tech 28 framework for sparking the right conversations, how the pandemic exposed technology gaps that AI is now amplifying, and why technology choices are fundamentally about values—not just operations.
Alethea also shares practical advice for nonprofit CEOs, tech executives, and funders on what each needs to do differently to build digitally fluent organizations.
