The F Word Philanthropy Avoids Is the One It Needs Most feat. Nwamaka Agbo

What will it take for us to stop treating failure like a private embarrassment and start seeing it as a way to learn, grow, and take better risks? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich sits down with Nwamaka Agbo, CEO of the Kataly Foundation, for a candid conversation about the fake rules that keep philanthropy playing it safe when communities need funders to move with more courage.Together, Glen and Nwamaka explore philanthropy’s complicated relationship with the F word: failure. Nwamaka makes the case that failure is already happening across the sector, but when foundations fail in secret, they miss the chance to learn and help others avoid the same mistakes. She also pushes philanthropy to think beyond what feels legally convenient and toward what is morally necessary in this moment, including moving capital beyond traditional 501(c)(3) structures. The conversation invites funders to lower the wall between investment and grantmaking, question their own risk tolerance, and consider what becomes possible when failure is treated not as a source of shame but as a powerful tool for change.💡Nwamaka Agbo: If you run a really good experiment, chances are every once in a while that experiment is going to fail, and the failure actually gives you more information, more indication for how to improve your work going forward. And so if we can share our failures with our colleagues in philanthropy, more widely, more broadly, then all of us don't have to fail as frequently, and we don't have to fail alone.Learn more about the Kataly Foundation and how they are challenging philanthropy to move capital with greater accountability, transparency, and courage.Check out their failure series.Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.Learn about the Stupski Foundation.Host: Glen GalaichGuest: Nwamaka Agbo | Kataly Foundation Executive Producer: Claire CallahanProduction Team: PodflyGraphic Design: Middle MGMT