The Unspoken Problem in Big Giving in America? CONTROL.
… one of the most important socioeconomic matters of our time.
…bold …Brave, and pushes us in the right direction.
CONTROL delivers a brilliant and compelling call for philanthropy to shift.
Coming March 17, 2026
* All net proceeds from the sales of CONTROL will go directly to the communities and causes the Stupski Foundation supports.
CONTROL
An insider’s view exposing the most urgent issue in US Big Giving—and how to address it
Americans are increasingly concerned about billionaires controlling our public funds and everyday lives. In CONTROL, Glen Galaich—social impact expert, nonprofit leader, and Stupski Foundation CEO—delivers his personal conversion story from believing in strong, consolidated donor power to understanding how it limits and derails social change.
Galaich shows how our philanthropic system and culture encourage excessive donor control, and he questions if these are even the roles that big donors want to play.
Philanthropic wealth in the US is predicted to grow from $2T to $18T by 2050. That’s two times the size of the U.S. annual federal budget.
Inside CONTROL
- Revealing examples of how excessive donor control maintains an ineffective culture of Big Giving and limits community engagement
- Storytelling that holds a mirror up to the sector’s behaviors, myths, and “fake rules” that impede social progress for working-class and perennially under-resourced communities
- A rare peek into the inner workings of private foundations and how grantmaking decisions are made behind the closed doors of nontransparent institutions
We created this system. And we can change it.
Meet the author
GLEN GALAICH
The first sitting foundation CEO to expose philanthropy’s greatest challenge — the mindset of control.
Glen Galaich, Ph.D. (he/him), is the CEO of the Stupski Foundation—one of the nation’s most ambitious philanthropic spend-down efforts that is returning all of its resources by 2029 to advance health equity, food justice, postsecondary education, and economic opportunity in the San Francisco Bay Area and Hawaiʻi. His professional mission is to support equity, justice, and dignity in solidarity with communities that have been denied these essential values throughout history. He is committed to combating systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination in all its forms; reducing practices of donor control that restrict resources to nonprofit organizations; and supporting a multiracial democracy.
Glen has worked for over two decades in partnership with philanthropists, policymakers, and community leaders to amplify their impact to advance social change. With an extensive human rights and philanthropy management background, he has a history of building relationships based on his honest outlook and ability to cut through the noise, outlining steps necessary to effect lasting change. As the host of the Break Fake Rules podcast and author of the Who Gives? Substack’s Glen questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and seeks ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting systemic change.
Download a free chapter of CONTROL
I agree to give up just enough control to sign up for Glen’s Substack, Who Gives?!. I know I can unsubscribe anytime.
