Hanna Skandera & Reviving Civics in America

This week on Givers, Doers, & Thinkers, Jeremy Beer sits down with Hanna Skandera, President and CEO of the Daniels Fund, to discuss the urgent need for renewed civics education as America approaches its 250th anniversary. Building on the legacy of Bill Daniels, Hanna shares how the Fund is investing in initiatives like the Civics Bee to inspire active citizenship and civic knowledge among young people nationwide.

Let’s go!

Sponsored by AmPhil, helping nonprofits advance their missions and raise more money: https://amphil.com/

#podcast #interview #nonprofit #newepisode

Center for Civil Society's YouTube Channel

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Join us on the next episode of Givers, Doers, and Thinkers when we speak with Hannah Scandera, president and CEO of the Daniels Fund, about how the fund is using America 250 to reinvigorate civics. Let's go. And as I have been saying on these things, this season we are highlighting some of the most interesting, innovative, and strategic things being done by American givers in light of the American semi-quincentennial, America 250. So very excited to have with us today someone who is extraordinarily relevant to that conversation, Hannah Scandera, president and CEO of the Daniels Fund, one of the largest foundations in the Rocky Mountain region. Indeed, I was just told by Hannah before we start recording that the fund has now a little over$1.8 billion in its corpus and has given away over$1.5 billion since it was started 25 years ago. At the Daniels Fund, Hannah has overseen the launch of the National Civics B, which we're going to hear about, among other things. She has catalyzed over$375 million in funding partnerships and introduced a big bets strategy to address our world's most complex challenges. That is also something I'm going to make sure we discuss. And the other interesting thing about Hannah is that she has served under at least three governors in her career, including a Secretary of Education in New Mexico under Governor Susanna Martinez, where she introduced some landmark school reforms. She served under California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and under Florida Governor Jeb Bush. So there's much, much else in her impressive bio. But let's just say that Hannah is highly accomplished and knows what she's doing. Hannah, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Thank you for having me, Jeremy. I'll let you say that. I'm not sure I can claim it, but I'll I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

That's the point of someone introducing you. They can say the things you can't say for yourself, but it's all true. We're gonna talk about the Daniels Fund today and some of the really cool strategic things that the fund is doing, especially in light of America 250. So let's start there. We're here. It's here. I remember we started kind of, I remember really didn't even get on my radar until 2024. I mean, in a real way. And people kind of started scrambling. I feel like you guys are probably maybe a little bit better prepared than the rest of the country to start celebrating this incredible anniversary. But yeah, maybe you want to talk about how you decided to make America 250 a major focus of what you're doing and especially what you're doing in the area of civics.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Absolutely. I I think I told you this uh when we were speaking before, Jeremy. I feel like I have the best job in the world. And part of it is we get to celebrate things like America's 250th. That's incredible for so many reasons. But and I don't know if we were ahead of ahead or not, but I think we have a deep conviction, as did Bill Daniels, that this country matters. It's an incredible country, and that we're at an inflection point. Not just because it's our our country's birthday, the 250th birthday, but because we're at a time when civic knowledge is low, confidence in civic institutions is low. Think about this. I was just talking the other day at a conference. One in five Americans, these are adults, not kids. I can give you some really tough uh kid data as well, but um, one in five adults cannot name a single branch of government. And if if we are a democratic republic, it is absolutely incumbent upon us to participate and be a part of that. And so I think we have this um deep conviction that this isn't just about a celebration, it is a moment to say it's time to ramp up and take the next 250 years and make them better than the first 250. And that bar to me is super high on the one hand, and there's a lot of opportunity, right? Because we um our young people don't know their civics and history, and actually neither do our adults.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah. So you're yeah, you hit on two things here that I want to unpack just from this first question. First, let's go back and make people make sure people know who Bill Daniels was. I mean, he was a real innovator himself, uh, both in business and in philanthropy. Can you just give a quick thumbnail on him?

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Yeah. So Bill Daniels was considered kind of the pioneer of the cable industry. He literally was sitting in the city of Denver when it wasn't as big as it is today, and he was watching television and said, why can't people all over the country in rural parts of America have access to this information and et cetera? And so he made it his task, his vision to say they can't. And so he launched in this the West uh as a starting point, but really did create the opportunity uh for access, and which is an interesting, if you think about it, his vision for access, I mean, it was so visionary at the time, right? But that's a lot of what we get to be a part of at the Daniels Fund today. We get to create more access to opportunity for young people, adults, those in need. So his vision as an entrepreneur is something we get to carry forward. But I will also say we get to steward his vision because he was very clear about what he wanted to invest in when he started this foundation. Just it's our 26th year this year. He launched with$1 billion. And we've given away, as you said earlier, nearly$1.5 billion. And they're in areas that he was he had a vision for: everything from youth development and civics and financial literacy, education, opportunity, and choice, homelessness and addiction, uh, aging, uh, youth sports, all these areas were very personal to him. But if you look, there's a really clear through line and thread. He loved America, he wanted to invest generationally and leave a legacy that mattered for this country and for the people and the states that he loved. And that is that was his vision. And he did that in business, and then he transferred that and said, now I'm gonna leave that to invest in the country.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

So one of those areas was civics, as you just mentioned, and um where we started our conversation. What I this is gonna be a super basic question, but like what is civics? What is just so people that understand what we're talking about? Because it's not a word. We used to hear that when I was in school. I'm not sure people hear it anymore that often.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Well, part of the reason they don't hear it anymore is in many states we don't even offer civics classes anymore. There's actually a resurgence, thank God, uh, most recently, because folks have kind of awakened to this reality of wow, our kids don't don't know about the country they live in, how it was created, how they can be an active participant in this republic, right? And so the good news is that's starting to re-emerge, but there was a whole window of time where young people literally did not get a civics course. They didn't learn how, you know, the deep how is our country founded? What does it mean to be an engaged citizen? If you don't have a civics class, it's kind of hard to start to understand how you can be a good citizen. And so the the civics piece is, I think there's a resurgence of awareness. Now we've got to translate that into action. I think it's starting, but we've got a long way to go in thinking about how do we make sure our young people, this next generation, is ready and prepared to be an active citizen. I always say this you cannot love what you do not know. And if our kids, I mean, think about this from a relationship standpoint, every every angle. And our kids don't know. So we wonder why some of the data is coming back around kids and some of their feelings about America and and, you know, kind of our country, free market, all these things. Well, they're not being taught. And so all they see is, you know, the one-liners on Insta or whatever new new social media platform they're they're engaged in, instead of that deep cultivation that happens when over time you learn about the privilege and the joy of actually shaping and being a part of shaping for a more perfect union.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

You you said you can't love what you don't know, but you also can't trust what you don't know, I might add. And you mentioned that um one of the, it seems to me, one of the one of the challenges that has really reared its head in a significant way in the last five to ten years only, has been like a precipitous loss of trust in institutions.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Absolutely. There's unfortunate, I was gonna say there's great data. It's it's that's disappointing data, but it's solid data that tells us that we, yeah, we don't have in our in our kind of makeup anymore that deep trust. And uh and I I think part of this too, yeah, there's plenty of that's been research and written about just the lack of civic associations and involvement. That is, I mean, Top talked about that is what made America special. It still makes us special. We still have it, yeah. But we've got to renew that and restore that confidence and desire to participate.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Well, then let's talk about um you're right. I totally agree. You see a resurgence of interest in civics, you see other funders besides you uh sort of talking about it more. And obviously, I would think that 2026 is probably a more commonplace of investment for givers than it has been in the past. But what's distinctive about what you all are doing? What does strategic giving look like in this area for you?

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Yeah, so a couple things I would point out. And Jeremy, I think one thing I should have said when you said, what is civics?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

So there's a paradigm and a knowledge piece, right? And that's important, but there's also active citizenship. And I think that through line is so important. One of the things at the Daniels Fund, we are um excited about, proud, and trying to be really strategic is we are looking to not just talk about something, not just say we have a crisis, which we do, but say, okay, what are tangible ways that we can actually create opportunities to participate? And I think that's a really unique piece. A lot of foundations, and I say this with deep respect. It's gonna sound a little cynical though. I can't tell you how many dinners I've been invited to, like that I call them let's get along dinners. Like, how do we have, you know, let's make sure we have a good, robust dialogue where we can disagree in it. And those are good, but I want to say something. First of all, those are adults usually, and I think, like, why are we waiting till we're at the other end of the spectrum? Why aren't we getting to young people? So part of our strategy is that it's active and it's tangible and it's reaching young people and families. So this idea that let's create a foundation, be part of building a foundation that has the opportunity to build generationally, not just hope we can catch folks at the end, right? That's called safety net versus build build the foundation the right way. And that is our, I think, our unique contribution, particularly in the foundation space. So if you think about it, we've got the Civic Spee, which we launched just over four years ago. And we are gonna be in 50 states this year, over 200 cities, incredible, and the reach is incredible, and it's reaching kids and families. Because if you're a middle schooler, and that's the that those are the kids we're reaching, guess what? You can't drive. And your parents actually often are engaged in helping you study. And we have Johns Hopkins following the Civics B results, et cetera. And what they are discovering is it is absolutely a generationally impacting initiative that parents are participating in. And because this is good news, bad news. Bad news is I talked about earlier, we don't have a lot of civics classes going on. Now that's that's starting to shift. But because this is self, there's these kids exercise agency, they are choosing to participate. What we have we have very early data on this, don't take it too far, but I'm loving it. We have a partnership with Khan Academy, Con Migo, and it is an AI bot study guide. And the kids that are using this, and if you're familiar at all with Khan Academy, it's an it's the largest educational reach, over 50 million kids across the world, uh, usually around reading and math. The kids that are participating using the civics bot are spending way more time than they are on reading or math. My basic belief is that's because they get to choose. They want to learn and they are choosing to invest the time. There, they are exercising agency, which is part of that's part of our foundation in America as well. So I just, it's really unique, and we are seeing this incredible community grassroots-driven um initiative that is coming through chambers of commerce, local chambers of commerce, host these civics bees.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, so it's chambers of commerce that are sort of the grassroots delivery system for the Civics B, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Yes, we created a partnership with the U.S. Chamber Foundation. And so chambers of commerce hosts this. I want to say I think that's super significant. Number one, it means it's very locally driven, and they provide prizes for these kids when they win. So think about this Kentucky, our little winner in Kentucky two years ago,$1,000 prize. What are you gonna spend that on? Remember, he's like a 12-year-old buying a pig. Right? I mean, like very localized. Like, and I know the winner in California didn't say he was buying a pig, right? We got we got the we got lots of unique flavor. It's like local flavor and local ownership. And the other thing I would say about it that I think is really significant, I'm sure you have followed, you know, through K-12 education, everything. We've had, I call them the culture wars, right? Like all the debates on what kind of history, who's teaching it, what's the what's the book we're using, all the things. And this was the opportunity to say, you know what, we're gonna have communities own this. It's not coming through the system that some people trust and some people don't. That will, you know, like we were talking earlier. It's gonna come, a community is gonna own the opportunity for their kids. They're gonna create their local flavor, they're gonna promote their kiddos up from their local little small town, rural Civic Speed to the statewide. And if they make it past that, they get to go to the national Civic Spee and win, oh, by the way, potentially$100,000, right? So, but it's it's this grassroots-driven civic association-hosted event.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

And is that has that given you the kind of widespread particip or the uh, what should I say, uh the kind of participation across a spectrum that you wanted that you're not getting certain uh participants in those cultural wars opting out because it doesn't seem to represent them? Is that yeah, that's great. It's hard to do an end run around those things.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Exactly. And it just tones down the like, hey, these are this is these are the families I know in my neighborhood. And this is our thing. And whether, you know, in our first year we only had five cities who hosted. So like just over four years ago, five cities. Now we're in over 200 in all 50 states. Albuquerque, New Mexico, kind of like really broad, we went all over the country, Baltimore, Maryland, so very different places, and their civic speeds had content. The bar and the content and the contest was the same, but the event that was hosted was very localized. And you know, it was local business leaders giving the prizes, right? So this is a really unique way to bring community engagement. And it wasn't just middle schoolers, I'm telling you, like adults are sitting in the audience. And by the way, when we when a Civic Spee is hosted, the audience also participates on their phone. So we have a winner for the audience. So invariably a grandparent or a parent is also participating and winning at the same time their kiddo is.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Do you think this can be as big as the spelling bee? The national spelling bee? The script, it used to be the script's Howard Spelling Bee.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Yes, that is our aspiration. Our goal is we reach over a million kids by 2030. We're going to be nationally um broadcast this year. So stay tuned. We really I think there's something here, Jeremy, that that actually ironically captures what we were talking about earlier about America and its, you know, Tocquevillean structures and how they they make something unique.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Where did this idea come from?

SPEAKER_02 16:42

So it came from one of our goals. We have these things called big bets. And a big bet is a bold idea, we think, and we hope it is, that is responding to a crisis and wants to be a part of creating a solution that we can bring others alongside and partner with. And we have a bold goal whenever we identify big bet, it we are public about our goal because we want to be accountable. My my personal experience, I'm not long uh into philanthropy. This is my fifth year on the job, and prior to that, it was in a different, different lane. And it's really easy to lose sight that we're stewards. These aren't actually our dollars, but we want to steward them well and be accountable for what Bill Daniels' vision was. And we think one way to do that is to say, you know what, we're gonna set a goal. And if we miss it, we're gonna be public about it and say we missed it. But if we hit it, we are gonna celebrate loud and clear. And so our goal with with the Civics B is reaching one million young people, middle schoolers, by 2030.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

It's very unique, as you know. I mean, for foundations or givers of any kind to be that public about their goals and to be that bold. Uh, it's um do you think you might inspire others to do this kind of thing?

SPEAKER_02 17:55

Well, one of the exciting things that we've seen, and I I just say this with all humility, I think when you're able to create, you know, find an idea that answers a crisis, people are drawn to that. We're Americans, we want to be a part of solutions, and we actually do like working together when we when we actually do it. And so I think we've seen, we have so many other foundations that we're not pooling dollars, but they invest adjacent to us in the Civic Spee, all across the spectrum of uh of you know, location, geography, ideology, absolutely inspired to be part. And we're finding that we've launched something called youth sports giving day. And it's and it started here in Colorado, it is now being replicated in Utah. There's a crisis in uh youth sports. Most people don't know this, right? Because all you see is like all these club sports. But what's happening is that actually fewer kids are participating, and especially those that have uh fewer means.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

It's become much more expensive, hasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

It has. I mean, what and what used to be another opportunity, kind of an equalizer that created upward mobility, frankly, right? Like I went to college because I ran track and it paid for it paid for my college, right? It was an upward mobility tool, in addition to learning grit, perseverance, teamwork, how do you win, how do you lose? All those things, those opportunities are fewer and far between, particularly for young people who don't have resources. And so we said, how are we going to be a part of a solution on this? First of all, most people don't know this because they do see all the kind of the money in the club teams and all the things. Um, but secondly, is there a way we can galvanize local grassroots opportunity to reinvest in youth sports? So we launched Youth Sports Giving Day, and it is literally a two-week period, so it's more than one day, but a two-week period where we match investments in youth sports programs all over the state of Colorado. We have other foundations who have now joined us. Our first year we raised about 3.7 million. And this is rural, these are like, you know, little, little sports programs and you know, Tim Buck too, right? I mean, really small and that are, you know, getting matched up. That's a big deal, right? And um, this last year we raised over$5 million for youth sports all over the state of Colorado. Like I said, this is not just a like an urban program. This is way out, you know, in rural nowhere where kids need opportunities more than ever. So really exciting. Utah is launching this year, Youth Sports Giving.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Oh, great. That's gotta be a tough nut to crack. I I just it it it's so um tied up with the um hyper-organization of childhood. It's it's it's tied up with a lot of the sorts of things that Jonathan Heidt has talked about and others, sort of uh the sort of monitoring and organizing of all play. And then nobody intended it, but then he sort of lifted up and out of the reach of people who don't have sort of the means or the perhaps the family structure that that brings that sort of thing into reach. Nobody talks about this, I don't think. I've not heard of anybody else talk about the crisis in youth sports or problem in youth sports. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

I agree. This is what I mean, we were surprised. I know I just mentioned, you know, my life was shaped by sports. And if you actually, if you talk to most folks around our age, they all have had an experience with sports that was formative. Even if they didn't like it, it was formative. And a deep conviction to give other kids, and just so you know, Bill Daniels, two-time Golden Gloves boxing champion, his life was shaped by sports as well. He knew how formative they were, and he wanted kids to have those opportunities. Just to say, it's it is a big bet we have. We want to reach 1 million young people by 2030 with uh with access to youth sports that otherwise would not have had it. And uh, we're we are tracking ahead of schedule, super excited. We also launched something called chance sports, which has also been replicated in another state already, which is a scholarshipping opportunity for kids who show real promise, but don't have the means to kind of get the cleats or or take the plane trip to the nationals or the junior Olympics. So creating, you know, closing those gaps for For young people in youth sports, is I mean, it is powerful. And I am a deep believer that this isn't just about can you throw the football or can you run? It is truly about character formation today.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Hi, I'm Chris Kidmeyer, CEO of Amphil. I'm excited to share that this season of Givers, Doers, and Thinkers Podcast is sponsored by Amphel. Whether your nonprofit needs help raising major gifts, building your donor pipeline, or crafting a winning fundraising message, Amphil has the expertise to help your organization thrive. We work with mission-driven organizations across the country to help them raise more money and advance their mission. Learn more at Amphil.com. That's A-M-T-H-I-L.com.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

You know, it's such an important topic. Sports used to be youth sports in particular, democratizing. And you're pointing out that now it's not anymore. It's actually it's uh sort of fees and the widening gap between the more wealthy and the less wealthy. And but it's also sort of the one of the last bastion of like pure meritocracy. You don't nobody's just advanced in sports because, uh at least at a certain beyond a certain level, just because it sort of feels like the right thing to do. You have to earn it. And the characterological lessons that come with that are always important, but perhaps even more important in a society where they're not, those lessons aren't always learned everywhere else. Is that fair?

SPEAKER_02 23:23

You hit on something. Can I I totally agree and can I bring something kind of full circle on our conversation? We started by talking about civics. We haven't talked about education and depth yet, but if you want to, I would love to. And then we just talked about use sports. All three of these things are super important to the shaping of a citizen in our country. They have been pivotal pieces that shape what it means to be an American. And I'm gonna say something, all of them uh need a resurgence, all of them need a massive infusion of yes, they're broken. And we're paying a price, I think. So they're kind of pillars, right? That that are important pieces. And I think one of the things Bill Daniels I I am I feel really confident he would be proud. Because not only did he name these things timelessly, interestingly enough, but that that we're getting to Steward his vision of these pillars of what it means to be an American, which he was such a proud patriot. I mean, he fought in two wars. So these pieces are not happenstance, they're intentional and they're strategic.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Well put. Now, talk about your investment in education. Perhaps I know you do a lot, so I don't want to, I don't want to box this in. I know education choice is a big part of it. Uh so maybe talk about what you're doing in that area. Maybe in particular, tell people about the federal scholarship tax credit, which I'm not sure has really gotten is really entered into most people's consciousness just yet.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

It's a topic I love to talk about because I think, and Bill Daniels knew how pivotal education is the basic building block, right? And he knew that and the and the path to upward mobility, et cetera. And and you said it earlier. What we have known, and I spent 25 years investing in traditional public education and politically appointed positions. I am a believer in education. And I know there are places where great things are happening in classrooms, public school classrooms, but I'm gonna say something. On the whole, it is fundamentally broken. And it is not, it is failing way too many American young people today. And that's just unacceptable. We cannot be willing to tolerate that, or it says a whole lot of what we're willing to tolerate about the future of our country. So Bill Daniels believed in investing in education. We have a scholarship program for high school kids going to college. I'll talk about that in just a minute. But he also believed in choice. He knew that when families get to choose for their children, they're more engaged, they get a better match of education for their kids, and it can be game-changing. And so we we have another big bet in education, and it is to have a hundred thousand, we want to invest in a hundred thousand new seats for kids, choices for kids by 2030. We're on our way. We're we are making great progress. This is in our four-state region of Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado. And we are absolutely on track for that and thrilled to be partnering with so many amazing other philanthropies and school advocates, et cetera. But it is literally to give 100,000 kiddos a better education.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

And that's, I mean, that's a sizable chunk. That's a lot of seats, right? I mean, I don't know how many seats are in that four-state area in total, but especially even adding new seats over that time period is is not easy because you gotta spin up new opportunities, right? Yeah, I don't know where education enrollment is going in the four-state. It probably is growing in that four-state region, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 26:48

It's a mixture for sure. But what we do know and what we're seeing, back to the point we were talking about earlier of public education not serving kids as well as it should, that would be a nice way to say it, I think, that families are choosing to opt out of the traditional public school system on the regular. Whether we have increased population enrollment, we have increased demand for alternative choices for kids. Folks are looking for better options for their kids, full stop, which you asked them a minute ago, what's this new federal tax credit thing? I think this has the chance to be game-changing. For those who are gonna listen to this podcast, set aside any presuppositions you have about the big beautiful bill for just a minute, because I think one of the most significant things in that big beautiful bill was this tax credit. It allows a taxpayer a dollar for dollar tax credit. So the dollar that you would send to the federal government can now be sent for a kiddo up to$1,700 per taxpayer. So$1,700 doesn't sound like a lot of money, but actually it is. Think about a small parochial school that struggles every year to kind of make it all work and they're serving kids that desperately need this choice. If every single family, let's say there's just a hundred families, right, this is an ongoing source of revenue for schools to provide options for kids. And the way it works, you opt into this tax credit, the dollars go to what's called an SGO, a scholarship granting organization. And so then scholarships are granted through these organizations. A state has to opt in. I'm really proud to say that Colorado, we have um Jared Polis, our governor, is the first Democratic governor to opt into this because he's smart and he goes, you know what? I want to opt in.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Is he the only one so far? Or have there been have there been other democratic governors?

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Not yet. But yeah, I I think over time we will see them opt in because if you don't opt in, a scholarship organization can tap your taxpayers and say, hey, send your dollars over here, and someone, another state will benefit.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

So because you're not losing, to make it very clear to people, you're not losing anything as a taxpayer. You're just directing the dollars you would have paid to the federal government to an SGO instead. So there's no skin off your back. It's just you'd rather directly support kids' education.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

I mean, it is a win-win in every way. And Governor Polis saw saw sees that. And by the way, public schools can benefit from this. They they can offer after-school programs, so you know, supplementary programs to support their kids. This is a win for everyone. And so I really do believe over time, folks locked. And I think the significant piece, there's lots of significance in it. But one is this is going to allow. Now we gotta we gotta make sure everyone knows about it. And you said I think there's a lot of people that don't. So we're investing right now for basically how do we get the word out? Kind of, or like what I was saying, like a marketing endeavor to make sure people are aware. But this is an opportunity for every American taxpayer to be part of a solution that everybody knows we need. That's powerful. That's powerful. It's also exposing folks to the idea that choices can make a big difference for families. And, you know, the data when when parents have choices, they are more engaged in education, full stop for their kids. And on the whole, their kids get a better education, whether that's because they feel safer, whether that's because they actually get their reading better, you name it. There's a lot of pieces that go into it. But choice matters, and this opens up the aperture for all Americans, taxpayers, to be a part of something, a solution that our country needs. So I think it's really powerful.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

It's really interesting. I agree. And it's um, you know, it's a market solution. It's very consistent with what uh someone like Bill Daniels, I think, would have would have liked. Um isn't it interesting that in a society that is so devoted to um expanding consumer choice, sometimes to absurd uh lengths, we still are kind of locked in the idea oftentimes of like, well, no, my I live here, therefore my kid has to go to this school, no matter what. The most important choice, one of the most important choices, let's say one of the top three or four that can be made for a young person. We've been so accepting of there not being any choice in the matter. That's strange to me.

SPEAKER_02 31:07

It's wild. Well, I think it's interesting. So you think, look at higher ed. We're totally accepting of choice in higher ed, right? But but we do have something in K-12 that sometimes we don't talk as much about. We have we have some brokers on that choice, right? Often, you know, that are investing, committed to investing in what I call the status quo. And if the status quo was good, if it was offering what our kids needed, I'd be in. But it's not.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

And so monopolies don't generally deliver the goods over time. It's just how things work. It's literally just incentives, you know, you know, and how things, how things are set up. So you make a good point that we don't accept that in the higher ed, and it's um is changing, and you're you're helping make that change at the K 12 level. I know there's still pushback against it, but it'll be interesting to see what the federal scholarship tax credit does in that regard, whether it's a pretty becomes a major blow or if it doesn't, you know, and uh hopefully it will be the former.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

This is me. My fingers are crossed, and we're gonna do everything we know to do. And I, you know, my hope in charge to philanthropic organizations all across the country is this is one worth investing in. There's a real opportunity here.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

That's right. Yeah. That's right. And I think, by the way, I think it can stack on top of education tax credit or state level education tax credits. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Absolutely. So this thing, we we've had what, about 12 states now that have opted into having something called an education savings account. Right. So, and that's when that's offering a lot more choice for hundreds of thousands of kids than ever before. Very significant. So, this is on top of that, this is that opportunity, like, let's let's blow the roof off on this one. Yeah, absolutely. Really exciting.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Very good. When you step back, what is the animating idea behind all of the Daniel Fun Daniels funds efforts? Like, what's the what's the unifying philosophy behind what you're doing?

SPEAKER_02 33:07

I think at the end of the day, the fur the underpinning philosophy is Bill Daniels' vision to to invest in in the communities and the people and the country that he loved. And he, and to deliver on that, to steward that vision. And he really, you know, we're a regional foundation, but I truly believe that if you if you steward well a regional foundation, the ripple effect will be national, that it will inspire a ripple effect in other places. And that's I really think that Bill Daniels, I mean, he was he thought big, right? And so how are we challenging ourselves to think big? And the thing, he changed so many things at scale, but I want to say something that we try and steward every day. It was one life at a time. He truly he had believed in uh and had a huge heart. He cared about individuals uh the story after story of how he individually, personally helped and saved and invested one life at a time. And so we our goal is that we get to positively influence American life one life at a time. And I think that it means investing in this ecosystem of civic associations, individuals that are committed to really being part of those pillars that make America um the country that Bill was proud to fight for and wanted to see continue to move forward.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

You think you're more effective precisely because it's a regional foundation? Do you think that is a little, maybe even an unintended piece of genius on his part? Because you're more focused and you don't get lost in the big everything national going on, that you can make a bigger difference and be more effective and just count on the ripple effects to take things beyond your region.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

My personal belief is yes, totally genius, because it allows, A, you get to develop relationships, right? And relationships, Bill Daniels understood that. Relationships are the are the underpinning of long-term and change and investment. So it allows for that. It also allows you to create proof points. Listen, some of our big bets, we're gonna be wrong. We're gonna fail. But I Bill Daniels was about taking big risks. So we're gonna go for it. And if we're wrong, we're gonna say, guess what we learned? Don't do it this way again. And if we're right or there's some proof point that's positive, we're gonna say, hey, foundation in Washington, D.C. or Florida or Kentucky, here, take our take what we learned, build on it, make it your own, make it Kentuckian, make it Floridian, whatever it may be, but localize it and create change if we if we did something that mattered. And I think that's the the spirit of what we hope is that we invest in a way and steward in a way that can be replicated and, like I said, a ripple effect that positively influences American life.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Wonderful. Hannah, you really are doing things that are different in the foundation world and innovative and strategic. Uh, and so it's really been very gratifying to have you on to talk about what you're doing, how it's connected to the America 250 celebration. Thanks for all you do. How can people follow what you're doing, especially the even the National Civics be in particular?

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Yeah. So we have lots of on our website and kind of latest, greatest of new things that we're investing in, or lots of stories about young people and lives changed. Certainly follow us on Instagram. Yes, I said that. So we're trying to get the word out and celebrate the lives that we get to partner alongside in some small way that we believe, believe that Bill Daniels believed, would make a difference. And or just reach out. We love to learn and partner with others. There's so much that can be done, right? There's plenty of room for everyone to do lots.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Excellent. That's great. Well, Hannah Scandera, president and CEO of the Daniels Fund, uh, thank you so much for being on with us. We really appreciate it, and good luck.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Thank you, Jeremy.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Hey, thanks for listening to this episode and what is going to be the last season of the Givers, Doers, and Thinkers Podcast. Nevertheless, I invite you to like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. And as always, if you want to learn more, check out mphil.com. Thanks.