Designing Tomorrow: Creative Strategies for Social Impact
Designing Tomorrow explores a new playbook for modern social impact leaders and brands to reach their true impact potential.
Why do some social impact brands thrive, while so many others fail to get traction, build support for their cause, and make meaningful progress? Imagine your impact with truly sustainable revenue and resources. With deeper community engagement and relationships. With more influence in your social impact category.
Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center, each episode dives into the strategies, mindsets, and behaviors top social impact brands use to play and win in the attention economy. Go beyond high-level concepts to specific tools and tactics you can use today.
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Let’s design a better tomorrow, together.
Designing Tomorrow is a Cosmic Production. Learn more at https://designbycosmic.com/
Designing Tomorrow is a registered trademark of Design By Cosmic, Inc.
Designing Tomorrow: Creative Strategies for Social Impact
Philanthropy Can Afford to Give More
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There's $1.5 trillion sitting in American foundations right now. Add in donor-advised funds and the total climbs past $1.7 trillion. Most of it isn't moving. Meanwhile, the organizations on the front lines of housing, health, democracy, and climate are being told to do more with less.
In this episode, three leaders behind the Level Up campaign make the case that the 5% minimum payout rate — meant to be a floor — has become a ceiling. And they're doing something about it.
Aaron Dorfman (NCRP), Jodeen Olguín-Tayler (CHANGE Philanthropy), and Amanda Andere (Neighborhood Funders Group) break down the campaign asking foundations to increase their payout to at least 8% for two years, direct funds more equitably, and prove it with their tax filings.
Episode Highlights
[00:00] The $1.5 trillion on the sidelines
[02:03] Why 5% isn't enough for this moment
[06:15] How philanthropy responded to 2025 — and where it fell short
[13:50] What "give better" actually looks like
[17:24] Why Minneapolis was ready
[25:39] The billion-dollar imbalance between right and left
[29:24] Why Level Up requires proof, not just promises
[44:03] Foundations already leading the way
[49:28] What you can do right now
Notable Quotes
"We can't leave this capital on the sidelines." — Aaron Dorfman [02:30]
"I stopped putting funding into my son's college education fund because if we don't have a world that is effectively addressing climate, racialized violence… I'm not sure my eight year old is going to have the need for a college account." — Jodeen Olguín-Tayler [04:34]
"Whatever you thought you were doing during the civil rights movement — that is what you should be doing now." — Amanda Andere [51:15]
Resources & Links
Level Up Campaign — https://levelupphilanthropy.org/
NCRP — https://ncrp.org/
Neighborhood Funders Group — https://nfg.org/
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