Jane Wales is a vice president of the Aspen Institute and executive director of its Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation. She founded the Global Philanthropy Forum. Previously, she was president and CEO of World Affairs of Northern California. From 1993 to 1996, Wales was special assistant to President Clinton, senior director of the National Security Council and associate director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In the Carter administration, she was deputy assistant secretary of state. In the philanthropic sector, she has been acting CEO of The Elders, directed the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Project on World Security and chaired international security programs at the Carnegie Corporation and W. Alton Jones Foundation. Wales co-chairs the Generosity Commission and is a board member of the Center for a New American Security.
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The engaged citizen is democracy’s greatest asset, but many Americans are disillusioned and disengaged, and feel a loss of agency. In this focus group conversation, next-gener...
Philosophical and religious teachings regarding wealth can feel both archaic and strangely relevant to our age of economic upheaval. How can we reconcile these ideas about wea...
Rates of depression, disconnection, and suicide among today’s youth are alarming. Hear how leaders from the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions and a group of community partne...
Foundations and individual philanthropists are often criticized for the positions they take on politically fraught, hot-button issues. As policy and cultural issues become inc...
This roundtable starts with the assumption that our society and polity will face cascading crises at a time when we seem to be forfeiting our capacity to solve. But there is g...
Philanthropy has long played a critical role in America, filling in where government has left gaps. But by nature, philanthropy has often served the status quo, rather than ad...
Worried about the health of our democracy? There’s a bright light. Nation-wide the social sector is expanding to include NGOs led by a new generation, entrepreneurs building c...
Trust is democracy’s most valuable asset; we simply can’t work together to solve large problems without it. Yet, trust is at an all-time low. Polling reveals that a majority o...
You seek lasting change. But is your foundation built for that purpose? Is the traditional grantmaking model up to the task? Some foundation leaders think not. Increasingly, t...
Strategic, highly focused philanthropy—combining head and heart—has attracted a growing number of individuals and families and those who advise them. Donors merge passion, dri...