The Art of Association – Details, episodes & analysis

Charlie Brown, Executive Director of the Trust for Civic Life, joins The Art of Association podcast to talk with host Daniel Stid about the Trust’s work. Three years into this initiative, the Trust is off to a great start in pooling funds from national philanthropic funders and in turn regranting them to support bottom up civic renewal efforts, with a special emphasis on rural and small town America. The Trust’s support for “civic hubs” in communities across the country in the form of flexible, multiyear grants makes a point of keeping the initiative with local leaders. These leaders and their organizations are uniquely positioned to use their local knowledge, networks, and accountability to determine priorities, expand participation, and help solve problems in their communities in ways that national funders cannot. The Trust holds that durable civic renewal grows through collaborative action, focusing on small practical wins while avoiding national controversies that have limited local salience. This approach holds great promise for improving our communities and ultimately, as progress accumulates, the civic life of the nation as a whole.

(00:35): The Trust for Civic Life’s mission, origins, funders, and initial development

(11:00): Why the Trust focuses on rural and small town America

(15:20): How the Trust goes about its work

(21:19): The aspirations and career path that brought Charlie to the Trust

(23:47): The Trust’s work to navigate divisions and address shared priorities

(26:30): What the Trust is learning from its work to date

(32:00): How the Trust shares promising ideas and approaches across its network

(34:49): How the Trust is fine-tuning its efforts

(40:37): Charlie’s vision for the Trust’s impact over the long run

(42:56): Who Charlie learns from

“Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century” (American Academy of Arts and Sciences)

Trust for Civic Life website

Investing in America’s Civic Hubs (Trust for Civic Life’s 2025 Annual Report)

Brian Hooks is Chairman and CEO of Stand Together and the President of the Charles Koch Foundation. He joins The Art of Association podcast to talk with host Daniel Stid about Stand Together’s efforts to advance pluralism and human flourishing through a vibrant, entrepreneurial civil society. They reflect on Brian’s long partnership with Charles Koch and a new edition of their co-authored book, Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World. The conversation also explores Be the People, a major new initiative that Stand Together is launching with a broad network of partners. Timed to launch during the nation’s 250th anniversary, Be the People will be a ten-year campaign. Its goal is to strengthen and highlight bottom-up civic renewal. Brian also discusses his cross-ideological collaboration with fellow philanthropists on what he calls “Team Liberalism” to defend pluralism and philanthropic freedom from illiberal critics on both the Left and the Right.

(0:58): Stand Together’s vision, mission and methods for using philanthropy to empower people

(3:53): How and why Brian came to work at Stand Together

(9:03): Brian’s working relationship with Charles Koch and their principle based approach to management in civil society

(13:28): Why Brian and Charles Koch wanted to bring out a new “America at 250” edition of Believe in People

(21:20): Purpose and plans for the Be the People initiative and problem-solving platform

(31:13): Brian’s spirited defense of philanthropic freedom and pluralism – and the growing threats to them from illiberalism on both the Left and Right

(41:32): Whom Brian has learned from in his work

Stand Together’s overview of Principle Based Management

Charles Koch and Brian Hooks, Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World, America’s 250th Anniversary Edition, with a new preface by the authors and a new foreword by Martin Luther King III

Heather Templeton Dill, Kathleen Enright, Sam Gill, Brian Hooks, Darren Walker, and Elise Westhoff, “We Disagree on Many Things, but We Speak with One Voice in Support of Philanthropic Pluralism,” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 13, 2023

Brian Hooks, “In Defense of Philanthropic Freedom,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 17, 2025

Larry Kramer, “Listening to the People Who Think We Are Wrong,” Hewlett Foundation blog, January 10, 2019

Heather Gerken is the new President of the Ford Foundation. She joins The Art of Association podcast to discuss her leadership journey and her vision for how the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic organizations can promote democracy and the rule of law. Addressing critiques of large philanthropic organizations for being overly political, Heather emphasizes that philanthropies must be allowed to be independent in their giving decisions and guided by their mission-driven “North Star,” while also remaining open and responsive to criticism. Drawing on her years of experience in election law, Heather stresses that philanthropy must remain nonpartisan, adhering to not only the letter but also the spirit of the law’s ban on electioneering. She and Daniel close by discussing the importance of ideological and viewpoint diversity—and how engaging with people who see things differently strengthens one’s own judgment and helps one become a more effective leader in civil society.

Chapters

(01:46): Heather’s work as a legal scholar on federalism, democracy, and elections

(05:14): Leading Yale Law School at a charged moment in time

(07:51): What drew Heather to her role as President of the Ford Foundation

(09:23): Drawing on early guiding principles and the historical legacy of the Ford Foundation

(14:00): Responding to critiques of the Ford Foundation—and philanthropy more broadly

(19:51): Supporting liberal democracy, elections, and the rule of law on a nonpartisan basis

(23:21): Engaging across the ideological spectrum and cultivating viewpoint diversity

Additional Resources

• Heather Gerken, The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System is Failing and How to Fix It (Princeton University Press, 2009)
• MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Elections Performance Index
• Report of the Trustees of the Ford Foundation, September 27, 1950
• Heather Gerken, Why the Ford Foundation Has Committed $60 Million in New Funding to Protect Elections, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 14, 2026
• Heather Gerken, A New Progressive Federalism, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Spring 2012
• David Schleicher, From Here All-The-Way-Down, or How to Write a Festschrift Piece, Tulsa Law Review, Spring 2013