Stop Gatekeeping, Start Gate-Opening: Why Nonprofits Deserve Endowments Too and How to Change Philanthropy from the Inside with George Suttles

George Suttles followed the money. Not for status, for impact, and from inside some of the most powerful funding institutions in the country, he is trying to redesign how philanthropy works.

In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with George Suttles, Executive Director of Commonfund Institute, Harlem-born and New York City-rooted, for a conversation about power, repair, and rebuilding the system from the inside out.

George traces his path from a father who coached every neighborhood team and a mother grounded in faith and service at Convent Avenue Baptist Church, to direct youth work across the city, to tech policy at the National Urban League, to philanthropic advising at U.S. Trust, and now to leading Commonfund Institute and chairing the board of the New York Foundation. The through line he names is older than any of it: generosity, abundance, and taking care of your neighbors, learned long before he had words like "nonprofit" or "philanthropy."

The conversation gets honest about the professionalization of philanthropy and the way metrics quietly became a gate. George unpacks the myth of merit-based funding, why the 5% payout was never built to be transformational, and the question he keeps asking in mainstream rooms: if foundations believe endowments are good, why not endow their grantees too?

He and Ron also talk about how to actually move an institution, why change starts at the board level, and why nobody is coming to save our communities, so we build our own things.

Tune in to hear why George believes radical love and radical imagination are the tools the moment demands.

Chapters:

🎙️ 01:40 Meet George Suttles: Harlem-born, NYC-rooted, and how he and Ron first met
🏙️ 02:27 A New York City kid: family, kinship, and a love story across the boroughs
⛪ 06:40 A father who coached the neighborhood and a mother grounded in the church
🤲 08:10 Generosity and abundance before he had the words for philanthropy
🚪 09:46 From frontline youth work to tech policy: seeing the cracks in the system
🔍 15:40 Peeking behind the curtain: gatekeeping versus gate-opening
📊 18:00 The professionalization of philanthropy and the myth of merit-based funding
🏛️ 26:33 Moving the institution: why real change starts at the board level
💰 43:29 Why nonprofits deserve endowments too
🔧 50:09 Repair, chronic under-resourcing, and building our own things
❤️ 55:31 George's Rondering: radical love and radical imagination

Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgesuttles
Email: george.suttles@commonfund.org
Donate: NYC Racial Equity Endowment Fund

Connect with George Suttles to talk philanthropy, fiduciary duty, and values-aligned investing, or give directly to the NYC Racial Equity Endowment Fund and put the endowment idea he champions into practice for the communities that need it.

Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Check Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473

Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Publish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.org
Start a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.com
Go from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org

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