Perdure
Revi Sterling and Alissa Stern
How do good ideas become enduring organizations? Think Girl Scout cookies. UNICEF’s first seventeen dollars. Pink fried-chicken buckets. Secret gas money. A $101.5 million anonymous gift. Founders getting fired. Seafaring cowboys and cowgirls. Boards revolting. Missions evolving — or getting lost along the way. Hosts Alissa Stern and Revi Sterling dig into the stories behind the world’s best-known non-profits. Perdure is also part of the Devex Podcast Network!
Episodes
March of Dimes: The Trouble with Winning
You raise millions. Mobilize a nation. Help fund a vaccine that changes history. Then comes the awkward question: what are you still here for?March of Dimes helped turn spare change into one of America’s great public-health achievements. But success against polio launched a much messier story of reinvention, confused donors, and obligations that didn’t disappear when the vaccine arrived. Going from fighting polio to protecting mothers and babies took far more than a new mission statement.On this episode of Perdure, Revi Sterling and Alissa Stern follow the money, the mission changes, and the difficult choices behind a household name. How much can you change before supporters stop recognizing you? What do you owe the people who still need your old mission? And when does keeping an organization alive become the cause itself?Episode notes: Georgette Baghdady and Joanne M. Maddock, “Marching to a Different Mission,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2008.
An AI and a Non-Profit Walk into a Bar... an interview with Darian Rodriguez Heyman
Darian Rodriguez Heyman has already written the books on how to run a nonprofit and how to fund one. Now he’s taking on the thing that might change both: AI.His new book, AI for Nonprofits, asks a much more useful question than whether AI is good or bad: what are nonprofits actually supposed to do with it?We sat down with Darian to talk about what AI is already changing, where nonprofits are getting it wrong, and why organizations that pride themselves on being human-centered can’t simply sit this revolution out. We get into efficiency versus humanity, responsible adoption versus institutional paralysis, and what happens when technology moving at Silicon Valley speed lands inside organizations that… decidedly do not.Darian has spent decades thinking about how nonprofits work. This time, the operating environment itself is changing.
Heifer International: A cow, a cup, or cash?
Pop quiz: What do Heifer International and World Central Kitchen have in common?For decades, Heifer International has let us give Uncle Gary a goat for his birthday — or, if we’re feeling flush, an entire $5,000 Gift Ark. But Heifer itself learned long ago that an animal alone rarely changes a life: lasting impact requires training, veterinary care, functioning markets and a way for farmers to actually earn a living. And there are critics: GiveWell has questioned the economics of the model, while Jane Goodall has called on charities to move away from live-animal gifting altogether. In the latest Perdure, we look at Heifer’s remarkable 80-year evolution and ask: what happens when the simple story that raises the money is no longer big enough to explain the work? Perdue is part of the Devex Podcast Network. We also partner with Alliance Magazine. Alliance Magazine has been covering global philanthropy and civil society since 1996 — Perdure listeners can subscribe with code PERDURE20 for 20% off.
The Sierra Club: Secret money, board coups, and the trouble with anonymous gifts.
This episode traces its remarkable origin story, from Muir’s devastating loss at Hetch Hetchy to the audacious campaign that stopped two Grand Canyon dams and provoked the IRS. We follow the rise and firing of David Brower, the architect of the modern Sierra Club; uncover the secret gas money behind its campaign against coal; and revisit the immigration battles that exposed both the vulnerability and the power of its member-run democracy.Along the way, we encounter a $101.5 million anonymous gift, a disastrous partnership with Clorox, an attempted board takeover, the birth of Earthjustice, and Beyond Coal’s role in accelerating the retirement of hundreds of U.S. coal plants.It is a story about wilderness, money, power, and the recurring question at the heart of every mission-driven organization: Can democracy survive without disclosure?And after you listen to this, we encourage you to visit one of our favorite podcasts from Devex!
What if everything you've been taught about running a non-profit is backwards? An interview with David Schizer.
What if everything you've been taught about running a nonprofit is backwards?In this episode of Perdure, we sit down with David Schizer—Dean Emeritus of Columbia Law School, former Executive Vice President and CEO of the century-old global humanitarian organization JDC, and author of How to Save the World in Six (Not So Easy) Steps. Drawing on decades of leading complex institutions, David explores why some organizations endure through funding shocks, political upheaval, and changing times while others don't.From why overhead is a poor measure of success to why nonprofits should be honest about failure, challenge their funders, and stop confusing activity with impact, David dismantles some of the sector's most deeply held assumptions. If you work in, fund, serve on the board of, or simply care about nonprofits, this conversation will challenge how you think about leadership—and what it really takes to save the world.
Susan G. Komen Foundation: Can a non-profit own a color? The business and backlash behind the pink ribbon.
Can a nonprofit own a color? For decades, pink meant breast cancer awareness. But what happens when a symbol becomes so successful that it takes on a life of its own? From "Save the Tatas" merchandise to pink fried chicken buckets to breakthroughs in cancer treatment, this episode explores the strange, fascinating business history of Susan G. Komen.
UNICEF: How $17 became a global fundraising machine
You've probably shaken it—an orange cardboard box on Halloween night. But that box is just the beginning of one of history's most ingenious fundraising stories. We unpack how UNICEF went from a temporary postwar relief agency to a global money-moving machine with greeting cards, parametric insurance, and bond markets. What started with seventeen dollars changed everything!
Girl Scouts: Why the brilliant cookie business became a trap
In this episode, we unpack the surprisingly complex business model behind the Girl Scouts of the USA cookie empire. From Thin Mints and local troop politics to national financial pressures and a shrinking membership base, the episode explores how a decentralized nonprofit built one of the most successful fundraising systems in history — and why that same structure now creates serious challenges. Along the way, they trace the origins of the movement in 1912 Savannah, break down how cookie money actually flows, and examine the tension between local ownership, national sustainability, and organizational identity. It’s a story about cookies, yes — but also about incentives, governance, trust, and what happens when a mission-driven institution outgrows the business model that made it famous.
Save the Children: Where did all the penpals go?
In this episode, we unpack how Save the Children built—and ultimately walked away from—a 100+ year fundraising machine, and why one of the most emotionally powerful ideas in development quietly broke at scale. We dig into how child sponsorship really worked, where the money actually went, and why donors stayed anyway. Along the way, we explore a bigger question: what happens when a billion-dollar nonprofit relies too heavily on a single funder—and that funding disappears overnight? From hidden fragilities in nonprofit business models to the rise of impact investing as a potential “second engine,” this episode takes a clear-eyed look at how money moves in the sector—and what it will take to make it more resilient going forward.