Misgivings

Arianne and Sadaf sit down with Sam Vinal, a documentary filmmaker, movement collaborator, and co-founder of the Radical Imagination Family Foundation (RIFF). Sam shares what it’s meant to navigate privilege, conflict, and philanthropy alongside his family, and how their foundation has become a space for political education, healing, and moving money to social movements. They dig into inheritance, legacy, spend-down, family dynamics, and the challenges of redirecting wealth accumulated within systems of inequality toward a vision of collective liberation.

GUEST
Sam grew up outside Boston on the South Shore. He continues to be a Masshole but now wears flowery California shirts. He moved to Los Angeles, Tongva Land, over a decade ago at the siren call of the film industry. Sam makes documentary films in collaboration with social movements and keeps 4-6 toes in the world of philanthropy. He is on the board of his family’s foundation, the Radical Imagination Family Foundation, and is a proud member of the Solidaire Network. He is raising a child, and finds grounding in the plants and sunshine during this time of rising fascist machinery.

• https://www.instagram.com/samvinal/
• https://www.instagram.com/mutualaidmedia/

Misgivings is produced by Kindle Project. Learn more at http://www.kindleproject.org/podcast.

We aren't actually ad-supported, but we made some satirical commercials from fake sponsors that speak to the problems in mainstream philanthropy. Enjoy!

Written by Keil Troisi
Voice actor Richard Henzel

In this episode, we’re joined by writer and provocateur Vu Le, who brings his trademark humor and candor to some of philanthropy’s most entrenched problems. We talk about “snowflake” grant applications, restrictive funding, and the challenges inherent to shifting power. From lifting up Community-Centric Fundraising to breaking down The Hunger Games, Vu explores our shared misgivings about philanthropy and dreams of ending the “game” altogether. Plus: duck ponds, parking fees, lending circles, and why Stanley Tucci deserves to survive the revolution.

Vu Le writes the blog nonprofitAF.com, which details the humor and frustration of nonprofit work. Vu has over two decades of experience in the sector, including 13 years as an executive director across two nonprofits. He is one of the co-founders of the Community-Centric Fundraising movement. He authored the book “Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy: Unlocking the Full Potential of a Vital and Complex Sector,” which his 10-year-old said, “Is not as boring as I thought it would be.” He has a BA in psychology and a Master of Social Work, which disappoints all his relatives.

• https://www.nonprofitaf.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/nonprofitaf

Misgivings is produced by Kindle Project. Learn more at http://www.kindleproject.org/podcast.

In this episode, we are joined by artists and cultural workers Sundus Abdul Hadi and Yassin Alsalman. We talk about what it means to make art in a time of collapse—when systems are crumbling, funding is drying up, and culture is being commodified and flattened. We explore the idea of art not as “resistance” but as insistence, the myth of the starving artist, the extraction baked into cultural funding, and why shared space and storytelling are not luxuries but lifelines.

GUESTS

Sundus Abdul Hadi is an interdisciplinary artist, author, and curator of Iraqi origin based in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal. She is the founder of Maktaba Bookshop and co-founder of We Are The Medium. Her decolonial practice blends ancestral knowledge, space-making, and storytelling across visual and literary forms. @sundusabdulhadi

Yassin Alsalman, commonly known as NARCY, is an Arab Hip-Hop Pioneer, a published author, an award-winning short filmmaker, and a part-time professor at Concordia University. His work is a critical lens on global affairs, digital life and identity of self in a futurist world. @narcynarce

MISGIVINGS is produced by Kindle Project. Learn more at http://kindleproject.org/podcast.

In this episode, we’re talking about wealth, identity, and healing. We sit down with Hilary Giovale, a mother, writer, and community organizer. She shares a personal journey of growing up poor and then marrying into a wealthy family, and what it has meant to reckon honestly with whiteness and privilege. We talk ancestral memory and spiritual reconnection, and what it can look like to show up differently with money.

As an active reparationist, Hilary’s work is guided by intuition, love, and relationships. She seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice, and equitable futures. She is the author of Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair from Green Writers Press.

Additional resources:

• Link to buy the book from indie booksellers (all proceeds go to Decolonizing Wealth Project and Jubilee Justice)
• https://www.goodrelative.com/
• Guide to Making a Personal Reparations Plan

Misgivings is produced by Kindle Project. Learn more at kindleproject.org.

In this inaugural episode, hosts Sadaf Rassoul Cameron and Arianne Shaffer offer their motivations for creating the show. Then they talk with friend and collaborator Rosie Rosenthal, who shares her journey from participating in a traditional family foundation to co-creating New Standard Fund—a participatory grantmaking program that entrusted community leaders in Virginia to decide where resources should flow. We explore what it means to release power, why community members closest to the challenges are the true experts, and how philanthropy should become more joyful to make it more effective.

ABOUT OUR GUEST
Rosie Rosenthal is a licensed clinical social worker, a mom, a person with wealth, a professional meddler, instigator, and activist. She works as a “wealth redistribution consultant,” offering her expertise to other donors seeking to move money differently. https://www.rosierosenthal.com/

MISGIVINGS is produced by Kindle Project. Learn more at http://kindleproject.org/podcast.

In this episode we hear from participants of the New Standard Fund, a participatory grantmaking fund based in Virginia. Donor family members, community members (known as Flow Funders), and facilitators sit down together for an honest conversation about what it feels like to share power. They unpack what it means to release control, challenge traditional philanthropic models, and build relationships rooted in trust. They describe Flow Funding, which is a methodology in which donors, foundations, or institutions hand over decision-making power to communities to source their own solutions from the ground up.

You will hear from the donors, Flow Funders, and co-faciliators who collaboratively shaped the program, including:

Amy Rosenthal, Donor Family
Amyrose Foll, Flow Funder
Arianne Shaffer, Co-Facilitator
brandon king, Co-Facilitator
Kate Belleman, Donor Family
Christopher Rashad Green, Flow Funder
Cindy Richardson-Keys, Flow Funder
Lea Whitehurst-Gibson, Flow Funder
Rosie Rosenthal, Donor Family
Shekinah Mitchell, Flow Funder
Tyronne Cherry III, Flow Funder

MISGIVINGS is produced by Kindle Project. Learn more at http://kindleproject.org/podcast.

We aren't actually ad-supported, but we made some satirical commercials from fake sponsors that speak to the problems in mainstream philanthropy. Enjoy!

Written by Keil Troisi
Voice actor Richard Henzel

Misgivings breaks down what’s wrong with mainstream philanthropy and uplifts bold solutions. Through candid conversations filled with humor and heart, Kindle Project's Arianne Shaffer and Sadaf Rassoul Cameron connect with visionary change-makers rising to the call of this urgent moment and reshaping how money, power, and trust flow in a sector long overdue for change.

We made this show to spotlight friends, allies, and peers who are transforming how giving happens—to turn our misgivings about mainstream philanthropy into seeds of hope. Each episode, we sit down for honest, humorous, and uplifting conversations with funders, donors, artists, and bold thinkers who are challenging business-as-usual. We unpack big ideas, laugh at the weirdness of the systems we work in, and spotlight impactful alternatives. We've got an amazing lineup of guests, and hope these conversations leave you inspired, entertained, and equipped with new ways of thinking about how resources should flow.

MISGIVINGS is produced by Kindle Project. Learn more at http://kindleproject.org/podcast.