Philanthropy isn't working

Anand Giridharadas, author of "Winners Take All"

In conjunction with how to: Academy we bring you Anand Giridharadas – author of the acclaimed new book, Winners Take All.

Anand takes the view that philanthropy simply isn’t working, and in many cases does more harm than good. He argues that global elite’s efforts to fight for equality and justice fail to change the world. Instead they address the symptoms, preserving the status quo and obscuring the elites’ own culpability.

Rather than relying on the whims of the winners, we must take on the gruelling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions, fixing the core social infrastructure problem, and insisting that elites give up some power along with their money.

Anand Giridharadas

Anand is a political analyst for MSNBC TV and teaches journalism at New York University. He has also been a foreign correspondent and columnist for the New York Times and a McKinsey analyst.

During his fellowship at the Aspen Institute – which seeks to deploy a “new breed of leaders” against “the world’s most intractable problems” – he began to feel like an accomplice. The turning point came when, at the 2015 Aspen Conference, he gave a talk exposing the hypocrisy of his audience and himself. News of his talk spread, and those arguments became the book Winners Take All.

He is also the author of The True American and India Calling.

“[Winners Take All is] an indispensable guide for those perplexed by the rising public anger toward ‘change-making’ elites.”

Michael Sandel

Anand Giridharadas

Anand is a political analyst for MSNBC TV and teaches journalism at New York University. He has also been a foreign correspondent and columnist for the New York Times and a McKinsey analyst.

During his fellowship at the Aspen Institute – which seeks to deploy a “new breed of leaders” against “the world’s most intractable problems” – he began to feel like an accomplice. The turning point came when, at the 2015 Aspen Conference, he gave a talk exposing the hypocrisy of his audience and himself. News of his talk spread, and those arguments became the book Winners Take All.

He is also the author of The True American and India Calling.