If our mission is to help people, everyone, answer the most important question, what can I do? Then at some point we need to talk to the people who help really wealthy people, help people.

So today's question, what can I do about high net worth philanthropy?

And look, hey, maybe you're among the vast majority who just heard that and you're like, well, this one doesn't apply to me, but hear me out. We have some of the worst billionaires of all time, but if billionaires are gonna continue to exist, we all need to have a good idea of how we can push them to distribute their resources more effectively and ASAP.

And I truly do believe that among high net worth individuals, there are some, especially younger folks that are dying to do exactly that. So whether that is you or definitely not you, or maybe you are adjacent to someone like that, I think there's something for everyone here.

My guest today is Sharon Schneider. Sharon is the Founder of Integrated Capital Strategies LLC, a consulting firm that helps founders and family offices create positive social change using an expanded toolbox of resources and strategies that spans the return spectrum from grants to market rate investments.

She's also the author of Handbook for An Integrated Life: A Practical Guide for Aligning Your Everyday Choices with Your Internal Compass, a number one new release on Amazon that helps individuals live into their values the same way her consulting helps business owners and family offices. Sharon previously served as the Executive Director of the Telluray Foundation, the Founding Director of the Walton Personal Philanthropy Group, and the co-founder and CEO of Moxi Jean, a for-profit social enterprise that was acquired by Schoola in 2015.

Sharon was named a Colorado Governor's Fellow in 2022 and in 2024 was named an Aspen Institute Finance Leader Fellow, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Again, I really do think there's something for everyone here. This is a really important conversation in a time of growing inequality. We gotta help more people.

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Have feedback? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

Find every action recommended in The Most Important Question here: www.whatcanido.earth

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INI Book Club:

1. Handbook For An Integrated Life by Sharon Schneider
2. The Purpose of Capital by Jed Emerson
3. Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

Hi! It's Quinn. We have huge plans for 2026, and we need your help.

So we're running the biggest discount on an Important Membership that we've ever run, and will ever run, probably.

Right now it's $30/year. On January 1st, it'll be $50/year, and it's never going back.

So right now you can go to ImportantMembership.com and lock in $30/year forever, and we'll all be in a better place. You even get a free 30 day trial. Huzzah.

Here's a fun fact: 95% of people who joined are still Members. That's crazy. You will not regret it, and you even get stickers.

Members pay -- directly -- for our people, our software, our data, and when we can afford it -- which we really need to be able to afford more often -- marketing and advertising to get our work and the app in front of like 100 times more people.

You get bonus episodes from both of our podcasts, everything we make, like Life Finds A Way and The Science of Fiction, and all of it ad-free, and a place to track and share your actions with thousands of other people in What Can I Do? It's so great.

So that's it -- the price is going to basically double on January 1st, but you can lock in a Membership right now at $30/year, with a 30 day free trial.

Go to ImportantMembership.com right now, we take Apple Pay, it takes 10 seconds. Thank you.

 Hey friends, I want to talk about something big. Change the actual world big, because the world won't unfuck itself, as we all know.

We are joining podcasts across the planet for Pods Fight Poverty, a campaign directly supporting our good friends at Give Directly. Now, if you've been with us since episode 116, which feels like a thousand years ago, you'll remember when we asked one of the most deceptively simple, world altering questions ever.

Why is just giving people money the most effective way to help them change their lives and maybe even end global poverty altogether?

To crack that open I had Caroline Teti and Michael Faye on the show, two people who've spent years with Give Directly, knee deep in data and logistics and lived experience, my favorite combination of things, and guess what the answer turned out to be?

People are the experts on their own lives. You are. So why aren't they? Different people need different things on different days. So if you want them to get exactly what they need, you give them the resources to choose cash directly, and that's what Give Directly does.

No middlemen, no guessing, just trusting other humans with the dignity and agency we would expect and that they deserve. Yeah, wild idea. It works. It works better than almost anything else we've tried.

So here's the part where you come in. None of us can erase global poverty by ourselves. Again, that's our whole tagline. But literally, any one of us can lift one person out of poverty, today, right now. So for Pods Fight Poverty, if you can head to givedirectly.org/important and chip in.

That's givedirectly.org/important. And look to take it even further, my wife and I already personally contribute to Give Directly every year, every month actually, which is the best way to support a group like this, by the way.

And thousands of you all do too. I'm gonna step it up and will personally match the next $5,000 in donations when you use our link, which again is givedirectly.org/important. So let's do it.

And to get you in the spirit, we're gonna revisit our conversation right now with Teti and Michael. It's funny, it's hopeful, it's deeply nerdy, and it'll remind you why this work matters every single day. Thanks as always for giving a shit.

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Have feedback or questions? Tweet us, or send a message to questions@importantnotimportant.com

New here? Get started with our fan favorite episodes at podcast.importantnotimportant.com.

Take Action at www.whatcanido.earth

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INI Book Club:

• “The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova
• “The Art of Reading Minds” by Henrik Fexeus
• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: