Giving Course Attracts Big Names in Philanthropy as Lecturers

The Stanford University philanthropy scholar Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen has amassed enough star power over the last 15 years to attract some of the nonprofit world’s brightest lights as guest speakers in her free online course, Giving 2.0: the MOOC.

Through a series of video lectures and case studies, the seven-week course features Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation; Holden Karnofsky, co-founder of GiveWell; an organization that analyzes charity performance; Premal Shah, president of Kiva; and the Australian philosopher Peter Singer.

During the course, each student is supposed to devise a plan for supporting a nonprofit group and explain how he or she would decide how much to give and where to direct the money.

Here’s what students in the course can expect to learn:

• How to choose and explore an issue they are passionate about. Scott Harrison, founder of Charity: Water, will describe how he built his organization into a fundraising powerhouse
• Steps for understanding social and environmental matters that might affect their giving.
• How to find a range of perspectives, metrics, and tools to analyze a charity’s work.

In the final weeks of the MOOC, students will take stock of their progress and lay out the next steps to be lifelong, high-impact philanthropists.

In addition, they will vote on the best giving plan created by students. Each winning nonprofit will get a grant of roughly $3,000 to $5,000.

The Learning by Giving Foundation is providing a total of $100,000 for the grants.

Below, watch a video introducing the MOOC.