Perdure

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.

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!

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. A...

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...