Dana Schmidt of Echidna Giving: Deploying $6 Billion for Girls’ Education While Staying Close to Communities
- May 17
- 3 min read
Updated: May 18
What does thoughtful philanthropy look like when the ambition is to deploy $6 billion over the next 35 years in support of girls’ education?
In this episode of the Do One Better Podcast, Alberto Lidji speaks with Dana Schmidt, Program Director at Echidna Giving, about the realities of large-scale grantmaking, the responsibility that comes with stewarding significant philanthropic capital, and why supporting girls’ education remains one of the most evidence-backed pathways toward long-term social change. Echidna Giving is expanding rapidly, with annual grantmaking projected to grow from roughly $50 million to $200 million.
Dana explains why giving money away well is far from straightforward. The conversation explores how funders can remain responsive to grantees, learn continuously, and avoid becoming disconnected from the communities they seek to support. Central to Echidna Giving’s approach is a commitment to listening to those closest to the problems, investing in long-term relationships, taking measured risks, and embedding clear values into day-to-day decision making.
The discussion also examines how philanthropic organizations can preserve culture and effectiveness while scaling. Dana shares how Echidna Giving formalized guiding principles for its work, used independent grantee perception surveys to gather honest feedback, and saw stronger results even as the organization grew and expanded geographically.
A major theme throughout the conversation is proximity. As Echidna Giving has built teams closer to the regions where it works, including East Africa, its grantmaking has evolved. The organization has increased direct engagement with locally led institutions and is supporting efforts to strengthen African-led education research, with the aim of shifting who produces evidence and shapes educational priorities.
Dana also outlines the areas where Echidna Giving concentrates its funding, including early childhood, foundational learning, and adolescent girls’ education, recognizing these as pivotal moments that influence whether girls remain in school and thrive over the long term. The conversation considers how philanthropy can complement, rather than replace, public systems, acknowledging that governments remain the largest investors in education worldwide.
This episode is a thoughtful exploration of effective philanthropy, trust-based grantmaking, systems change, and the challenge of turning substantial resources into meaningful, lasting impact.
About Dana Schmidt
Dana Schmidt is the Program Director at Echidna Giving, where she leads a growing global team working to advance girls’ education, particularly in East Africa and India. Echidna Giving is a private funder granting $6 billion over the next 30 years to bring quality, gender-responsive education to both girls and boys in lower-income countries.
Before joining Echidna Giving as its first full-time employee in 2016, Dana was a program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she helped to develop and run a ten-year, $125 million grantmaking initiative to improve the quality of education that children receive in low and middle income countries. While at the Hewlett Foundation, she oversaw grantmaking related to education in India and East Africa. In addition, she led the Foundation's international grantmaking for Open Educational Resources (OER).
Earlier in her career, Dana spent time teaching secondary school students in both Kenya and Zambia. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with an undergraduate degree in Economics and African Studies and earned her master's degree in International Educational Administration and Policy Analysis from the Stanford University School of Education.