About us

Goodman Philanthropies is a family-run philanthropy committed to enhancing economic mobility in the United States.

Bennett Goodman himself is living proof of the American promise of economic mobility, coming from very humble beginnings. Today, he is a prominent American financier and co-founder of GSO Capital Partners, the credit investment arm of Blackstone. With a career spanning several decades in alternative asset management, Goodman has played a significant role in shaping the private credit and leveraged finance industries. Bennett & Meg Goodman, alongside their children Jared, Alex, and Julia, now see it as their duty to help ensure economic mobility is a reality for Americans still today through helping identify barriers to economic mobility, and develop and scale solutions through philanthropy

Please see our Grants Portfolio for more detail on Goodman Philanthropies’ active grants currently. Beyond economic mobility, Meg & Bennett Goodman are also long-time supporters of the Whitney Museum of the American Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York Presbyterian Hospital & Health System, and various Jewish American causes.

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Our Leadership

Pam Harder, Executive Director

Pam has dedicated her entire career to creating pathways for economic opportunity for individuals and families across the U.S. Prior to joining Goodman Philanthropies, Pam led go-to-market sales strategy at Guild Education, an upskilling and career mobility platform for adult learners. She also spent four years in state government designing, executing, and scaling efforts to align Virginia’s higher education and training / workforce systems more closely, including leading the largest ever state-wide investment in tech talent.  Pam started her career in management consulting, where she led engagements focused on early childhood education, workforce development and training, and financial education & literacy both in the US and internationally. She also worked in Mumbai, India for an early-stage fintech focused on alternative credit models. Her writing and research has been published in The Atlantic, National Journal,  Stanford Alumni Magazine, and the Journal of Education and Work. Pam holds Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Stanford University, an Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Harvard Business School. 

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Meet Our Expert Advisors