Karl Zinsmeister is editor of The Philanthropy Roundtable's guidebook series, which include volumes on blended learning, high‑achieving students, teacher and principal excellence, charter schools, Catholic schools, and other topics of interest to education donors, as well as books on philanthropy for the poor, veterans and military families, and other causes. He also oversees Philanthropy magazine, and the Roundtable's website and online publications. He is creating the forthcoming Almanac of American Philanthropy. Zinsmeister has authored eight books, made a PBS film, and written hundreds of articles for publications ranging from The Atlantic to the Wall Street Journal to Reader's Digest. He previously was a Senate aide to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the J. B. Fuqua Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and chief domestic policy adviser to President George W. Bush.

He is a graduate of Yale University and also studied at Trinity College Dublin.