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The CEP blog aims to offer a range of perspectives, experiences, and opinions related to effective philanthropic practice. We welcome submissions that address crucial issues facing individual and institutional donors and are not self-promotional in nature. The views expressed in these posts are not necessarily CEP’s own.
Foundations are grappling with how to address societal challenges deeply rooted in complex systems. At the same time, many foundations are trying to center equity in their work and to be more accountable to the communities they fund. They are doing all of this while...
The success of a partnership depends on more than its collective capital, issue expertise, or institutional efficacy. Take the Mars Climate Orbiter for example: a $125M satellite burned on Mars’ surface because – if you can believe it – NASA was calculating in meters...
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We barely had time to grieve the loss of life in Gilroy when the news of the El Paso shootings emerged. It was beyond devastating. As...
In July 2014, a small group of funders came together to form Fund for Shared Insight, a collaborative focused on promoting listening and feedback to elevate the voices of those least heard in our field: the beneficiaries of nonprofit programs and services. We wanted...
The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s (CEP) most recent research report, Crucial Donors: How Major Individual Givers Can Best Support Nonprofits, reveals in its key findings that “relationships matter,” and “understanding is a key component to any kind of strong...
At Fidelity Charitable, we are often asked by nonprofit organizations, “How can we better work with major donors to make more of an impact?” And my reply is always the same: the best way to make an impact with major donors is to engage with them. Nonprofits often face...
This post originally appeared on the blog in March 2015, and is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. CEP is currently in the process of renewing its membership with AAPOR's Transparency Initiative. “There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be...
When most people hear the word “philanthropy,” they often think of large foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or the Ford Foundation, but individual donors are the lifeblood of the nonprofit sector. Foundations direct less than 20 percent of the...
There is tremendous opportunity for philanthropy to contribute significantly to progress against the toughest social problems that defy government and market solutions. While philanthropy alone cannot solve all of the world’s complex social problems, it can take on...
This 2012 post on foundation governance was, for a long time, the most widely read post on the CEP blog. We are re-posting it here today as part of our “Rewind” series for those who didn’t see it back then — or for those who want a refresher on what habits boards...
This blog post from CEP’s Vice President, Programming and External Relations, Grace Nicolette, originally appeared on the CEP blog in September 2017. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. Over the last decade, I’ve been on a journey in more deeply...
Philanthropic foundations and their donors have the freedom to direct their donations and social investments in any way they see fit. There is tremendous power in this freedom: it gives them the ability to take risks and support projects, issues, and organizations...
This post originally appeared on The Jim Joseph Foundation blog. In reflecting about my journey at the Jim Joseph Foundation – these last 4 ½ years – an insight from Mother Teresa comes to mind. Indeed, after a lifetime of working with the poor, the sick, and the...
Nonprofit CEOs believe that the diversity of their organizations matters, and they recognize that, currently, their staffs and boards should better represent the populations they seek to serve. This is just one of the stark findings that emerged when we surveyed...
This post is excerpted and adapted from Shrewd Samaritan: Faith, Economics, and the Road to Loving our Global Neighbor (2019) by Bruce Wydick, available from HarperCollins/Thomas Nelson. Providing direct cash transfers to impoverished communities, both domestically...
Learning and knowledge sharing are important topics in philanthropy. By adopting a learning orientation and exchanging knowledge with others, grantmakers can better position themselves to address the complex problems they're working to solve today. Learning itself,...
Earlier this summer CEP held its first Innovation Week, where all staff shifted focus from their everyday work to outside-the-box ideas that could move CEP’s mission forward. These projects could be anything related to CEP’s mission: ideas they've had before, but...
In the current sociopolitical moment, in which many with less power (or those who have been strategically disenfranchised) find themselves struggling to get those in power to listen, there’s broad agreement in philanthropy about the importance of constituent input....
The stories of organizations and their growth often get short-handed and personalized with the names of the CEOs or perhaps one or two other public-facing staff. But an organization’s ability to grow, expand its reach and influence, and successfully respond to a need...
My CEP colleagues and I have seen the inside of more foundation boardrooms than just about anyone. It is, perhaps, a dubious distinction – though some boardrooms have amazing views that are definitely worth seeing. But it does give us a little insight into what is,...