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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.
“We have too many people trying to problem-solve from a distance,” says Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). “And when you try to problem-solve from a distance you miss the details and the nuances of the problems and your solutions don’t work very...
Funder effectiveness matters. It matters because funders have a unique ability to contribute to change. It matters because more effective funders can have a profoundly positive impact on the organizations they support — and thus on the people, issues, and communities...
It’s no secret that working in the nonprofit sector is a challenge. Many organizations are strapped for resources, and staff are often overworked and working for less money than they could get at a for-profit company. So why do people do it? Many who choose the...
Funders care about American education. Foundations of all sizes, locations, and ideological beliefs aim to improve education and support young people, and, in 2012, foundations spent $5 billion on education. With all of this investment, don’t we want to know whether...
As a foundation that sees relationships as a key component of philanthropy and social change, The Whitman Institute (TWI) applauds CEP’s recent report, Relationships Matter: Program Officers, Grantees, and the Keys to Success. It may seem like common sense that...
In our “post-truth” world, we are all overwhelmed by information. In-person interactions struggle to compete with the ceaseless barrage of push notifications popping up on our mobile devices. Attention, trust, and full presence are now among our scarcest resources....
At CEP we are always thinking about the ways that strong funder-grantee relationships affect the success of foundations’ efforts. This topic has been a major emphasis in our research agenda for more than a decade, as we have continually investigated the questions,...
Over the past 20 years, the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) community has championed the idea that strong relationships with nonprofit partners matter. As we say in Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter?, “When we build trust with and tap the knowledge of...
Strong relationships between program officers and their grantees are always important. But they’re especially important when disaster strikes. Hurricane Harvey brought Houston nearly 51 inches of rain and some of the worst flooding we’ve ever experienced. The...
In my position at CEP, I have experienced what it is like to navigate funders’ individual guidelines and requirements. I know sometimes selection processes can feel like jumping through a series of irrelevant hoops rather than useful experiences. And I’ve been through...
This post originally appeared on the United Philanthropy Forum website. The nonprofit sector has a board diversity problem. A recent BoardSource report showed that nonprofit boards are no more racially and ethnically diverse than they were two decades ago...
On the 10th anniversary of his involvement with the Gates Foundation, Warren Buffet wrote a letter to Bill and Melinda Gates asking them to reflect on their progress achieving their goals at the head of world’s largest foundation. In his letter Buffett mentions that...
This post appears as part of our Q&A series on the blog, in which readers can submit questions to be answered by CEP’s experts. We’d love to hear from you with questions related to relationship-building with grantees, grantmaking patterns, assistance beyond the...
This article by Anand Sinha, country advisor for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in India, was originally published on India Development Review. You can read the original here. “Failure is not an option” read the bumper sticker on the rear window of...
Funders often request compelling data to make the case that investing in grantee staff advances nonprofit programs and impact. Understandably, before making a significant investment you want to see proof that the investment will enjoy solid returns. Fortunately, there...
At the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, where I serve as president, we decided to get into the social media business three years ago. Prior to that, the foundation’s only communication interest was transparency. We maintained a website and published an annual report....
As two former urban school superintendents, we know first-hand the challenges school districts face on a daily basis, and how trying to educate children can be compounded by the stresses and challenges that emerge from natural disasters and other traumatic community...
As a program officer at the Nord Family Foundation, I have the privilege of meeting with various nonprofit executive directors, CFOs, development officers, program staff, and board members. Depending on the organization’s staff size and skill capacity, it is not...
Change is all around us — from climate to communities — creating a world of increasing uncertainty and turbulence. Nonprofit organizations are particularly vulnerable to these changing conditions, yet their work is needed more than ever. How can philanthropy help...
This post originally appeared on Philanthropy Daily. Last week I wrote (in Philanthropy Daily) about how, over the last two decades, researchers in biology, neuroscience, and psychology have shown consistently that subjects with power lose a great degree of...