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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.
The cover story of the March 2014 Harvard Business Review (HBR) on work-life balance was of interest to me because, like most of us, I struggle with getting this right. I worry about it for myself, of course, and also for the staff of CEP. So I cracked open...
With so much to read, emails on top of new reports on top of blog posts, it feels like a luxury to re-read…anything. When I have a few free minutes, there are a few pieces I try to return to, particularly an essay by Alan Pifer that serves as a regular reminder to me...
Although there has much discussion about nonprofit sustainability, the “overhead myth,” and unrestricted funding (see TCC Group’s “The Sustainability Formula,” GEO’s “On the Money” and NFF’s “2013 State of the Nonprofit sector” as just a few examples), nonprofits...
My first Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) conference was in 2002, but I remember it very clearly. It was a big deal to me because it was the first time I attended a significant conference and spoke about what CEP was learning in its early research. The...
In the past decade, foundations have become more deeply engaged in assessing their performance. But performance assessment is only a means to an end. The real question is – do foundations feel like they now have a better understanding of their impact? To find this...
In a recent blog post from my colleague Kevin Bolduc, he shared inspiring examples of two funders trying something a bit different: sharing the results of their Grantee Perception Reports (GPR) in-person with their grantees. While we often see foundations sharing...
In the coming days, CEP’s new website will be live (and it may even be by the time you read this), along with a new logo, brand identity, and tag line: Improving foundation performance through data + insight. The launch of this new site comes on the heels of...
Diversity—in particular, racial diversity—has become an increasingly discussed issue in the context of foundation effectiveness. Much of the data fueling these discussions has been about the demographics of foundation staff, leaders, and boards and the policies that...
How can funders better inform their own assessment of progress and earn their – and others’ - confidence in any impact achieved? That’s the question that jumped out at us here at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy after reviewing...
At CEP, we strive to make our assessment tools as accessible as possible to as many funders as possible. Since our inception, assessment tools such as our flagship Grantee Perception Report have primarily been used by larger foundations with annual giving of over $5...
One theme that has come up again and again in CEP’s research on foundation effectiveness is the importance of foundations communicating their goals clearly. Our past research has shown that how clearly a foundation communicates its goals and strategies to grantees is...
Many people use the start of a new year as a time to think about the future. Some make predictions, others make resolutions. A few have recently shared their hopes for what foundations will do in 2014. But what are foundation CEOs themselves concerned about for the...
Phil Buchanan presents updated CEP’s updated definition of foundation effectiveness, and encourages readers to share their thoughts on what’s missing.
Every New Year, we tend to dream of what the next year might bring. In that spirit, here are my wishes for what we’d see in foundationland in my imagined 2014. Let me emphasize that these are not predictions (I am a bit of a cynic about predictions). These are instead...
Phil Buchanan reflects on the past year and recalls our 2013 conference – In Search of Impact – as one of the year’s key highlights.
Guest authors Fay Twersky and Larry Kramer, of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, react to CEP’s new research report “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact” by urging foundation staff to continuously reflect on their strategy and progress, while openly and proactively sharing the results of such reflections.
Steve Seleznow, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Community Foundation, interprets the findings from CEP’s latest research report, “How Far Have We Come? CEOs on Progress and Impact” from a community foundation perspective. Seleznow points to the unique challenges to evaluating progress introduced by competing interests within community foundations, but rather than giving up on charting impact, he argues instead to transform the conventional definition of impact.
Guest author Lucy Bernholz, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, reacts to CEP’s research report, “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact.” Bernholz recognizes the unique difficulty of assessing progress in philanthropy but argues that the challenge foundations face in measuring outcomes is intrinsic to the work they do.
Guest author Paul Brest, Professor Emeritus at Stanford Law School and former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, reacts to CEP’s research report, “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact.” Though encouraged that foundation CEOs’ recognize the value of acquiring and sharing evidence of what works to improve outcomes, Brest argues that is is crucial for foundation leaders to begin to act on these beliefs.
Phil Buchanan, speaking to an audience of mostly nonprofit leaders at the After the Leap conference, asked if funders get it, when it comes to funding performance assessment for their grantees. Unsurprisingly, but discouragingly, the answer was for the most part, “no.”