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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.
CEP has been actively exploring the topic of beneficiary feedback through its YouthTruth project since 2008. We were very pleased to share what we are learning – and to challenge the status quo -- on the Tactical Philanthropy blog this week, where the following post...
The use and management of data stands at the core of the work undertaken by the Center for Effective Philanthropy. The set of survey tools CEP has developed as well as field-wide research builds comparative data drawn from key constituent groups—grantees, donors,...
Community foundation leaders value the idea of strategy—but few use it in their donor or programmatic work.
Ellie Buteau, Ph.D., discusses response bias—the decision of foundation leaders to participate or not—to CEP research, and what readers should keep in mind about this particular challenge.
Laura Olson shares how YouthTruth survey results inform the work of The California Endowment in its efforts to improve Del Norte County youth outcomes.
Over the past decade foundations have worked to assess their performance in the fields and communities they seek to address. In particular, data-driven forms of measurement have become more widely used to judge the results of programs, along with a broader range of information now used to assess performance.
Findings drawn from a survey of the CEOs of 173 U.S. foundations with annual grantmaking of at least $5 million focus on the current status of performance assessment among larger foundations.
Phil Buchanan glances back 10 years as CEP prepares to release a new report on performance assessment for foundations.
Leaders from philanthropy and the nonprofit sector have been invited to CEP from time to time to talk about a wide range of issues. Here, two staff members reflect on conversations with Beth Smith of the Hyams Foundation and Allen Grossman of Harvard Business School.
Phil Buchanan weighs in on the idea that the business sector can address the issues traditionally seen as the domain of nonprofits – and on the persistence of borders distinguishing one sector from the other.
Phil Buchanan writes about the challenge of ensuring that the current efforts of the big foundations and philanthropists to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for poor kids don’t meet the same fate as failed efforts of the past.
In an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op ed, Phil Buchanan, Fay Twersky, and Valerie Threlfall argue for listening to students to find out what’s really going on in schools.
David Trueblood reports on CEP’s visibility in coverage of the Gates Foundation 2010 annual report.
Kathy Merchant, president and CEO of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and Neil Steinberg, president and CEO of The Rhode Island Foundation, talk about using the Donor Perception Report to strengthen the work of their organizations.
Phil Buchanan’s talks about the relationship between passion and assessment in a forum at the Hudson Institute.
Phil Buchanan reviews Mario Marino’s new book, ‘Leap of Reason’, calling it a must read for anyone who cares about impact.
Does a new report on nonprofit leadership draw the right conclusions? Phil Buchanan weighs in on Daring to Lead.
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research co-founders Michael J. Fox and Debi Brooks discuss the challenges and surprises they experienced creating a major new medical research foundation.
“…while passion and emotion are often the problem because they can lead us astray, they’re also the solution. For it is only a passionate commitment to really getting it right – to seeing results – that can provide the will and discipline necessary to do the hard work of data-gathering, strategy formulating, assessing, and analyzing.”
Even before Esther Duflo rose to speak at the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s (CEP) 2011 conference, she had already stirred controversy. Her well-known belief in the ability of randomized controlled trails to understand the effectiveness of policy interventions...
Phil Buchanan shares CEP’s 2010 annual report, welcoming feedback on the information and the new video format.