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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.
At the Gates Foundation Greater Giving Summit last spring, there was a hearty discussion about how we leaders in philanthropy should approach our work with a stronger equity lens. The conversation highlighted how methods used to pursue greater impact in recent decades...
Philanthropy has played a critical role in the struggles of peoples for freedom and justice through the centuries — from abolition, suffrage, and ending apartheid to strengthening democracy, promoting peace, and working on racial and economic equality. So, too, must...
Philanthropists aspire to major progress on big, systemic issues like education or public health and most fund individual interventions in the hope that one will break through and scale. But the hard truth is that achieving population-level impact requires changing...
As practitioners of the Equitable Evaluation Framework, we are committed to putting the people we are here to serve at the center of our work. We view evaluation as a tool for advancing justice and liberation — and we also acknowledge that this work is hard, messy,...
MacKenzie Scott’s unprecedented giving since 2019 has spurred many conversations on the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. What impact has her giving had on organizations, their ability to accomplish their goals, and their ability to fundraise? Will her giving shape...
As a relatively new entrant to philanthropy, I was recently asked about my attraction to and assessment of the field. Uncharacteristically, I found it challenging to articulate a response. Days later, accompanied by my Grantmakers in Health board colleagues, I...
I joined Omidyar Network six years ago in large part because I was fed up with the grantee/funder model. Time and time again I saw nonprofits drift from their vision and purpose, moving away from what they saw as the greatest needs of the people they serve and towards...
At the Zilber Family Foundation we often highlight our commitment to operational excellence and continuous improvement. We seek feedback from our grantee partners to assess the Foundation’s practices, programs, and partnerships, and to help identify opportunities to...
The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) works with funders all over the world, including dozens of grantmakers headquartered in Europe. Recently, CEP joined the Philanthropy Europe Association (Philea), an association of philanthropic funders and infrastructure...
You would be hard pressed to find an idea that has gained more traction more quickly than a guaranteed income. When it was first proposed in Stockton, CA, people were shocked — “How will you stop them from buying flat-screen TVs?” “Won’t they just spend it on drugs...
It has become trendy, for some reason, to argue that we’re paying too much attention to numbers, such as those tracked by Giving USA, that gauge contributions to nonprofit organizations. Generosity, the thinking goes, is about so much more than this, and, therefore,...
SHINE is an education charity operating in the North of England. Between their first engagement with CEP’s GPR in 2017 and their second in 2022, SHINE made some major changes, moving their headquarters, shifting their strategy, and building new and deeper...
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was clear we faced an unprecedented crisis. COVID-19 was not only taking lives, but destroying livelihoods too, with Black and Latine communities hit the hardest. At UpTogether, we experienced this moment in a unique way: an...
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, CEP has set out to document the needs of nonprofits and the response of funders. Today, we released new research that corroborates many of the changes that foundations reported making to their processes in response to...
Thank you, funders. During the worst of the pandemic in 2020-2021, you pumped out an extra $29.3 billion to support the work of charitable nonprofits. To get money out quickly, many of you tried new processes that proved so successful you continue using them today,...
Innovation. The word has become almost cliché at this point. It’s been co-opted and attributed to everything from smart phones to microwave pizza. At the risk of perpetuating the hyperbole, human services is starved for innovation. I’m a social worker by training, and...
Social change takes time, and it is never a linear process. It also happens within an ecosystem, and rarely comes down to a single grantee partner or foundation. If we are honest, change is entirely out of a foundation’s control. Despite all of this, funders continue...
In their recent report, State of Nonprofits 2023: What Funders Need to Know, the Center for Effective Philanthropy is doing all of us an incredible service by lifting up the experiences and perspectives of nonprofits around the country in this uncertain moment. I am...
As America wraps up its Independence Day celebrations, it is the perfect time to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate the essential role journalism plays in upholding American democracy — and the role philanthropy has to play in supporting both. Independent...
When it was first suggested that we share some of our thoughts related to our most recent — and remarkably positive — Grantee Perception Survey (GPR), I struggled. It felt awkward to promote practices that we learned from you, our peers, and which are practiced by so...