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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.
Americans love a good success story and high school graduation season lends itself to tales of exceptional achievement as each spring brings a predictable stream of articles with clickbait titles like: “High school senior graduating two years early offered admission...
Philanthropy has become an increasingly important tool for individuals to drive change and express their values, with Millennial and Gen Z donors particularly engaged in addressing issues of systemic inequality and social justice. While a small number of funders...
During a conversation last month about a journalism project that needs more funding, I was explaining to a foundation program officer our policy for disclosing grant funding in the journalism we publish noting that The Associated Press maintains complete control over...
AI is here, and it is changing the way many in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors (and other fields, too, of course) work, or even think about their roles; for some, this is an exciting prospect, for others a deeply threatening one. For most of us, though, it...
My path to philanthropy leads through the Appalachian mountains, where I grew up surrounded by a strong-knit yet financially impoverished community. Although my hometown is full of good people, it is a place that lacks economic opportunity. Through a combination of...
There is a persistent itch in the working world right now, a growing sense of deep and widely shared dissatisfaction. As part of my work with Leading Edge, an organization working to improve culture and leadership in the Jewish nonprofit field, I get to speak with...
In the past year alone, journalists from The Associated Press have explored the impact of climate change on the Jordan River and other sacred rivers in Africa, Asia, and South America; revealed hundreds of thousands of students have disappeared from U.S. public school...
In college, I had a journalism professor who taught us never to start a piece with a question. But I can’t help myself. I want to know: Who is threatening "philanthropic freedom?” And I want to know what pluralism really looks like — and who defines it? OK, that was...
The scale, speed, and innovative approach of Mackenzie Scott’s giving is unprecedented. It should energize dialog and actions among givers of all sorts, ideally moving the field toward learning and improvement. In a previous post, I highlighted the potential impact of...
This post originally appeared on the blog in October 2021. With the effects of climate change becoming starker, climate philanthropy is taking off as never before. New players like the Bezos Earth Fund are making a splash and overall funding is rising each year; a...
The challenges that nonprofits take on — hunger, disease, climate change, armed conflict, racial injustice, gender inequality, and human rights abuses, to list just a few — are amongst the toughest that societies face. The odds often seem insurmountable, particularly...
Much has been written about the impact and significance of leading edge, equity-based practices in philanthropy, such as trust-based philanthropy principles, sharing power through participatory decision-making, getting proximate to community, and centering community...
This post originally appeared on the blog in February 2022. We’ve spent a ton of time in foundation board rooms, for better and for worse. We’ve also been board members and guest speakers at operating nonprofits and one of us staffed two college boards decades...
This blog post is a follow-up to the January 25, 2022 webinar co-hosted by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project and the Center for Evaluation Innovation and was first published as a resource on the Center for Evaluation Innovation website and on...
There’s no lack of visual models for organizing people to get stuff done. Bottom up (think: pyramid). Top down (inverted pyramid). Groundswell (maybe the image of an ocean comes to mind?). Flat (you get the idea). What comes to mind when you see this word? Connected....
Many philanthropic foundations put “dignity” into the heart of their mission statements and organizational values. Ford Foundation, Dubai Cares, UNICEF and UNOPS have created and funded initiatives to affirm human dignity, helping to build and advance the dignity...
Alarms are ringing about a youth mental health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic, school shootings, attacks on LGBTQ+ youth, and a worsening climate crisis threaten the future of young people. All of this has dovetailed with an ever-growing pressure on students to achieve...
Many leaders in our field, perhaps a majority, understand that for too long, philanthropy has operated in a top-down, hierarchical mode, isolated from the people and communities impacted by our decisions. We have privileged voices and perspectives of the wealthy and...
What will it take to make lasting change for women’s rights? The gut punch of last summer’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent wave of state anti-abortion bans — on the heels of a difficult pandemic that disproportionately affected women — raises...
Imagine coming home from working or from running errands, and there are people on your property. There are trucks everywhere. Your yard is being dug up, your valuables taken. When you approach them and ask them to leave, they attack you. They tell you they’re not...