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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 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Approach The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is committed to building a Culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being. Achieving this goal requires valuing and...
For several decades now, it’s been a common refrain from funders that choose not to provide general operating support (GOS) grants: we can’t make those grants because it’s too difficult to measure and assess their impact. In CEP’s 2006 report, In Search of Impact, the...
A Black leader from Los Angeles recently texted me: “Why is it so hard to get a core support grant from foundations, even though I have been doing this work for 20 years?” Her question might as well have been: “Why don’t funders trust us?” While many funders claim to...
It was almost two decades ago that I got my first taste of how frustrating funder restrictions on grants could be. I had recently started working at CEP, and we were discussing a project proposal draft with a potential funder. The funder asked us to add additional...
This post originally appeared on the Taproot Foundation blog. COVID-19 has changed everything about our daily lives. People are keeping their distance. Businesses have had to completely shift their way of doing business or closed entirely. Organizations everywhere are...
Right now — in a moment that none of us could have predicted, yet should not be surprised by — a lot is being asked of philanthropy. Just read a few of the many demands: Increase investments in Black-led organizations that connect individuals and families to a wide...
This post on the importance of flexible funding and the restrictiveness of line-item grant budgets originally appeared on the blog in June 2018. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind blog series. For more content related to this topic, stay tuned later this...
This post originally appeared on the Einhorn Collaborative blog. Philanthropic organizations need to change course all the time, but the speed and scale of the change required in 2020 is profound. In all organizational change, there are real challenges felt during the...
At the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP), we say that all philanthropists are disaster philanthropists seeking to strengthen communities. Prior to 2020, this adage was a way to remind donors that no matter their focus or mission, there was a tie-in for them in...
This post originally appeared on the National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) blog. In 2016, I was asked to join a philanthropic project that was close to the heart of philanthropist Warren Buffett and his beloved older sister, Doris Buffett. The “letters...
Decision-makers such as elected officials and institutional funders have historically ignored and underinvested in BIPOC communities. Fed up, those communities are calling on grantmakers to address the disproportionate impacts they are enduring from the COVID-19...
America has never needed more from civil society. Our country is being rocked by a health pandemic, an age-old racism pandemic, economic upheaval, sweeping cuts in safety net programs, and an increasing political vitriol that’s killing efforts to address these...
The murder of George Floyd by a police officer — one in an unbroken string of unjust Black deaths at the hands of law enforcement — has triggered an unprecedented national outpouring of grief, rage, and demands for change throughout the country. The fact that these...
Listen now to the season one trailer. Few topics get more personal than figuring out the why, how, and how much of charitable giving. A few years ago, when my husband, Tim, and I sat down to flesh out our giving priorities as a couple, it was an eye-opening experience...
In the past year, CEP has deepened its focus on partnering with funders across the world, including through establishing a presence in Amsterdam.
In the past year, CEP has deepened its focus on partnering with funders across the world, including through establishing a presence in Amsterdam. We recently analyzed our comparative Grantee Perception Report (GPR) dataset and identified four high-performing...
Over the last several months, the world has been changing at a dizzying pace. In our conversations with funders and nonprofit leaders, we’ve heard about the devastating impact of the pandemic — and the existential shock it’s created for our sector and its ability to...
Change Realized: How Foundations are Contributing to Public Policy Successes This post is the final in “Foundations and Policy Engagement: Insights in Their Own Words,” a five-part series on the CEP Blog. (Read Post 1 here, Post 2 here, Post 3 here, and Post 4 here.)...
In the past year, CEP has deepened its focus on partnering with funders across the world, including through establishing a presence in Amsterdam. We recently analyzed our comparative Grantee Perception Report (GPR) dataset and identified four...
Earlier this year, CEP released Policy Influence: What Foundations are Doing and Why, a report that sheds light on how foundations think about and approach their efforts to influence public policy. The research finds, among other things, that the primary way...