As far back as I can remember, racial constructions have been a part of my reality and lived experience. From my mom telling me that I had to work ten times harder than my white counterparts to be successful, to growing up in under-resourced neighborhoods of color...
Blog
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.
Social Justice and a Relevant Philanthropic Sector: Grantmaking
This post is the fifth and final in “Social Justice and a Relevant Philanthropic Sector,” a series by Miles Wilson about where philanthropy is stuck in old paradigms — and where there lie opportunities to advance social justice both within the sector and across...
Race, Equity, and Unavoidable Challenges for Philanthropy
The murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis has led to an outpouring of protest, rage, and in some cases destruction that should surprise no one. From Amadou Diallo to Trayvon Martin to Walter Scott to literally countless other killings (seen and...
Finding the Goldilocks Zone in Policy Influence
Five Considerations for Funders Seeking to Get It “Just Right” The coming year will be a critical moment for philanthropy to aggressively fight the myriad threats to equity that have emerged from the COVID-19 crisis. Giving that helps individuals meet basic needs will...
Using Evidence to Effectively Support Education During COVID-19
In light of school closures caused by COVID-19, millions of students are home for the remainder of the academic year. Philanthropy will play a vital role in the response to this crisis. But how can education funders and donors ensure that they are allocating their...
How Can Funders’ Policy Engagement Practices Match Aspirations? By Centering Equity.
The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s new report, Policy Influence: What Foundations are Doing and Why, provides a welcome snapshot of the sector’s recent approach to policy engagement. Policy Influence highlights a chronic condition in philanthropy: practice often...
How Collaboration Can Help Foundations Achieve Their Policy Goals
Foundation leaders believe philanthropic collaboration is important to achieving their goals. Resources abound on this topic (see Bridgespan and GrantCraft for guides to philanthropic collaboration and collaborative advocacy, respectively). In CEP’s own research, we...
As Learning Changes, It’s Time for Students to Weigh In
With schools gone virtual and live conversations with students no longer possible, listening to students can feel harder than ever. There is always an inherent challenge for teachers, administrators, and education funders in authentically listening to students, given...
Foundations and Policy Influence: CEP’s New Report
Public policy engagement is emerging as a crucial element of the philanthropic response to the COVID-19 crisis. It is especially timely, then, that new research out today from CEP sheds light on how foundations think about and approach their efforts to influence...
How Learning to Listen Prepared One Funder for Its Crisis Response
As our team at Moses Taylor Foundation began responding to the impacts of COVID-19 in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we were uncertain where we’d land. But we knew exactly where to begin: with listening. And as we continue to wrestle with so many questions...
Spend Now or Spend Later: A False Choice?
This post originally appeared on Hilary Pearson's blog. I participated this week in an important discussion facilitated by Tides Canada and Future of Good on the need for foundation philanthropy in Canada to step up its giving in response to the COVID...
Mission First: Giving Counter-Cyclically
Editor’s Note: Recently, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, there has been increased attention paid to whether foundations should step up their grantmaking from budgeted giving levels to respond to the unprecedented needs of the current moment. Last month, CEP and eight...
Six Tips for Funders to Listen Well Right Now
For years, every time I’ve traveled outside of Boston, I took a picture and turned it into a postcard to send to my now 97-year-old grandmother, who lives on her own in rural Maine. She replies with a card. We write about things little and big — our shared love of...
Strengthening Organizations to Build a Vibrant Philanthropic Ecosystem in Africa
African civil society organizations (CSOs) make significant contributions to the continent’s wellbeing. Each year, they raise millions of dollars from individuals and foundations to serve their communities, often testing and scaling innovations and sharing new...
Social Justice and a Relevant Philanthropic Sector: Advancing DEI
This post is the fourth in “Social Justice and a Relevant Philanthropic Sector,” a five-part series by Miles Wilson about where philanthropy is stuck in old paradigms — and where there lie opportunities to advance social justice both within the sector and across...
Essential Questions for Foundation Boards in a Time of Crisis
Earlier this month, BoardSource joined with CEP and seven other colleague organizations to call on foundation leaders to acknowledge and respond to the devastating and unprecedented realities of the COVID-19 pandemic by increasing grant support beyond their normal...
Social Justice and a Relevant Philanthropic Sector: Evaluation
This post is the third in “Social Justice and a Relevant Philanthropic Sector,” a five-part series by Miles Wilson about where philanthropy is stuck in old paradigms — and where there lie opportunities to advance social justice both within the sector and across...
Leadership in a Time of Crisis
What does good leadership in crisis look like? In this time of unprecedented challenge related to COVID-19, what can we learn from the great leaders of the past? In a webinar conversation last week, Nancy F. Koehn, business historian and James E. Robison...
Fulfilling Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Pledge: Listening in a Time of Crisis
As COVID-19’s rapid spread has wreaked havoc on our sector, more than 550 foundations (at the time of writing) have signed a pledge to support our nonprofit partners and the people and communities hardest hit by the pandemic and associated economic impacts. The pledge...
Supporting Our Unsung Heroes in a Moment of Crisis: Part 4
The Costs of Losing Organizations Trusted by Their Communities Many endowed private foundations are wrestling right now with the question of whether to increase their grant spending from what they originally budgeted, even as their endowment values have shrunk, or...