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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 unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic are upending norms in the United States and around the globe. We’re all doing things we never imagined doing. And we are doing them in the interest of the greater good. In order for philanthropy to...
“It was so important just to be treated like a human being.” “As a woman of color, I can’t tell you what it meant to be approached by a funder I didn’t know who saw me and trusted me.” “DO SOMETHING!” These comments from nonprofit leaders at three different funder...
Millions of people across the world are thinking about data and evidence today as if their life depends on it — because it does. The exponential increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases within a state or province, the impact of “flattening the curve,” and the evidence...
Targeting Support to Organizations Most in Need As nonprofits struggle to respond to COVID-19 and the accompanying economic shutdown that has gripped the country, everything that many thought they knew about nonprofit revenue models is being challenged. As it turns...
The Need to Up Giving Levels Even When You Have Less “Funders are taking action now,” read the text I received Tuesday from Cathy Moore, executive director of ECHOS in Houston. “Collaboration with other funders also occurring.” This was welcome news. Over the weekend,...
As stores, companies, foundations, schools, colleges, and other organizations close up and go remote due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the staff of direct service nonprofit organizations on the front lines — often serving the most vulnerable and...
Most economists believe the U.S. economy will enter the next recession by the end of 2021. Though that date is already fast approaching, the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) across the world — and the disruption and uncertainty it has brought with it —...
I am not a sportswriter. Neither was I capable at 6’3” of even making my high school basketball team, despite expectations to the contrary. Still, my affection for basketball leads me to utilize many of the relevant metaphors the sport offers. In 2015, the Golden...
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 have identified four...
In Phil Buchanan’s recent post on his hopes for philanthropy in the 2020s, he issues a call to “embrace measurement as the crucial and important challenge that it is and reject dumbed-down metrics like overhead ratios that tell us little about results.” We think...
This post is the second 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...
The nonprofit perspective matters in any discussion about the philanthropic sector. After all, nonprofit organizations are on the front lines, executing the hard work needed to address important challenges facing communities across the country and globally....
During the past 15 years, I’ve spent a lot of time (some might say an unusual amount, even) thinking about the importance of gathering and responding to feedback from the people social sector programs are designed to help. I initially got the “feedback bug” in 2008...
This post originally appeared on India Development Review. It is the fundamentals of an organization — arguably more so than great program design or execution — that are key to delivering high impact. This insight drove a recent decision by Children’s Investment Fund...
This post is the first 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...
This post originally appeared on the ACF (Association of Charitable Foundations) website. The report Impact and Learning: The Pillars of Stronger Foundation Practice defines learning as a “proactive and lifelong process of reflection and open listening” that “takes...
Under pressure to reimagine philanthropic practice, private foundations are increasingly attentive to the quality of their relationships with grantees. They’re asking important questions of themselves with greater frequency: Are we listening? Are we providing adequate...
Evaluation, at its heart, is a data-driven tool that helps us to look back and reflect. The Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) regularly utilizes that tool to examine the success and impact of our grant programs. We regularly ask grantees to evaluate...
One of the primary ways the staff at the Jacob & Valeria Langeloth Foundation would describe ourselves and how we work is that we “follow the field.” We pride ourselves on the fact that we are non-directive funders — we would never dictate to a grantee what they...