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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.
CEP’s latest research report, Persevering Through Crisis: The State of Nonprofits, provides further evidence of the devastating impact of 2020 on nonprofits — and how the crises of the past year hit some nonprofits much harder than others. While many nonprofits...
In March 2020, I was on a call with 15 other nonprofit leaders. As the world was coming to grips with the reality of the pandemic, my peers and I were advised to expect a 40 percent revenue reduction to our organizations in the upcoming 12-24 months. It took years for...
It seems like only yesterday that I announced I’d be moving to Amsterdam in January 2019 to lead CEP’s work with funders in Europe and beyond. Two and a half years and a global pandemic later, the time has come for me to say goodbye to CEP. In August I’ll leave my...
Higher education and social change are inextricably linked: by providing access to education, a scholarship program provides access to knowledge, resources, and opportunity for not only an individual, but a community. With many developing countries experiencing youth...
The nature of philanthropy as we know it is changing. It has evolved from direct aid to bespoke outcome-linked programs to a higher systems change aspiration. The nature of philanthropy is also – undeniably – in flux, as this shift in aspirations brings with it a...
Consultants have long played a critical role in the work of nonprofits and foundations, helping to facilitate strategy, guide leaders, and serve as outsourced staff. In the future, consultants will continue to play these important roles – likely their importance may...
A colleague recently asked me how much has changed since I wrote “The Dance of Deceit,” a 2004 Stanford Social Innovation Review article in which I reflected on my seven years as managing director of REDF and the power imbalances I observed and experienced. In the...
In January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was an abstract concept to most of us. By March, we started experiencing the overwhelming impact caused by COVID-19 in the U.S., affecting every aspect of our lives. Since that time, many social sector organizations have endured...
After eighteen months of the most tumultuous time in Company One Theatre’s 21-year history as a social justice and arts organization, we have learned that the idealized nonprofit arts business model that encourages an over reliance on earned revenue is both unreliable...
In the Hewlett Foundation’s Knowledge for Better Philanthropy strategy, we fund the creation and dissemination of high-quality knowledge regarding philanthropic practice for foundations. We recently released an evaluation of the strategy entitled, How Funders Seek and...
“Conflict is the midwife of consciousness.” - Paulo Freire In my lifetime, I have never felt more hopeful. The cacophony of unlikely factors that focused our vast nation (and much of the world) on the tragic murder of George Floyd ignited our generation’s...
Funder exits are inevitable – whether as a result of a foundation’s strategic realignment, shift in priority countries, budget cuts, poor portfolio performance, or, in the worst case scenario, opaque top-down decisions. No surprise then that funders, and especially...
When CEP released a report last June about the state of nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic, prospects looked bleak. Nonprofit leaders from our Grantee Voice panel revealed that the pandemic was devastating their organizations as well as the people and communities...
In 2017, when the Trump administration moved into the White House, I remember my former employer ordering the entire staff pizzas as if in apology. I ate a slice during my lunch break while scrolling through my phone's newsfeed, trying not to panic about what this new...
Responsible investors combine their financial objectives with environmental, social, and governance-related risks and impacts. This type of investing goes far beyond simple exclusionary screening or even the much-touted “ESG integration” (environmental, social, and...
It’s entirely predictable, I suppose, but the backlash to last year’s reckoning on racism is definitely here, a year after George Floyd’s horrific murder–and now it’s visible within the little world of institutional philanthropy. We are seeing, for example, both the...
Nonprofits large and small must strategically marshal resources to ensure that they have staff, resources and capacity to accomplish their goals. Such challenges are magnified when nonprofits take on systems change work where powerful opponents are arrayed against...
A version of this blog post originally appeared on the CEP blog in July 2019. It is re-posted here as part of our Rewind series. Thanks to the digital age, we live in a new era of storytelling. Whether through blogs, emails, social media, or video, using...
This post originally appeared on the Hewlett Foundation blog. It is reposted here with permission. The Hewlett Foundation began collecting information about the demographic makeup of its grantees in 2018 as part of our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and...
Among its many effects, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the experiences of many college students, preventing them from attending on-campus classes or experiencing traditional internships. At Oberlin College, third-year students had the opportunity to complete...