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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.
A recent report from CEP reveals that there is often a gap between what a nonprofit wants and what a funder provides. The report shows that foundation leaders frequently cite a lack of internal staff capacity or time to provide support to strengthen their grantees. As...
Massive challenges face this country and the globe, including threats to key democratic institutions, income inequality, and climate change, to name just a few. Given this context, and the stakes, philanthropic effectiveness is all the more important. While effective...
What words should we use to describe the clients served by nonprofits? Participants in nonprofit programs? Recipients of nonprofit services? End beneficiaries of philanthropy? Partners? Constituents? Citizens? The list of...
In 2008, the Center for Effective Philanthropy report, More than Money: Making a Difference with Assistance Beyond the Grant, found that “the majority of grantees of a typical large foundation receive no assistance beyond the grant, and the 44 percent that do receive...
As funders, we are privileged to support leaders, organizations, and networks that create movements for change. To succeed, that work must be done in partnership, moving together toward our shared goals for positive impact in the world. One of the most powerful ways...
Early in my tenure at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), when our staff numbered just three, I realized that to get visibility for our research on foundation performance assessment, we would need to secure a spot on the agenda of the annual conference of the...
CEP’s new study, Strengthening Grantees: Foundation and Nonprofit Perspectives, finds that a gap in understanding exists between CEOs of nonprofits and foundation leaders when it comes to strengthening organizational needs. Since reading the report, I’ve been...
CEP released a study this week that shows the disconnect between nonprofits and funders on understanding grantees’ organizational strengthening needs. While almost all foundation leaders say they feel responsible for strengthening grantees and care about grantees’...
Strengthening nonprofit organizations and providing general operating support have been discussion topics for decades in philanthropy. When CEP set out to conduct research on these issues late last year, we wondered what the results would reveal to move these...
In a Telegraph interview several years ago, Lisa Marie Presley said, “Something happens to people around fame and power and money — it can bring out the worst and best in people; it’s a monster you have to tame.” In the world of philanthropy, this plays out in...
How many of us have read multiple reports and articles that encourage foundations to provide more unrestricted and multiyear grants? And how often are we reminded that the shift away from restricted project grants has made minimal progress? I’d like to make a friendly...
CEP's report on nonprofit diversity efforts comes at a time when we at the Ford Foundation have been thinking critically about how we collect, analyze, and act upon diversity data from grantee organizations. As a funder, we know we can play a role in normalizing...
“When they hear my voice, it’s power,” declared Paula Jones, a participant at ECHOS, a Houston-based health, social, and educational resource organization. Paula was talking about the power of feedback during a plenary session at the 2018 Shared Insight Gathering in...
At GuideStar, we’ve been collecting demographic information on nonprofit staff and board composition for the past four years. We’ve been recently reflecting on this work as we enter the next phase of nonprofits reporting on their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)...
As an avid runner, I’m anxiously awaiting the opening of the 2019 Boston Marathon registration. It is one of the premier events in the running world, and I’ll be refreshing my browser next Wednesday at 10am the second that runners in my qualifying timeframe are...
A version of this post originally appeared on the FieldWorks blog. Unlike rocket science, which can be precisely replicated anywhere in the world, change that is successful in one social context will unlikely work in exactly the same manner elsewhere. In...
If you are ever looking for a way to produce groans and hisses from your board of directors, tell them that it’s time to update your strategic plan. There are only a few special souls in this world who stand at the front end of a strategic plan and are excited about...
Recently, a grantee sent us an email to request an early disbursement of their organization’s multiyear grant installment. The executive director explained the organization had a one-month gap in covering operational expenses. By moving our annual disbursement up a...
Gluttons for punishment or navel gazers? Who would have thought that the fourth time our foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, completed the Grantee Perception Report (GPR) would be every bit as valuable as the initial one. Each time we have worked...
CEP’s latest report, Nonprofit Diversity Efforts: Current Practices and the Role of Foundations, comes during a time where the foundation sector at large is reflecting on its levels of inclusion and diversity. The case for diversity has been made time and time again....