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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.
Here at CEP, we’re all about feedback and its capacity to inform funders’ decisions about making meaningful changes and improvements to their work. That’s why we analyze feedback data in our research reports and work with funders to help them hear from the candid...
This post from historian Lars Trägårdh originally appeared on HistPhil as part of its ongoing forum on philanthropy in Sweden. It is re-posted here as part of CEP’s blog series on international perspectives on philanthropy. Compared with most other Western...
This interview with John Esterle, co-director of The Whitman Institute (TWI), conducted by Jessica Bearman and Elizabeth Myrick, originally appeared in the PEAK Insight Journal. The interview focuses on TWI’s reporting practices, which are informed by and aligned with...
A version of this blog post from CEP Associate Manager, Research, Matthew Leiwant originally appeared on the CEP blog in March 2016. It is re-posted here as part of our Rewind series. Sifting through every nook and cranny of 73 foundation websites is not fun. On its...
This post originally appeared on the Glasspockets "Transparency Talk" blog. Philanthropy invests billions of dollars into charitable causes each year. According to Foundation Center, foundations gave an estimated $59.28 billion in 2016. That’s a tremendous amount of...
At CEP, we are always eager to learn how the recommendations we provide through our assessments and advisory services affect not just the funders we partner with, but also — and most importantly — the work of their grantees toward improving lives and tackling complex...
The BoardSource report I blogged about last week includes shocking data about a lack of racial diversity in the foundation boardroom. Forty percent of foundation boards for which BoardSource gathered data reported they are all white. Excluding family foundations, 35...
Governance matters across sectors, of course. But within the nonprofit sector, foundation governance is especially crucial. After all, foundations have a significant impact on nonprofits, fields, and communities. But, unlike for an operating nonprofit, there...
Transparency — being open, honest, and clear — is a key driver of strong relationships between funders and grantees. It’s valued by foundation and grantee CEOs alike, and grantees think foundations are doing a decent job of being transparent (though more so in sharing...
This article was originally published on India Development Review. You can read the original here. Strategic philanthropy was born a generation ago to challenge the prevailing orthodoxies of philanthropy over the past century. Moving beyond traditional...
In The Giving Journey: Guiding New Donors to Actualized Philanthropy, our new report at Open Impact, we look into the mindsets and motivations of new ultra-high-net-worth donors. Specifically, we wanted to know: why do Silicon Valley’s “new donors” give? What barriers...
In my work with foundations through CEP’s Grantee Perception Report (GPR), I have the opportunity to see some inspiring examples of how funders use grantee feedback to learn and improve. For funders who receive this feedback, much of the focus on sharing findings back...
Twenty years ago, before I worked in philanthropy, if you had asked me to explain the fundamental purpose of a foundation, I would have given a simple answer: to give money to nonprofits. That was naive. After joining the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation in 2003,...
In a meeting a few weeks ago, my CEP colleagues and I were grappling with understanding what potential impact the new U.S. tax code might have on philanthropy. In 2016, charitable giving reached an all-time high of $390.05 billion. But what will the future look...
We’re starting a new periodic blog series today called “Donor Stories,” in which we highlight origin stories of foundations and funders that reflect upon themes and lessons we are seeing in current philanthropic debates. The idea for this series came about after I...
It’s said that you shouldn’t talk politics in polite company. Does anyone still say that in 2018? I know I haven’t followed that rule in my personal life over the last year. It seems every conversation eventually wends its way back to politics. But the candid grantee...
Technology is changing how we operate in the world. But the social sector is rapidly being left behind as many organizations struggle to understand and use technology to its fullest potential. How can philanthropy increase technology know-how, adoption, and use in the...
This post is adapted from the CEP report, Staying Connected: How Five Foundations Understand Those They Seek to Help. The five foundations highlighted in Staying Connected all view grantees as being a crucial resource to help them develop and maintain an understanding...
“Why do you think that our staff who are women are rating our foundation’s culture less positively than men — even though there are more women than men at the foundation and in leadership,” asked the HR director who was working with me on her foundation’s employee...
Last fall, CEP released Relationships Matter: Program Officers, Grantees, and the Keys to Success, a report that takes an in-depth and data-driven look at what it takes for funders to build and maintain strong relationships with grantees. Our analysis of grantee...