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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.
At the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, where I serve as president, we decided to get into the social media business three years ago. Prior to that, the foundation’s only communication interest was transparency. We maintained a website and published an annual report....
As two former urban school superintendents, we know first-hand the challenges school districts face on a daily basis, and how trying to educate children can be compounded by the stresses and challenges that emerge from natural disasters and other traumatic community...
As a program officer at the Nord Family Foundation, I have the privilege of meeting with various nonprofit executive directors, CFOs, development officers, program staff, and board members. Depending on the organization’s staff size and skill capacity, it is not...
Change is all around us — from climate to communities — creating a world of increasing uncertainty and turbulence. Nonprofit organizations are particularly vulnerable to these changing conditions, yet their work is needed more than ever. How can philanthropy help...
This post originally appeared on Philanthropy Daily. Last week I wrote (in Philanthropy Daily) about how, over the last two decades, researchers in biology, neuroscience, and psychology have shown consistently that subjects with power lose a great degree of...
As stakeholders in the social sector, we all care deeply about impact. We are driven to move the needle on the systemic and social conditions that will improve individual and community outcomes in the fields in which our sector works — education, health, community...
Back when Project Streamline — a project of PEAK Grantmaking — was a fledgling initiative, grant reporting seemed to be the least of our concerns. Since funders spend the most time and energy finding and selecting grantees, application practices seemed the more...
This excerpt is from a book review originally appearing in the Fall 2017 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Putting Wealth to Work: Philanthropy for Today or Investing for Tomorrow? by Joel Fleishman is out today. Perpetuity is so yesterday. Or...
We’re reviving our Q&A series on the blog, in which readers can submit questions to be answered by CEP’s experts. We’d love to hear from you with questions related to relationship-building with grantees, grantmaking patterns, assistance beyond the grant, or any...
This blog post from Naomi Orensten originally appeared on the CEP blog in June 2015. It is re-posted here as part of our Rewind series. The funder-grantee relationship is one of the major thematic areas covered by CEP’s grantee survey, which asks about interactions —...
Articles about foundations aren’t typically as full of barbs as Marc Gunther’s long piece on the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) in the most recent edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. That makes it an entertaining read, but the underlying...
This post originally appeared on Philanthropy New York's PhilanthroPost blog. For the last decade or so, the philanthropic sector has been struggling to adapt to changing external conditions — including government devolution, the rise of the knowledge economy,...
Over the last decade, I’ve been on a journey in more deeply understanding how differences in cultures and values manifest in our personal and professional lives. As an Asian-American woman, I’ve been learning more about how my culture, faith, and upbringing impact my...
We are all watching with concern and sadness the terrible devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey. A number of CEP’s colleague organizations have provided helpful resources to guide the giving of those looking to help. Here are a few: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner...
This post originally appeared on the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation blog. In the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about my late parents. For my father, who served as an infrantryman in World War II and marched with Dr. King, seeing men...
I can’t say for sure exactly how any of us come to understand, over the course of our lives, what our values are. I think they are shaped and influenced by our families, our friends, our experiences, and, to some extent, by our individual hardwiring. I know that, for...
This post originally appeared as part of the #OpenForGood series on Glasspockets' "Transparency Talk" blog, in partnership with the Fund for Shared Insight. The series explores new research and tools, promising practices, and inspiring examples showing how some...
Underlying most grantmakers’ strategies are a set of assumptions that guide implementation. These assumptions are laid out early in the development of the strategy and are based on a combination of current context, data, and hunches about how the work will unfold. The...
There are a lot of statements made about “new” donors and how they differ from more “established,” older ones. Some are probably true. Many, alas, are myths. The latest statement, which I think falls into the latter category, was put forth by journalist (and author of...
At YouthTruth, we believe that the best way to understand how students experience school is to go directly to the source and ask the students themselves. Since CEP developed YouthTruth in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008, we’ve...