Blog
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.
Slow, Steady, and Humble
Don’t let anyone tell you differently: making meaningful progress on our toughest societal challenges is extremely difficult. There is no magic formula. And a big ego doesn’t help. That is certainly true in education, where all stripes of donors have spent heavily and...
Drawing Inspiration from What Has Worked
At this time of year, it’s common to hear the hope expressed that, as the Counting Crows song goes, “maybe this year will be better than the last.” That hope for a better year is usually accompanied by a lament about how terribly, horribly bad the year that just ended...
Reflecting on the Unique Importance of Foundation Boards
Thank You to Our 2015 Assessment Users
In reflecting on a year almost (but not quite) yet done, it can often be difficult to fit into a small space all the important things that happen in the span of 365 days, whether it’s in a family holiday card or in a year-end blog post. On the assessment and advisory...
Where Are We On the Road to Open Knowledge in the Social Sector?
It’s that time of year again. That special time for performance reviews, grant reports, and setting annual goals. It’s also the moment to set aside all illusions of what I still have time to accomplish, and take a hard look back at what really happened...
Time to Get Listening: Philanthropy Podcast Roundup
How Three Funders Cultivate Better Understandings of their Fields
This post delves into findings from CEP’s report, Lessons from the Field: From Understanding to Impact, a series of case studies that provides an in-depth look at how three foundations work to cultivate an understanding of the fields in which they work — and then turn...
An Evolving Definition of Foundation Effectiveness
There’s lots of talk about effectiveness in philanthropy, but defining it isn’t necessarily easy. Our Board of Directors took a stab at it a few years back, and we put out what we called our “working definition of foundation effectiveness.” We got a lot of feedback on...
Foundation Sector in Russia Burgeons, But Challenges Remain
Funder Q&A: Opening Yourself Up to Grantee Feedback
Last month, CEP staff were joined by Baptist Healing Trust President and CEO Cathy Self and Program and Communications Officer Jennifer Oldham for an insightful webinar discussing the Trust’s experience surveying grantees through the Grantee Perception...
The Dying of the Light
Philanthropy in the Arab Region: Motivations and Tension Points
Nonprofits Think Foundations Can Do More to Help with Their Challenges
This post, delving into data from the 2013 CEP report, Nonprofit Challenges: What Foundations Can Do, originally appeared on the blog in October 2013. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind blog series. Nonprofits want more than just money from foundations....
Reshaping the Business of the Board: Grantpickers or Strategic Thinkers?
If the job of the foundation board is to oversee strategy and determine the effectiveness of the organization in achieving its goals, isn’t it also the board's job to pick the right grantees? Probably not. For large foundations that want to achieve big...
Q&A: The Emerging Philanthropic Sector in Israel
Who Cares About How Foundation Boards Govern Themselves? I Do, and You Should Too.
This post originally appeared on HuffPost Impact. This week, the Center for Effective Philanthropy released a new study on the practices of foundation boards — a project on which BoardSource had the opportunity to collaborate. The report is a straightforward...
With the Nonprofit Community, Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
Four Questions about the Data on Foundation Boards
It’s often frustratingly difficult to find basic information on foundation boards: their size, their structure, and their composition, for example. At CEP, we’re frequently asked by foundation CEOs and board members for help finding this kind of benchmarking data. So...
Improved CEP Reports — With Search Functionality, Mobile Compatibility, and More
Just as we at CEP encourage funders to continually advance their effectiveness, we too constantly strive to improve our own work through feedback, iteration, and experimentation. Back in 2012, we embarked on an experiment to transform the way that we share assessment...