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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.
One of the most common questions we’re asked at CEP is what it takes for a foundation to be as effective as possible. Over the years, through our assessments and research on foundation best practices, we have created a working definition of foundation effectiveness,...
To date, Munich has been most recognized for soccer, Oktoberfest, its many-sided history, or cars. Since the first weekend of September 2015, though, it has also become known as the gateway to Germany for many refugees. Suddenly, the city was on the cover of...
You’ve reviewed documents, interviewed the organization’s staff, sought opinions from peers and other relevant experts, and conducted a site visit. Now, you’re faced with the question: Am I ready to fund? At the Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP), we have an...
With all of the talk about emergent strategy, including Phil Buchanan’s comments in a widely-read post on the CEP blog in 2014, we at Fourth Quadrant Partners (4QP) have been thinking a lot about emergence — the idea, simply put, that the most successful and adaptive...
This post originally appeared on the Associated Grantmakers Blog. Take a moment to imagine yourself as the executive of a small nonprofit attending an information session with a major funder who has recently launched a new strategic plan. You’re anxiously awaiting...
Save the date! We’re thrilled to announce that the 2017 CEP Conference will be held April 4-6, 2017 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. CEP’s biennial national conferences bring together senior foundation leaders and major donors to engage with the most pressing...
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...
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...
CEP’s Benchmarking Foundation Governance report is an important step forward in transparency, as already noted by Anne Wallestad, president and CEO of BoardSource. Having worked in and around foundations for almost 30 years, I believe governance matters uniquely for...
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...
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 during the last...
As the holidays approach, many of you may have lengthy road trips and plane rides ahead of you. After wrapping up all your work on a busy year, maybe you’ll want to sack out and catch up on those six months of lost sleep. Or maybe you’re searching for a great listen...
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...
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...
Charitable giving and philanthropy in Russia is only slightly more than 20 years old. The first steps came in corporate philanthropy when in the early 1990s, a number of newly-established companies began giving to all sorts of causes on an ad hoc basis. A few years...
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 Report® (GPR)....
This post originally appeared on “Fred’s Blog” on The Gathering’s website. One of my treasures is a framed picture of Peter Drucker, Bob Buford, Tom Luce and myself outside Peter’s house in Estes Park in the early 1990s. Underneath it Bob wrote, “The Beginning of the...
Arab philanthropy is not a unified ecosystem of coordinated parts; it is a diverse and complex combination of sources of funding, intermediaries, and beneficiaries, which varies greatly depending on which part of the Arab world we are talking about — the Gulf...
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....
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 audacious...