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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.
The issue of nonprofit performance assessment seems to cause a lot of anxiety among nonprofits and funders. On one hand, there is agreement that assessment is necessary to achieving high performance — a nonprofit cannot improve its work if it’s not assessing how it’s...
How can we as funders do a better job of hearing from the people we seek to help? How can listening to our beneficiaries help us be more effective funders? We are looking forward to engaging CEP conference participants in answering these questions during our breakout...
The following profile is an excerpt from CEP’s recent research report, Hearing from Those We Seek to Help: Nonprofit Practices and Perspectives in Beneficiary Feedback. Crittenton Children’s Center in Kansas City, MO was one of three randomly selected nonprofit...
Expanding opportunity is the defining challenge of our time. In the Bay Area, far too many of our families are being left behind, struggling to make ends meet, spending two-thirds of their income on housing and transportation alone. As a region, we are experiencing...
All foundations confront exits. Whether due to shifting strategic priorities, limited-time enterprises, or other organizational changes, the decision to leave a field challenges foundation leaders, staff, routines, relationships and results. Writing on the subject is...
The following profile is an excerpt from CEP’s recent research report, Hearing from Those We Seek to Help: Nonprofit Practices and Perspectives in Beneficiary Feedback. Lifetrack in St. Paul, MN was one of three randomly selected nonprofit organizations whose leaders...
Like anyone who spends a lot of time on the conference circuit, I’ve sat through a lot of dud sessions and conferences, as well as some great ones. I’ve also been involved in planning eight CEP conferences, the first back in 2002 in Boston, with fewer than 100...
The giving sector deserves credit for many things, but efficiency is not always one of them. For as long as there have been foundations investing in worthy causes, there have also been critics rightfully pointing out the duplicative, even wasteful ways with which the...
“There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. What’s behind the research you consume is not one of those things. It seems every other day there is a new article or blog delivering solutions or guidelines for what to...
If we care about impact – and I think that those of us working in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector do (why else would we be doing what we do?) – then we need to know what’s working and what’s not. It’s not always easy but it’s absolutely essential, as an...
Loyal readers, you can now receive every new CEP blog post directly in your inbox. We’re excited to unveil a new email subscription service to the CEP blog so you can always stay current with the latest news, ideas, and discussions from CEP staff and guest bloggers....
Since our inception, CEP has helped foundations pursue effectiveness through our assessment tools, data-driven research on best practices, and our tailored programming for foundation leaders. Along the way, our foundation clients have often asked us to provide more...
Foundations interested in helping nonprofit grantees build capacity can choose from many potential routes to accomplish those goals. From direct technical assistance to grant-funded consultant support, many funders grapple with the best approach to providing...
Nonprofit leaders have a sober assessment of foundations’ understanding of those they seek to help. CEP’s latest research shows that only 38 percent of nonprofit leaders believe that most or all of their foundation funders have a deep understanding of their intended...
In this new series, we’ll be sharing case studies of foundations that exemplify the ways in which funders can provide their grantees with support that goes beyond just the check. In 2008, CEP published a research report, More than Money: Making a Difference with...
We’re in the final week of the early-bird registration period for the 2015 CEP National Conference, “Leading Effective Foundations.” And at current registration levels, we’re predicting that we will sell out of space in the coming weeks. If you are a senior leader at...
The advice is as ubiquitous as it is nonsensical: “Run your nonprofit like a business” or “like a start-up.” What does that even mean? It’s not at all clear, and when it comes to spending on “overhead,” it seems to mean either “spend a lot less” or “spend a lot more”...
Starting this month, we are kicking off a 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...
Foundation effectiveness, as CEP’s own Phil Buchanan has helpfully summarized, is about four things: clear goals, coherent strategies, disciplined implementation, and relevant performance indicators. As the field has sought how to achieve greater effectiveness, “one...
Around this time every year, our natural inclinations lead us to think back on the year as it has passed, reflecting on all that we’ve done, who we’ve done those things with, and how we’ve changed. Here at CEP, that’s what’s been on our minds these past few days. In...