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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.

 

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Openness with a PurposeEllie Buteau, Ph.D. Director of Research Projects and Special Advisor on Research Methodology and Analysis, CEP
Openness with a Purpose

Expectations for sharing information in today’s society are high. Before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest (the list goes on), we didn’t know what our distant relatives were eating for breakfast or have instant access to pictures of a friend’s vacation...

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What Makes a Helpful Reporting & Evaluation System? Learning from an OutlierCaroline Fiennes Director, Giving Evidence
What Makes a Helpful Reporting & Evaluation System? Learning from an Outlier

Funders’ reporting and evaluation systems are rarely loved — they are more often regarded as compliance or “policing.” But not so for the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), an organization that funds grassroots development through community-based organizations in 20...

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When Am I Ready to Fund?Kyle Sherman Social Impact Fellow, Center for High Impact PhilanthropyKatherina Rosqueta Executive Director, Center for High Impact Philanthropy
When Am I Ready to Fund?

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...

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What’s the Value Proposition of Emergence?Marilyn Darling Founding Partner, Fourth Quadrant Partners and Founding Member, Society for Organizational Learning
What’s the Value Proposition of Emergence?

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...

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Thank You to Our 2015 Assessment UsersKevin Bolduc Vice President, Assessment and Advisory Services, CEP
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...

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