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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.
In a toughly-worded op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times headlined “Who Will Watch the Charities?”, Inside Philanthropy founder and editor David Callahan argues that philanthropy “is a world with too much secrecy and too little oversight” and...
And just like that, the 2015 CEP Conference has come and gone! As we did with Wednesday, here’s a recap via Twitter of highlights from all of Thursday’s talks and sessions. The morning started early, but it didn’t take long for the room to perk...
A whirlwind Day 1 of the 2015 CEP Conference has come to a close out here in San Francisco! A full day of programming and connecting saw colleagues catching up and sharing ideas, while four riveting plenaries discussed topics ranging from impact investing and...
Being a foundation CEO isn’t so easy if you’re going to do it well, as I noted in my last blog post. There are tough decisions to be made and today — in the opening plenary of CEP’s biennial conference in San Francisco — we at CEP will share data about three areas in...
Early on in my days as CEP’s first chief executive officer, when we were just trying to get the organization off the ground, I visited with a CEP Board member in her office south of San Francisco. She was new to the Board and very direct. “Show me your calendar,” she...
Foundations are in the business of making the world a better place. Preserving the environment, reducing violence, and improving education are a few examples among the many philanthropic objectives that foundations may pursue. But are we applying ourselves as...
From November 12-18, community foundations across the country united in celebrating the 25th annual Community Foundation Week, a time designed to recognize the vital impact that community foundations have in their local areas. And all year long, community...
Sometimes even the hottest technologies can move slowly. Big Data is a prime example. Consider the case of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the main utility provider in Northern California. As of 2011, PG&E had equipped 80% of the homes it serves with...
With recent CEO turnover at large foundations, there’s been much talk about an apparent trend of foundation boards appointing CEOs with some background in philanthropy. We’ve seen several high-profile internal promotions in the last couple of years to the top job,...
I started my career in the nonprofit field nearly 20 years ago. I worked in the basement of our founder’s house doing everything from leading programs, writing curriculum, hiring staff, applying for grants, and collecting and analyzing data. I had trays and trays of...
What does it take to form strong relationships with grantees? What does it take to be responsive, fair, approachable when problems arise, and clear and consistent in communications – the core aspects of any effective funder-grantee relationship? These are questions...
I recently wrote a post for the CEP blog about the power of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers — the Forum Network — to advance philanthropy across the field. That power of the Forum Network, the largest network serving philanthropy in America, was on...
Nonprofit organizations — and foundations — talk a lot about accountability. And one of the best ways to be accountable is to demonstrate impact. While you or I would be hard pressed to think of a nonprofit organization that does not want to demonstrate impact, the...
Perhaps your reaction after reading the latest CEP report, Assessing to Achieve High Performance: What Nonprofits are Doing and How Foundations Can Help, was similar to mine — skepticism. Perhaps you read “almost all nonprofits report collecting performance assessment...
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...