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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 Center for Effective Philanthropy’s recently released report, What Donors Value: How Community Foundations Can Increase Donor Satisfaction, Referrals, and Future Giving, on what donors want and value from community foundations reminds me of my first week of...
Good foundation governance is a subject of much discussion and debate. Recently, one of our board members, Crystal Hayling, suggested to us that foundation boards would function better if more of their members were CEOs of other foundations. Her argument made sense to...
Assertions about what is known should not be made lightly. They matter – especially when they are published in respected journals by respected authors. To the extent that poorly supported, or unsupported, claims are seen by readers to be credible – and practices are...
In the February 24, 2014 issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Phil Buchanan authored another strong opinion piece, Unlike For-Profits, Nonprofits Succeed By Sharing the Work and the Glory. In a growing quest for significant outcomes and measurement, he notes “The...
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal headlined “Spending Down the Family Foundation” suggests that more philanthropists are choosing to donate all their wealth within their lifetimes, instead of holding it in perpetuity. The story cites Bridgespan’s analysis of...
On Monday, I posted a blog about the March cover story in Harvard Business Review (HBR), on work-life balance, arguing that the conclusions drawn by the authors were not credible. I took issue with the low sample size of their survey and an interview methodology that...
The cover story of the March 2014 Harvard Business Review (HBR) on work-life balance was of interest to me because, like most of us, I struggle with getting this right. I worry about it for myself, of course, and also for the staff of CEP. So I cracked open...
With so much to read, emails on top of new reports on top of blog posts, it feels like a luxury to re-read…anything. When I have a few free minutes, there are a few pieces I try to return to, particularly an essay by Alan Pifer that serves as a regular reminder to me...
Although there has much discussion about nonprofit sustainability, the “overhead myth,” and unrestricted funding (see TCC Group’s “The Sustainability Formula,” GEO’s “On the Money” and NFF’s “2013 State of the Nonprofit sector” as just a few examples), nonprofits...
My first Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) conference was in 2002, but I remember it very clearly. It was a big deal to me because it was the first time I attended a significant conference and spoke about what CEP was learning in its early research. The...
In the past decade, foundations have become more deeply engaged in assessing their performance. But performance assessment is only a means to an end. The real question is – do foundations feel like they now have a better understanding of their impact? To find this...
In a recent blog post from my colleague Kevin Bolduc, he shared inspiring examples of two funders trying something a bit different: sharing the results of their Grantee Perception Reports (GPR) in-person with their grantees. While we often see foundations sharing...
In the coming days, CEP’s new website will be live (and it may even be by the time you read this), along with a new logo, brand identity, and tag line: Improving foundation performance through data + insight. The launch of this new site comes on the heels of...
Diversity—in particular, racial diversity—has become an increasingly discussed issue in the context of foundation effectiveness. Much of the data fueling these discussions has been about the demographics of foundation staff, leaders, and boards and the policies that...
How can funders better inform their own assessment of progress and earn their – and others’ - confidence in any impact achieved? That’s the question that jumped out at us here at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy after reviewing...
At CEP, we strive to make our assessment tools as accessible as possible to as many funders as possible. Since our inception, assessment tools such as our flagship Grantee Perception Report have primarily been used by larger foundations with annual giving of over $5...
One theme that has come up again and again in CEP’s research on foundation effectiveness is the importance of foundations communicating their goals clearly. Our past research has shown that how clearly a foundation communicates its goals and strategies to grantees is...
Many people use the start of a new year as a time to think about the future. Some make predictions, others make resolutions. A few have recently shared their hopes for what foundations will do in 2014. But what are foundation CEOs themselves concerned about for the...
Phil Buchanan presents updated CEP’s updated definition of foundation effectiveness, and encourages readers to share their thoughts on what’s missing.
Every New Year, we tend to dream of what the next year might bring. In that spirit, here are my wishes for what we’d see in foundationland in my imagined 2014. Let me emphasize that these are not predictions (I am a bit of a cynic about predictions). These are instead...