Phil Buchanan reflects on the past year and recalls our 2013 conference – In Search of Impact – as one of the year’s key highlights.
Looking Back at 2013: CEP’s Detroit Conference
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Blog
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.
An Openness Pledge?
Guest authors Fay Twersky and Larry Kramer, of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, react to CEP’s new research report “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact” by urging foundation staff to continuously reflect on their strategy and progress, while openly and proactively sharing the results of such reflections.
How Far Have Community Foundations Come?
Steve Seleznow, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Community Foundation, interprets the findings from CEP’s latest research report, “How Far Have We Come? CEOs on Progress and Impact” from a community foundation perspective. Seleznow points to the unique challenges to evaluating progress introduced by competing interests within community foundations, but rather than giving up on charting impact, he argues instead to transform the conventional definition of impact.
Perceiving Progress
Guest author Lucy Bernholz, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, reacts to CEP’s research report, “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact.” Bernholz recognizes the unique difficulty of assessing progress in philanthropy but argues that the challenge foundations face in measuring outcomes is intrinsic to the work they do.
If Progress on Goals is a Glass, It’s Half Empty and Half Full
Guest author Paul Brest, Professor Emeritus at Stanford Law School and former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, reacts to CEP’s research report, “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact.” Though encouraged that foundation CEOs’ recognize the value of acquiring and sharing evidence of what works to improve outcomes, Brest argues that is is crucial for foundation leaders to begin to act on these beliefs.
Not Gettin’ It: Dispatch from After the Leap
Phil Buchanan, speaking to an audience of mostly nonprofit leaders at the After the Leap conference, asked if funders get it, when it comes to funding performance assessment for their grantees. Unsurprisingly, but discouragingly, the answer was for the most part, “no.”
Helping Grantees Assess and Improve
Phil Buchanan asks why, despite frequently indicating the desire to do so, aren’t more funders helping their grantees to evaluate and improve their work? Buchanan evaluates the current landscape of funder support for this work by their grantees, and finds that pool is a small one.
CEP Assessment Tools: Looking Ahead to 2014
Kevin Bolduc, CEP’s Vice President – Assessment Tools, reflects on the challenges and accomplishments of the assessment tools team in 2013, and provides a glimpse of the ever-growing community of tool users coming on board in 2014.
The Leadership Development Disconnect
Guest author Linda Wood, Senior Director of the Haas Leadership Initiative at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, responds to the finding from Nonprofit Challenges: What Foundations Can Do that the majority of nonprofits do not feel adequately supported by their foundation funders. Wood argues that foundations’ skepticism towards investing in leadership development is misplaced, and wonders if funders are providing the right type of support to meet specific needs.
Leadership Aggregation in Nonprofits: Maximizing the Value of Nonprofit Investments
Guest authors Gavin Fenn-Smith and Nicki Roth, of Saroga, the Nonprofit Leadership Forum, make the case for investing in talent and leadership in nonprofit organizations, recognizing that the desired impact to affect social change does not occur without effective leadership.
Data Point: Nonprofits Struggle with Meeting Demand, Using Technology, and Developing Leadership
Nonprofit leaders do not want help from their foundation funders with every challenge their organizations face, but would like more foundation help specifically in meeting the demand for their programs and services, using technology to improve their effectiveness, and developing their leadership skills. Mark Chaffin highlights another key finding from our research report Nonprofit Challenges: What Foundations Can Do.
Data Point: Nonprofits Think Foundations Can Do More to Help with Their Challenges
Nonprofit leaders do not believe foundations are taking full advantage of their resources to help them address their challenges and would like their foundation funders to share knowledge of other nonprofits facing similar challenges. Mark Chaffin highlights these two key findings from our research report Nonprofit Challenges: What Foundations Can Do.
Looking Within for the Next Foundation CEO
Phil Buchanan highlights the recent promotions of internal foundation staff members to CEO and calls out the value of professional experience working in philanthropy.
Better than a Bad Lunch… An Honest Critique
Guest author Jessica Bearman, of Bearman Consulting and Project Streamline, calls on grantmakers to seek candid feedback about the impact of their grantmaking practices on grantseekers’ organizations.
Expanding the Boundaries of Philanthropy through Giving Circles
Guest author Patricia Kozu of the National Employment Law Project makes the case for both individuals and foundations to target their philanthropy using Giving Circles.
Foundations Get Ready: There’s a #GivingTuesday Coming
Phil Buchanan calls on foundations to play a role in #GivingTuesday by rewarding effective organizations with impact grants.
One Year Later, What Is the State of Grantees’ Use of Foundations’ Social Media?
Ramya Gopal provides an updated look at our research on how nonprofits are interacting—or not—with their funders’ social media efforts.
The Most Common Words Grantees Use to Describe Their Funders
Kevin Bolduc shares an important piece of qualitative data on how nonprofits view their funders.
Data Point: In the Dark: What Are My CEO’s Goals?
Ramya Gopal shares data displaying differences on key measures between staff who know the extent to which they are working toward the same goals as their CEO and staff who do not.
A Worthy Investment in a Powerful Asset
Guest author Sarah Di Troia shares the powerful story of how technology investments from foundation funders have allowed Health Leads to take advantage of new partnerships and build a more sustainable earned revenue stream.