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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.
Paul Beaudet finishes his series on the funder/grantee relationship by calling on the philanthropic sector to take a critical look at collective bad habits and offering advice on how to maximize the potential of the partnerships all funders forge with their grantees.
Paul Beaudet’s second guest post further explores the funder/grantee relationship, focusing on the effect of using strategy to shape funders’ work with grantees.
Ellie Buteau, PhD., presents a data point on the challenge funders face in having evaulations result in meaningful insight.
Paul Beaudet challenges the notion that ‘doing more with less’ is the answer for philanthropy in an era of limited resources.
After reading Olivier Zunz’s new book Philanthropy in America, Phil Buchanan reflects on the often overlooked history of the sector in the United States.
A guest post from Cindy Gibson lays out the tenets of a process for developing effective strategies at foundations.
The following blog post is adapted from a talk presented at a meeting of the Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington. As Suk Rhee mentioned in her introduction, I am a native Oregonian, so I know that there is no better place than the Pacific Northwest. And I...
I am pleased to announce a new partnership between YouthTruth and The New Teacher Project, which will bring student perspectives to teacher performance evaluations. See the video below for details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hly9aFTu33s Valerie Threlfall is Vice...
In a recent data point post, we shared that the most significant factor program staff consider when determining what type of assistance beyond the grant to provide is specific requests from grantees. In our research, program staff also told us that the most frequent...
The city of Boston stands as a gleaming example of the renewed and widespread appreciation for urban living. Its charms, after all, are abundant, from 18th century Beacon Hill streets to dynamic and diverse SOWA, the “new” South End. Plus it has been honored for its...
For our recent State of Foundation Performance Assessment report, we gathered data from 173 CEOs of U.S. foundations with annual grantmaking of at least $5 million on what types of information they use to assess the effectiveness of their foundations’ work –...
There has been lots of talk lately about foundations and “transparency.” Perhaps the most prominent foundation transparency initiative is a website called Glass Pockets, launched about a year ago by Foundation Center. Its tagline? “Bringing transparency to the world...
Ellie Buteau offers foundation staff a helpful data point as they prepare materials for their board of directors.
One of the key findings from our recent performance assessment study, titled The State of Foundation Performance Assessment: A Survey of Foundation CEOs, is that 70 percent of CEOs want their board members to be more involved in assessment. This finding is consistent...
CEOs and program staff believe that providing assistance beyond the grant is important both for the achievement of their goals and those of their grantees. Yet few know whether the assistance they provide to those grantees is proving helpful. In that...
A report written by Elizabeth Heid Thompson and Patricia Patrizi (and currently available on the CEP website) explores the extent to which foundations evaluate the results of their work. An examination of 31 foundations that have demonstrated a commitment to...
Much of the talk about strategy in philanthropy focuses on its development. Less frequently discussed is implementation. But, as former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President Steven A. Schroeder contends, good strategy is useless if it isn’t implemented well. ...
A podcast interview with CEP President Phil Buchanan provides a timely take on the state of foundation assessment. The interview is conducted by Larry Blumenthal and Bill Silberg for Talking Philanthropy, a Foundation Center service. The conversation, available...
Being “strategic” in philanthropy is sometimes equated with being isolated, arrogant, or top-down, with foundation leaders asserting detailed theories of change to rigidly guide grantmaking. But CEP’s research suggests that the opposite is the case. Those who are...
Ellie Buteau, PhD., presents a Data Point about the use of information drawn from programmatic experience and insight by foundation CEOs.