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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.
Nonprofits are facing significant, arguably unprecedented, challenges and it’s crucial that donors, whatever their ideologies or particular programmatic goals or priorities, pay attention. Three developments, in particular, worry me: a drop in rates of giving to...
Earlier this week, my colleague Emma Relle shared a post to kick off the new year featuring a selection of candid feedback for funders from grantees that CEP surveyed in 2024. Their comments bring into sharp relief the grantmaking practices, strategies, and attitudes...
A new year is often a moment to pause and reflect — about what we’ve been doing well that we’d like to carry forward into 2025, and some things that we’ll be glad to leave behind in 2024. But reflecting on ourselves in an objective, productive way can be difficult —...
In the final weeks of a year, when content calendars slow and we collectively begin to reflect on the year nearly gone — and plan, with some level of disbelief, for the one to come — we editors indulge in a favorite past-time: the curation of the year-end ‘best of’...
When I first met Michael Bailin in the office of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF) in New York in 2001, he described a new effort the Foundation was undertaking: to identify organizations with proven strategies to help young people living in poverty and fund...
When putting together year-end lists, it’s hard to avoid a slight feeling of déjà vu; after all, you’re not only looking back on the year that was, but repeating an annual exercise of reflection. Yet in wrapping up 2024, I’m not sure if my colleagues and I on the...
Philanthropic funding for organizations dedicated to women and girls has consistently remained below two percent of total charitable giving since 2012, the year for which the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of...
As grantmaking organizations increasingly explore how AI tools can transform the way we work in civil society, the Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG) recently released results from a global survey of grantmakers in our 2024 State of Philanthropy Tech report....
In philanthropy, it’s often an unquestioned expectation that funders will ask grantees to assess the progress of their own work and to apply what they learn to improve. At Barr, we think it is equally important to ask our grantees to assess how we are doing as a...
We find ourselves at a pivotal moment in philanthropy: The choices we make about emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) right now could have lasting impacts on the communities we serve. At the Annenberg Foundation, we are exploring AI’s potential not...
Trust-based philanthropy is the phrase of the moment, and all those associated with the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project deserve tremendous credit for the way they have influenced grantmakers. As we at CEP have documented in a series of research reports, foundations’...
It will surprise no one that at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), we’re big fans of feedback. For more than two decades, we’ve been encouraging funders to seek confidential feedback to get a clearer sense of their impact, build stronger relationships, and...
In recent years, the U.S. philanthropic sector has faced an increasingly challenging and polarized political landscape. Equity initiatives are experiencing increased scrutiny, with a growing number of political and legal threats to the work of nonprofits and...
In moments of great uncertainty, it can be easy to freeze. However, as the pandemic taught us, funders have a crucial responsibility to support nonprofits to weather moments of rapid change and continue to serve communities effectively for the long term. As Election...
At the approach of a high-stakes election, voter turnout is top of mind for many, including which segments of the population are likely — or unlikely — to turn in a ballot in the coming days. Low rates of youth voter turnout often take center stage in these...
Introducing CEP's research on grantee experiences with intermediary funders, lead author Emily Yang notes "a significant rise in both the interest in and number of intermediary organizations." Accompanying this rise in interest in funding through intermediaries –...
According to the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s recent report on grantee experiences with intermediary funders, 33 percent of intermediary grantees report receiving multiyear funding, compared to 58 percent of grantees of other traditional funders. I find this...
I came to GreenLight Fund after leading Fresh Lifelines for Youth, a direct service and advocacy nonprofit that works with a variety of philanthropic partners. I’ve been struck by how much GreenLight as an intermediary works to align with grantees to support community...
A new report from CEP looks at the grantee perceptions of “intermediary funders” — which it defines as a variety of “entities that are regrantors of philanthropic dollars.” It asks two main questions: how do grantee experiences with intermediaries differ from those...
The recent settlement reached in the case against the Fearless Fund, which provides grants to businesses led by women of color, should not deter funders from supporting racial and gender equity initiatives. As I recently wrote in TIME Magazine: “Targeted efforts like...