Learn about just-collected data on how foundations and nonprofits are experiencing the current context.
Contact Us
Search
“With funding freezes, the most vulnerable are impacted. We provide vital assistance to people in need of life-saving healthcare, and we’ve seen an increase in the number of people who do not have anywhere else to turn for resources beyond us.”Nonprofit Leader “The...
“I was left in awe. I didn’t know what to say except thank you. Our core values were repeated back to us as we were given this gift and investment. I thought, ‘Wow, we can now support the growth of our organization and concentrate on our work, not the fundraising...
Big, unrestricted gifts have a transformative effect on nonprofits that receive them. They can lead to greater financial strength and documented program results. They can also lead to increased confidence and reduced burnout of leaders. While foundation leaders have...
The positive effects of MacKenzie Scott’s massive, unrestricted gifts are increasingly apparent and, to date, the experiences of recipient organizations belie widespread concerns about negative unintended consequences from her approach. These are among the key...
Discussions of MacKenzie Scott’s unconventional approach to giving tend to devolve into binaries. Scott’s doling out of massive, unrestricted gifts — some $14 billion to 1,600 nonprofits so far — is presented by some as the philanthropic holy grail, to be emulated by...
We’ve been researching foundations and donors, and the way they interact with the nonprofits they fund, for two decades. We have heard many funders announce their arrival by declaring they’re taking a new, innovative approach to philanthropy: charting a new path and...
In a recent Chronicle of Philanthropy piece, one of the donors interviewed suggests that, “When fundraisers approach donors with the idea that they’re going to help the donor do what the donor wants to do, that’s what works.” I must admit to shaking my head as I read...
Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest, or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, will stay that way unless acted upon by a force. Staying at rest and moving at a constant speed in a straight line aren’t all that different in Newtonian...
Today, CEP released the second report in a three-part series about foundations’ responses to the crises of 2020. Foundations Respond to Crisis: Toward Equity? focuses on how foundations have changed their practices to support communities most affected by the pandemic...
It was almost two decades ago that I got my first taste of how frustrating funder restrictions on grants could be. I had recently started working at CEP, and we were discussing a project proposal draft with a potential funder. The funder asked us to add additional...