Listen to the trailer here. I’m thrilled to announce that the Giving Done Right podcast is returning for another season! This summer, CEP’s president Phil Buchanan and I have been busy in the recording studio, and we’ll be bringing you 16 new episodes...
Grace Nicolette
Madam C.J. Walker’s Lessons for Giving — and Living — Well
I often ask myself the question, “What can we learn from other cultures of philanthropy that can inform the way we give today?” It’s a question borne out of curiosity about the way that philanthropy is practiced in different cultures and across different times in...
The CEP Conference: A Retrospective and an Invitation
As our team here at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) begins planning in earnest for our fall 2023 conference, I am reminded of the power of this gathering. There is something invaluable about coming together in person in this way: a unique time to learn...
Introducing: Season 3 of the Giving Done Right Podcast
[vc_row el_class="sixtysix-thirtythree"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]Listen now to the season 3 trailer. [su_audio url="http://cep.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Giving-Done-Right_S3-Trailer.mp3"] Being a wise and effective donor isn’t easy. I’ve...
Introducing Season Two of the Giving Done Right Podcast
Listen now to the season two trailer. The needs in the world around us seem more urgent than ever: a seemingly unending global pandemic; the ravages of climate change; and countless humanitarian crises at home and abroad. We have seen that philanthropic foundations...
Elevating the Conversation: A Note of Appreciation and Thanks
If you’ve read and appreciated a post from the CEP Blog over the past nearly seven years, then you have benefited from the thoughtful and skilled work of Ethan McCoy, CEP’s senior writer. Ethan joined CEP right out of Brown University, where he had been sports editor...
It’s Time for Philanthropy to Address Its Erasure of AAPI Voices and Perspectives
This past week, many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders welcomed the Lunar New Year under the dark shadow of spiking horrific violence targeting Asian elders, particularly in the Bay Area and in New York City. During the biggest holiday season for many AAPI...
What does giving done right mean to you?
On this Giving Tuesday, as I think about how I can be a better donor in the closing month of a year that’s been challenging unlike any other, I’ve been reflecting a lot on what I learned from the inspirational guests my co-host Phil Buchanan and I interviewed this...
Introducing a New Podcast from CEP: Giving Done Right
Listen now to the season one trailer. Few topics get more personal than figuring out the why, how, and how much of charitable giving. A few years ago, when my husband, Tim, and I sat down to flesh out our giving priorities as a couple, it was an eye-opening experience...
Managing Across Differences in Divisive Times
This blog post from CEP’s Vice President, Programming and External Relations, Grace Nicolette, originally appeared on the CEP blog in September 2017. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. Over the last decade, I’ve been on a journey in more deeply...
Announcing CEP’s First Resource for Individual Donors
We’re excited to share with you today that CEP is releasing its first resource for individual donors, Donors: 5 Things Nonprofits Want You to Know. CEP has spent more than 16 years developing data-based resources about effective philanthropic practice for...
Philanthropy’s “New Power” Challenges
I don’t recall ever reading a nonfiction book as quickly as I’ve just read Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms’s new book, New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World — and How to Make It Work for You. It helps that Phil Buchanan, CEP’s president, reviewed the...
Q&A: Does Organizational Culture and Health Matter in Philanthropy?
This post appears as part of our Q&A series on the blog, in which readers can submit questions to be answered by CEP’s experts. We’d love to hear from you with questions related to relationship-building with grantees, grantmaking patterns, assistance beyond the...
Managing Across Differences in Divisive Times
Over the last decade, I’ve been on a journey in more deeply understanding how differences in cultures and values manifest in our personal and professional lives. As an Asian-American woman, I’ve been learning more about how my culture, faith, and upbringing impact my...
Resources for Improving Application and Reporting Processes
This post originally appeared on the blog in January 2015, and is re-posted here as part of our Rewind series. This post was part of a Q&A series on the blog, in which readers can submit questions about foundation effectiveness to be answered by CEP staff. We’d...
Avoiding Airballs and Conflict in Giving and Receiving Feedback
Recently, I’ve been sharing some “a-ha moments” and takeaways that I’ve had as CEP staff have embarked on learning together from the book Thanks for the Feedback: the Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Sheila Heen and Doug Stone (the latter of whom will be...
Learning the Science and Art of Feedback
Giving and receiving feedback doesn’t come naturally to me, and I’m on a journey of sorts with it. Like many, I appreciate receiving direct feedback as long as it’s delivered in a helpful way, but I tend to dread giving feedback to others. For years, I was a...
Unpacking Foundation Effectiveness: What Does It Take?
One of the most common questions we’re asked at CEP is what it takes for a foundation to be as effective as possible. Over the years, through our assessments and research on foundation best practices, we have created a working definition of foundation effectiveness,...
Out in the Open: Sharing CEP Assessment Results
Two weeks ago at the Communications Network conference in San Diego, I attended an informative breakout session about the tension that can exist between foundations’ evaluations and communications teams. The session delved into the pitfalls of having one...
Don’t Wait! Register Now for the 2015 CEP National Conference
We’re in the final week of the early-bird registration period for the 2015 CEP National Conference, “Leading Effective Foundations.” And at current registration levels, we’re predicting that we will sell out of space in the coming weeks. If you are a senior leader at...