Funders, make a plan to gather vital feedback on your work in 2026!
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Gathering feedback and data and helping foundations act on that information is at the heart of what we do here at CEP. But we need feedback to improve, as well. To that end, in 2015 CEP commissioned Harder+Company Community Research to conduct an independent...
As I read CEP’s Assessing to Achieve High Performance report, several thoughts came to mind. First, “Ooh, these graphics are so pretty!” Second, “Yeah, funders need to provide more money to nonprofits so we can do more and better evaluation.” Third, “Data needs to be...
Being a foundation CEO isn’t so easy if you’re going to do it well, as I noted in my last blog post. There are tough decisions to be made and today — in the opening plenary of CEP’s biennial conference in San Francisco — we at CEP will share data about three areas in...
Sometimes even the hottest technologies can move slowly. Big Data is a prime example. Consider the case of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the main utility provider in Northern California. As of 2011, PG&E had equipped 80% of the homes it serves with...
I started my career in the nonprofit field nearly 20 years ago. I worked in the basement of our founder’s house doing everything from leading programs, writing curriculum, hiring staff, applying for grants, and collecting and analyzing data. I had trays and trays of...
Nonprofit organizations — and foundations — talk a lot about accountability. And one of the best ways to be accountable is to demonstrate impact. While you or I would be hard pressed to think of a nonprofit organization that does not want to demonstrate impact, the...
Perhaps your reaction after reading the latest CEP report, Assessing to Achieve High Performance: What Nonprofits are Doing and How Foundations Can Help, was similar to mine — skepticism. Perhaps you read “almost all nonprofits report collecting performance assessment...
The issue of nonprofit performance assessment seems to cause a lot of anxiety among nonprofits and funders. On one hand, there is agreement that assessment is necessary to achieving high performance — a nonprofit cannot improve its work if it’s not assessing how it’s...
If we care about impact – and I think that those of us working in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector do (why else would we be doing what we do?) – then we need to know what’s working and what’s not. It’s not always easy but it’s absolutely essential, as an...
Ireland, recently placed 4th in the CAF World Giving Index 2014, is a country that has benefited greatly from philanthropy. However research by Philanthropy Ireland in 2011, found that only 25% the population understood the term philanthropy. Ironically many believe...