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Many people use the start of a new year as a time to think about the future. Some make predictions, others make resolutions. A few have recently shared their hopes for what foundations will do in 2014. But what are foundation CEOs themselves concerned about for the...
Every New Year, we tend to dream of what the next year might bring. In that spirit, here are my wishes for what we’d see in foundationland in my imagined 2014. Let me emphasize that these are not predictions (I am a bit of a cynic about predictions). These are instead...
Guest authors Fay Twersky and Larry Kramer, of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, react to CEP’s new research report “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact” by urging foundation staff to continuously reflect on their strategy and progress, while openly and proactively sharing the results of such reflections.
Steve Seleznow, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Community Foundation, interprets the findings from CEP’s latest research report, “How Far Have We Come? CEOs on Progress and Impact” from a community foundation perspective. Seleznow points to the unique challenges to evaluating progress introduced by competing interests within community foundations, but rather than giving up on charting impact, he argues instead to transform the conventional definition of impact.
Guest author Lucy Bernholz, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, reacts to CEP’s research report, “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact.” Bernholz recognizes the unique difficulty of assessing progress in philanthropy but argues that the challenge foundations face in measuring outcomes is intrinsic to the work they do.
Guest author Paul Brest, Professor Emeritus at Stanford Law School and former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, reacts to CEP’s research report, “How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact.” Though encouraged that foundation CEOs’ recognize the value of acquiring and sharing evidence of what works to improve outcomes, Brest argues that is is crucial for foundation leaders to begin to act on these beliefs.
Phil Buchanan, speaking to an audience of mostly nonprofit leaders at the After the Leap conference, asked if funders get it, when it comes to funding performance assessment for their grantees. Unsurprisingly, but discouragingly, the answer was for the most part, “no.”
Phil Buchanan asks why, despite frequently indicating the desire to do so, aren’t more funders helping their grantees to evaluate and improve their work? Buchanan evaluates the current landscape of funder support for this work by their grantees, and finds that pool is a small one.
Guest author Jessica Bearman, of Bearman Consulting and Project Streamline, calls on grantmakers to seek candid feedback about the impact of their grantmaking practices on grantseekers’ organizations.
Kevin Bolduc and Mark Chaffin present data about the changes in ratings seen by funders who have used the GPR survey three times.