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If one thing is clear to me about philanthropy, it’s that there is no single right model or approach that makes sense in every context. We at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) have developed a working definition of philanthropic effectiveness that lays out...
This is second in a series of posts in which I revisit some of the big questions for philanthropy discussed in a post published in the fall of 2022. I hear more talk about the state of philanthropy’s commitment to racial equity than perhaps any other issue when I...
This is first in a series of posts in which I will revisit some of the big questions for philanthropy discussed in a post published in the fall of 2022. The four years since the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill have seen unprecedented change in...
During his seven years on the CEP Board, Ricardo Millett would ask the same question at some point in almost every meeting: “Effectiveness for what?” His refrain was so common we used to joke about making it a drinking game. We joked, but we knew it was a serious —...
It has become trendy, for some reason, to argue that we’re paying too much attention to numbers, such as those tracked by Giving USA, that gauge contributions to nonprofit organizations. Generosity, the thinking goes, is about so much more than this, and, therefore,...
In college, I had a journalism professor who taught us never to start a piece with a question. But I can’t help myself. I want to know: Who is threatening "philanthropic freedom?” And I want to know what pluralism really looks like — and who defines it? OK, that was...
This post originally appeared on the blog in February 2022. We’ve spent a ton of time in foundation board rooms, for better and for worse. We’ve also been board members and guest speakers at operating nonprofits and one of us staffed two college boards decades...
It’s remarkable to reflect on how much has changed since 2019, when big philanthropy was wrapped up in self-critique prompted by a range of high-profile critics. But the pandemic and the racial justice reckoning of 2020, and the sense of urgency they created, rendered...
This piece was originally posted on January 8, 2021, two days after violent attacks on the Capitol. Today, with the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack hearings underway, we revisit that moment, and what philanthropy can do to strengthen democracy. The...
This piece was originally posted in March 2021. Philanthropy is not like investing. Nonprofits are not like business. Even the most casual reader of this blog or occasional follower of CEP’s work has heard me make this argument many times (too many, you...
I’ve been thinking recently about what’s changed since March 2020 when it comes to the nonprofit sector; foundation and individual giving; and my take on leadership. In this final post of a three-part series, I reflect on what I have learned — or re-learned — about...
I’ve been thinking recently about what’s changed since March 2020 when it comes to the nonprofit sector; foundation and individual giving; and my take on leadership. This is the second post in a three-part series. While the general public’s trust in nonprofits has...
I’ve been thinking recently about what’s changed since March 2020 when it comes to the nonprofit sector; foundation and individual giving; and my take on leadership. In a three-part series over the next three weeks, I’ll discuss each in turn. By mid-March of 2020, it...
We’ve spent a ton of time in foundation board rooms, for better and for worse. We’ve also been board members and guest speakers at operating nonprofits and one of us staffed two college boards decades ago. Many of those experiences have been engaging and positive....
“Nuance.” That was investor and donor Liesel Pritzker’s straightforward answer to the question of what giving done right looks like to her when my colleague Grace Nicolette asked — as she does all our guests — at the end of an interview for our Giving Done Right...
This post originally appeared in November in The Nonprofit Times and has been lightly edited for re-publication here. Nonprofits continued to be under enormous stress in 2021 as the pandemic continued and national and global crises — from attacks on democracy to...
This interview originally appeared on Philanthropy New York, News. It is reposted here with permission. Criticism of philanthropy is not new and, of course, thoughtful critique is essential to improvement. In my own career, I have focused for 20 years, as...
This piece was originally posted in January 2020. The past two decades have seen a shift in the conversation about philanthropy. We entered the 2000s being told that what philanthropy needed was a “business” or “investor” mindset, with less clarity of course about...
The American tradition of philanthropic giving should not be taken for granted, in part because it may well be in real jeopardy. “What’s the problem?,” you might ask. After all, charitable giving reached an all-time high in 2020 – some $471.4 billion given, according...
This post, which originally appeared on Giving Compass, is excerpted and adapted from Phil’s book, Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count. I remember sitting in a second-year elective course as an MBA student at Harvard Business...