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Individualism. Competition. Risk aversion. Short-termism. Scarcity. Presumed expertise. Many of the norms by which philanthropy operates perpetuate the very narratives our sector seeks to change. In this series on the CEP blog, contributors who represent a...
In uncertain times, strong relationships matter more than ever. We’d argue that it’s nearly impossible to build genuinely strong relationships with grantees if you’re not asking them about their challenges and current needs. That’s why, in recent rounds of CEP’s...
It’s clear that nonprofits are looking for more support from their foundation funders, in both words and deeds, as they grapple with a Trump administration that seems hell-bent on going after nonprofits — and civil society more broadly. We have documented some...
I think it’s time for a shift away from the approach that some larger U.S. foundations and key infrastructure organizations have taken to operating in the second Trump administration. That approach has been based on assumptions that may have made sense in mid-November...
Just after executive orders started to flow, I described the Trump administration as seeking to create chaos and cruelty. I should’ve added a third “c” — coercion. For philanthropic funders, which generally don’t receive government funding, that coercion isn’t direct...
“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 scope and scale of the Trump administration’s ambitions are now strikingly clear, as is the degree of the administration’s hostility for the nonprofit sector in the U.S. and around the world. A White House memo issued Friday, February 7 states: “The United States...
Just as we adults are processing the White House's actions since the presidential inauguration, so too are our children. For those of us with young people in our lives — educators, parents, grandparents, and youth-serving professionals of all types — making sense of...
Recently, I had a call with a funder who was considering whether to commission a Grantee Perception Report (GPR) for the very first time. Usually, these kinds of conversations have a predictable cadence and arc — an overview of CEP’s comparative dataset and the unique...
Earlier this week, my colleague Emma Relle shared a post to kick off the new year featuring a selection of candid feedback for funders from grantees that CEP surveyed in 2024. Their comments bring into sharp relief the grantmaking practices, strategies, and attitudes...
A new year is often a moment to pause and reflect — about what we’ve been doing well that we’d like to carry forward into 2025, and some things that we’ll be glad to leave behind in 2024. But reflecting on ourselves in an objective, productive way can be difficult —...
In the final weeks of a year, when content calendars slow and we collectively begin to reflect on the year nearly gone — and plan, with some level of disbelief, for the one to come — we editors indulge in a favorite past-time: the curation of the year-end ‘best of’...
When putting together year-end lists, it’s hard to avoid a slight feeling of déjà vu; after all, you’re not only looking back on the year that was, but repeating an annual exercise of reflection. Yet in wrapping up 2024, I’m not sure if my colleagues and I on the...
It will surprise no one that at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), we’re big fans of feedback. For more than two decades, we’ve been encouraging funders to seek confidential feedback to get a clearer sense of their impact, build stronger relationships, and...
In moments of great uncertainty, it can be easy to freeze. However, as the pandemic taught us, funders have a crucial responsibility to support nonprofits to weather moments of rapid change and continue to serve communities effectively for the long term. As Election...
CEP’s new research, Bridging the Gap: Grantee Perspectives on Intermediary Funders, makes one very clear point: Grantee experiences with intermediary funders mirror their experiences with originating funders (those that are often supporting intermediaries). As we’ve...
America’s public schools were founded with a clear mission: to prepare each generation anew for the responsibilities of citizenship. Over the last year, YouthTruth, an initiative of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), set out to evaluate how well schools are...
Over the past decade, there has been a significant rise in both the interest in and number of intermediary organizations — those that primarily regrant funds from institutional sources on their behalf, including nonprofits that act as regrantors, collaborative or...