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Two days down, one to go here in Boston at Leading Effective Foundations, the 2017 CEP Conference! With an action-packed agenda, Day 2 covered a lot of ground and subject areas, from Phil Buchanan's opening plenary sharing data and findings from recent CEP research,...
The first day of the 2017 CEP Conference in Boston is in the books, highlighted by a moving and inspiring opening plenary from Equal Justice Initiative Founder and Executive Director Bryan Stevenson. Sharing stories from his life and work, Stevenson discussed issues...
When I was hired as CEP’s first executive director in 2001, there were far fewer national conferences aimed at major donors and foundation leaders than there are today. Those that did happen were large, attracting 1,000-plus attendees. Competition to get on the...
Since 2003, I have had the privilege of leading two private foundations. While I have enjoyed my job immensely, there’s one aspect of this work that I have never enjoyed: the inherent power dynamic between foundations and our partners that inhibits — even discourages...
The following is a revised and updated version of a post that originally appeared on the CEP Blog in March 2015. It is posted here as part of our Rewind series. Like anyone who spends a lot of time on the conference circuit, I’ve sat through a lot of dud sessions and...
Among the many myths that pervade the nonprofit sector, the Overhead Myth is perhaps the most destructive. It is the erroneous idea that nonprofits must keep their fundraising and administrative costs cripplingly low, which leads to anemic organizations that are not...
It’s no secret that we find ourselves in the midst of a time of dramatic and rapid shifts in the U.S. political context. In such a time of change and uncertainty, foundation leaders and board members are asking themselves many questions about how they can most...
“Ultimately, you judge the character of a society not by how they treat their rich and the powerful and the privileged, but by how they treat the poor, the condemned, the incarcerated. Because it’s in that nexus that we actually begin to understand truly profound...
Let the countdown(s) begin! There are only 57 days until Thanksgiving, 95 days until the New Year, and 188 days until the CEP Conference is back — and we’re thrilled to welcome you to our own backyard in Boston this time around! If you are as excited as...
A young donor behind a large, new foundation said something recently that really struck me — and in a good way. It happened in May in a session at CEP’s conference that I moderated on “new models in philanthropy” (some of which of course are not so new at all), and...