As funders, our immediate response to the onset of a global pandemic early in 2020 was humanitarian: to increase our support and to provide it in more flexible ways. Now, as we see that COVID-19’s impact will be lasting and pronounced, philanthropy needs to shift to...
Constituent Feedback
Listening as the Path to Change
The crises this country has endured for nearly a year now have underscored the desperate need for donors to provide the kind of flexible funding and trust that nonprofits require to be effective. Nonprofits have been on the front lines of responding to community needs...
10 Lessons Learned for Funders and Partners Considering the GPR
In 2020, Luminate, a global philanthropic organization with the goal of empowering people and institutions to work together to build just and fair societies, commissioned CEP to survey its grantee partners through the Grantee Perception Report (GPR). A version of this...
How Learning to Listen Prepared One Funder for Its Crisis Response
As our team at Moses Taylor Foundation began responding to the impacts of COVID-19 in Northeastern Pennsylvania, we were uncertain where we’d land. But we knew exactly where to begin: with listening. And as we continue to wrestle with so many questions...
Six Tips for Funders to Listen Well Right Now
For years, every time I’ve traveled outside of Boston, I took a picture and turned it into a postcard to send to my now 97-year-old grandmother, who lives on her own in rural Maine. She replies with a card. We write about things little and big — our shared love of...
Fulfilling Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Pledge: Listening in a Time of Crisis
As COVID-19’s rapid spread has wreaked havoc on our sector, more than 550 foundations (at the time of writing) have signed a pledge to support our nonprofit partners and the people and communities hardest hit by the pandemic and associated economic impacts. The pledge...
Turning the Rhetoric of Listening Into Genuine Practice
During the past 15 years, I’ve spent a lot of time (some might say an unusual amount, even) thinking about the importance of gathering and responding to feedback from the people social sector programs are designed to help. I initially got the “feedback bug” in 2008...
From Lamenting to Learning
It’s easy to lament all that’s not what it could be in philanthropy. It’s important, even, because critique can lead to improvement. But too many of the critiques I read are generalized, sweeping, and, finally, unhelpful — offering little in the way of practical paths...
Constituent Feedback in Education Grantmaking: An Untapped Resource
[vc_row][vc_column width="3/4"][vc_column_text]In the current sociopolitical moment, in which many with less power (or those who have been strategically disenfranchised) find themselves struggling to get those in power to listen, there’s broad agreement in...
Putting Communities in the Driver’s Seat
[vc_row][vc_column width="3/4"][vc_column_text]Almost 20 years ago, I accepted my first job in philanthropy. Right before I started, a mentor of mine asked, “Brenda, who do you think you will be accountable to when you start your new program officer job?”...
Using Feedback to Inform Policy and Advocacy Work
Taking Down the Ivory Tower a Brick at a Time
Evaluating a Culture
Grantee Voice: Relationships Matter
[vc_row el_class="sixtysix-thirtythree"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]This is the final post in a six-part series on what nonprofit leaders think foundation funders could improve upon in their work. Findings are based on survey responses from 244 nonprofit...
Grantee Voice: Provide Multiyear, Flexible Funding
[vc_row el_class="sixtysix-thirtythree"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]This is the fifth post in a six-part series on what nonprofit leaders think foundation funders could improve upon in their work. Findings are based on survey responses from 244 nonprofit...
Grantee Voice: Provide More Assistance Beyond the Grant
[vc_row el_class="sixtysix-thirtythree"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]This is the fourth post in a six-part series on what nonprofit leaders think foundation funders could improve upon in their work. Findings are based on survey responses from 244 nonprofit...
Grantee Voice: Improve Funder Approaches to Grantmaking Goals and Strategies
[vc_row el_class="sixtysix-thirtythree"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]This is the third post in a six-part series on what nonprofit leaders think foundation funders could improve upon in their work. Findings are based on survey responses from 244 nonprofit...
Grantee Voice: Improve Foundation Processes
This is the second post in a six-part series on what nonprofit leaders think foundation funders could improve upon in their work. Findings are based on survey responses from 244 nonprofit leaders who have agreed to be a part of CEP’s Grantee Voice...
Grantee Voice: Nonprofit Suggestions for Funder Improvement
Funder Q&A: Turning Grantee Feedback into Effective Change
A couple of weeks ago, CEP Manager, Assessment and Advisory Services, Charlotte Brugman was joined by City Bridge Trust Funding and Social Investment Director Tim Wilson and C&A Foundation Head of Effective Philanthropy Lee Risby for an insightful webinar...