For every time someone in philanthropy says, ‘if you know one foundation, you know one foundation,’ they have heard tenfold the call from nonprofits for more general operating support and multiyear grants. With philanthropy’s wide diversity of approaches and...
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Adopting a Mental Health Mindset Will Help Both Funders and Nonprofits Thrive
You are exhausted, a next-level fatigue. Your body is so tired, but your mind can't stop. It pings from what is right in front of you — grant deadlines, board meetings and two staff members who have just given notice — to the larger issues. Polarization and inequities...
Funders: Let’s Stop Making Nonprofits Choose Between Balanced Budgets and Burnout
As I read the recent Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) report on the state of nonprofits, a familiar feeling settled in. The invisible lines between the findings began to form, and a picture not explicitly told in the data emerged. On the surface, the CEP report...
Enhancing Grantee Well-Being Leads to Long-Term Impact
People working for social change operate in chronically stressful, under-resourced environments. Constant pressure can take a toll on the mental and emotional well-being of nonprofit staff, who can identify so strongly with their organization’s mission that they...
To Ensure Nonprofit Well-Being, Invest in Wages, Workload, and Working Conditions
Funders are finally noticing the flashing red lights of growing burnout across the nonprofit sector. And there's a growing trickle of philanthropic response. But grantmakers are missing the fundamental connections between their own funding practices, how grantees can...
Going it Together: Three Foundations, One Office
[vc_row el_class="sixtysix-thirtythree"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]It’s not often an executive director can say, “Projections for 2024 occupancy-related costs will decrease by approximately 40%.” Especially when working from a newly occupied, 3,000 square...
Closing the Feedback Loop with Grantees: A Conversation with the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from grantmakers after they complete a Grantee Perception Report (GPR) with CEP is, “How would you recommend sharing these findings back to our grantees?” While we encourage all funders to, at the minimum, thank...
How Listening Helped One Funder Set Strategic Direction
[vc_row el_class="sixtysix-thirtythree"][vc_column width="2/3"][vc_column_text]In my many years working with funders at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), one of the most common phrases that comes up in discussions of results is “we’re different” — and there...
Four Data-Driven Principles for Better Board Performance
“CEO oversight? Evaluation? Strategy? No, we don’t do that. But if you want a fundraising gala, I’m your guy!” That’s how a colleague once heard another board chair describe his own role, and the role of the board he led. That remark is not representative of most...
Can Endowment Funding Advance Racial Justice and Equity?
Advancing racial equity and wellbeing is hard work, especially for on-the-ground organizations that are leading the work. Endowment grantmaking is a tool that foundations can use to ensure that these organizations not only survive but thrive. For us at the Robert Wood...
Going Beyond Innovating: Reimagining the Program Officer Role
This is the fourth and final in a series of posts contributed by the Feedback Incentives Learning Group, a group of funders convened by Feedback Labs that are dedicated to encouraging peer funders to listen to the people most harmed by the systems and...
Endowing Nonprofits — One Powerful Way to Advance Equity
Endowments can be transformative for nonprofits, especially those representing traditionally underserved populations and working to close gaps, and deserve a closer look as an effective strategy for funders to advance equity. Recent CEP research shows that...
The Abbott Approach: Innovating in the Program Officer Role
This is the third in a series of posts contributed by the Feedback Incentives Learning Group, a group of funders convened by Feedback Labs that are dedicated to encouraging peer funders to listen to the people most harmed by the systems and structures...
What Does It Mean for Funders to Listen Well?
This is the second in a series of posts contributed by the Feedback Incentives Learning Group, a group of funders convened by Feedback Labs that are dedicated to encouraging peer funders to listen to the people most harmed by the systems and...
Let’s Build Assets for Racial Equity
As a Black foundation leader, shifting resources and power to organizations of color is not just personal: it’s strategic. For decades, these grassroots organizations have been sustaining democracy, advancing racial equity through advocacy and organizing. Despite...
Endowments are Great — But Sustainability and Autonomy are the Greater Good
As a foundation leader and fan of nonprofit endowments, I wasn’t surprised to read CEP’s recent findings that less than a third of foundations grant to endowments. The CEP report, an examination of the prevalence of and approach to endowment funding,...
The Barbie Land Approach to Funder Listening
“I get that listening is important, but what role am I actually supposed to play to make it happen?” A program officer from a large private foundation recently asked my colleague this question. The fact that this program officer wanted to play a role in listening to...
How Flexible Funding for Women’s Funds Can Shift the Paradigm
What happens when flexible funding meets women’s funds? The answer lies in the potential to drive profound, lasting change. Women’s funds are crucial players in the drive for gender equality because of their reach and long-term relationships with some of the smallest...
One Year After ChatGPT4: Where is Philanthropy?
We are closing in on one year since the release of ChatGPT4, an upgraded version of the first public generative AI large language model. Even though traditional AI has been a part of the technology landscape for decades and our consumer lives for the past ten years,...
The Power of a Collaborative Model for Environmental Stewardship
In the verdant expanse of the Santa Cruz Mountains, a pioneering initiative for environmental stewardship has taken root. The Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network (SCMSN), a collaborative of 25 entities, embodies an innovative approach to land stewardship,...