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This post originally appeared on the blog in October 2021. With the effects of climate change becoming starker, climate philanthropy is taking off as never before. New players like the Bezos Earth Fund are making a splash and overall funding is rising each year; a...
This post was originally posted on the CEP blog in March 2021. Foundations and individual donors need to reconceive impact in a way that puts hearing firsthand the experiences of those they seek to help front and center. If any area illustrates this point, it is...
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...
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...
This piece was originally posted in February 2018. Transparency — being open, honest, and clear — is a key driver of strong relationships between funders and grantees. It’s valued by foundation and grantee CEOs alike, and grantees think foundations are doing a decent...
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...
This post on the importance of flexible funding and the restrictiveness of line-item grant budgets originally appeared on the blog in June 2018. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind blog series. For more content related to this topic, stay tuned later this...
This post originally appeared on the blog in March 2015, and is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. CEP is currently in the process of renewing its membership with AAPOR's Transparency Initiative. “There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be...
This 2012 post on foundation governance was, for a long time, the most widely read post on the CEP blog. We are re-posting it here today as part of our “Rewind” series for those who didn’t see it back then — or for those who want a refresher on what habits boards...
This blog post from CEP’s Vice President, Programming and External Relations, Grace Nicolette, originally appeared on the CEP blog in September 2017. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. Over the last decade, I’ve been on a journey in more deeply...
At CEP we are always thinking about the ways that strong funder-grantee relationships affect the success of foundations’ efforts. This topic has been a major emphasis in our research agenda for more than a decade, as we have continually investigated the questions,...
This blog post from CEP’s Vice President, Assessment and Advisory Services, Kevin Bolduc originally appeared on the CEP blog in October 2015. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. Struck by duck (W61.62) Sucked into jet engine, subsequent encounter...
This blog post from CEP President Phil Buchanan originally appeared on the CEP blog in July 2015. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. A young donor behind a large, new foundation said something that really struck me — and in a good way. It happened...
This post originally appeared on the blog in March 2012 and delves into findings from CEP’s report, More Than Money: Making a Difference with Assistance Beyond the Grant. It is re-posted here as part of our Rewind blog series. Believing that their...
This post from former YouthTruth Executive Director Marny Sumrall originally appeared on the blog in November 2014. It is re-posted here as part of our Rewind blog series. At CEP, we’ve been talking more and more about beneficiary feedback — who uses it, how much, and...
One of the recent trends in philanthropy we’ve been most excited about is the growing conversation about the importance of looking to history to inform decisions of the present and future. HistPhil has emerged as an engaging space providing thoughtful commentary and...