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Grace Nicolette

Vice President, Programming and External Relations

Grace oversees the organization’s partnerships, outreach efforts, fundraising, communications, and innovative programming. She is a co-host with CEP’s President Phil Buchanan of the widely acclaimed Giving Done Right podcast. Grace was formerly a client lead on CEP’s Assessment team, where she led the marketing, creation, and presentation of CEP’s benchmarking assessments for individual foundations. She is a frequent speaker to foundation staff and boards on topics of philanthropic effectiveness and philanthropy in China.

Prior to joining CEP, Grace co-founded a philanthropy advisory firm in Shanghai that identifies investments in high potential nonprofits and social enterprises in China. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011. Grace has an executive education certificate from Harvard’s Kennedy School in Global Leadership and Public Policy and graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania as a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. She resides with her husband and two children in Cambridge, and they are active members of their church.

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Recent Blogs

In Light of New ‘State of Nonprofits’ Data, Philanthropy Must Harness the ‘Power of Possible’Alfonso Tomás Wenker Senior Vice President of Community Impact, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation
In Light of New ‘State of Nonprofits’ Data, Philanthropy Must Harness the ‘Power of Possible’

Amid burnout, fear of being targeted and funding cuts, our grantee partners are clear that things are not sustainable. Funders, our response cannot be silence, self-protection, or simply falling back to, “philanthropy can’t fill the holes government left.” I’m a...

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Responding to the State of Nonprofits in 2026: What Funders Can DoJoanne Florino Adam Meyerson Distinguished Fellow in Philanthropic Excellence, Philanthropy Roundtable
Responding to the State of Nonprofits in 2026: What Funders Can Do

Reading CEP’s latest report on the current state of nonprofits took me back to the Great Recession and the challenges brought on by COVID-19. The combination of CEO and staff burnout along with increased demand for services is — unfortunately — all too familiar. Add...

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