Resource Library
Browse helpful resources for funders, including evidence-based reports, profiles of funders making change, case studies, and blog series.
A Date Certain: Lessons from Limited Life Foundations
The limited life approach in philanthropy has received increased attention in recent years. But across foundations, perpetuity is often still seen to be the default, and there is considerable uncertainty about the practice of spending down. To learn more about limited...
CEO Reflections on the Future of Foundation Philanthropy
This collection of essays shares reflections from eight foundation CEOs in response to the findings of CEP’s 2016 research report, The Future of Foundation Philanthropy. These thoughtful reflections are from leaders of foundations ranging in size, scope, and mission,...
The Future of Foundation Philanthropy: The CEO Perspective
At a time of growing concern over issues like inequality and access to education, increasing anxiety about climate change, and rising levels of distrust in institutions, foundation leaders are considering their role in addressing society’s challenges. When they look...
Benchmarking Foundation Evaluation Practices
For foundations, there are lots of questions to reflect on when thinking about which evaluation practices best align with their strategy, culture, and mission. How much should a foundation invest in evaluation? What can they do to ensure that the information they receive from evaluation is useful to them? With whom should they share what they have learned?
Big Issues, Many Questions
[vc_row height="auto" us_bg_image_source="media" us_bg_image="15760" el_class="hero"][vc_column][vc_column_text] Big Issues, Many Questions [/vc_column_text][us_btn label="DOWNLOAD THE REPORT"...
Sharing What Matters: Foundation Transparency
On a typical foundation board, what are its members’ most common areas of expertise? How common is it for an original donor — or a family member — to sit on a board? To what extent are board members involved in grantmaking?
Benchmarking Foundation Governance
On a typical foundation board, what are its members’ most common areas of expertise? How common is it for an original donor — or a family member — to sit on a board? To what extent are board members involved in grantmaking?
Investing and Social Impact: Practices of Private Foundations
There’s been a lot of discussion about aligning investment practices and mission at foundations, but to what extent are foundations engaging in practices like impact investing and negative screening? To dig beneath the talk and better understand the current state of practice at large private foundations, CEP surveyed CEOs at those foundations to learn more. Analysis of responses from 64 chief executives suggests that the rhetoric seems to be outpacing the reality.
Assessing to Achieve High Performance: What Nonprofits Are Doing and How Foundations Can Help
For foundation leaders to most effectively support grantees, more needs to be understood about the extent to which nonprofits are assessing performance, how they are approaching this work, and what they are looking for from their funders to support it.
Hearing from Those We Seek to Help: Nonprofit Practices and Perspectives in Beneficiary Feedback
For nonprofit organizations, hearing from the beneficiaries they seek to serve is an important practice for planning, implementing, and evaluating their programs and services. But does this feedback and an understanding of intended beneficiaries’ needs reach foundation funders and influence their funding and strategic decision-making?
What Donors Value: How Community Foundations Can Increase Donor Satisfaction, Referrals, and Future Giving
To better understand how community foundations can best respond to the current environment, CEP asked donors about how satisfied they are with the community foundations with which they work. What matters most to them? What do these donors want from their community...
How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact
Few foundation CEOs believe that a lot of progress has been made overall toward the goal receiving the greatest proportion of their organization’s resources.
Nonprofit Challenges: What Foundations Can Do
Our research shows that only 52 percent of nonprofit leaders believe that their foundation funders are aware of the challenges their organizations are facing.
Foundation Transparency: What Nonprofits Want
Well-intentioned talk about foundation transparency is a good start, but according to new CEP research, nonprofit leaders want more.
Employee Empowerment: The Key to Foundation Staff Satisfaction
This report is based on survey responses from 1,168 staff members at 31 foundations. The surveys were conducted from 2007 to 2011 as part of CEP’s Staff Perception Report (SPR), which analyzes feedback from foundation staff about their work experiences and views of the foundation’s overall operations.
Room for Improvement: Foundations’ Support of Nonprofit Performance Assessment
Amidst growing pressure for nonprofits to measure and assess their performance, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) finds that nonprofits sorely lack the support they need.
The State of Foundation Performance Assessment: A Survey of Foundation CEOs
Over the past decade foundations have worked to assess their performance in the fields and communities they seek to address. Data-driven forms of measurement have become more widely used to judge the results of programs, as part of a broader range of information used, as CEOs place great importance on assessing their foundations’ effectiveness.
Rhetoric versus Reality: A Strategic Disconnect at Community Foundations
Leaders of community foundations agree on the importance of strategy, but evidence suggests that few actually use it in the work of their foundations.
Can Feedback Fuel Change at Foundations?
When foundations make a commitment to getting consistent feedback from their grantees that is candid and comparative, they can make substantive changes that result in different—and better—grantee experiences.
Essentials of Foundation Strategy
What separates more strategic foundation leaders from less strategic ones?