Author Archive
Data Point: Consistency Among Foundation Funders
May 8th, 2013
In our 2012 report Room for Improvement, we explored the grantee perspective on foundations’ support of nonprofit performance assessment. Almost half of nonprofit leaders—48 percent—reported that there is not much consistency across the types of information different foundation funders seek from them. ...
Data Point: Why Conduct an Overall Foundation Assessment?
April 4th, 2013
This weekend, CEP president Phil Buchanan, advisory board member Fay Twersky, and board member Anne Warhover will discuss the topic of overall foundation performance assessment at the Council on Foundations Annual Conference in Chicago. As a primer for this session—being held Sunday, April 7 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm—here’s a data point from our archives on why foundations conduct overall assessments. ...
Data Point: Foundations’ Information Needs vs. Nonprofits’ Needs
February 6th, 2013
One of the key findings in our Room for Improvement report was that nonprofits want more help in their performance assessment efforts than they are currently receiving from their foundation funders. For foundations, nonprofit effectiveness is critical: the extent to which foundations make a difference in society depends, in large part, on the effectiveness of the organizations they fund. ...
What do you want to be when you grow up? Satisfied with your job!
December 12th, 2012
It’s Monday morning. Your alarm just went off, signaling the start of another work week. ...
A Crucial Missing Link: Where’s the Foundation Support for Nonprofit Assessment Efforts?
September 13th, 2012
Earlier in my career, I consulted for a number of nonprofit organizations, helping them think about how they could collect, analyze, and interpret data. What struck me at almost every one of these nonprofits was the lack of resources and knowledge they had to work with data. ...
From the Pony Express to the Twittersphere
July 26th, 2012
My father tells me the story of when he was a very young boy and his much older sister worked as an operator for the phone company. She called home, her voice traveling through a wire on a new contraption called a telephone, and my Dad answered. ...
Data Point: How Helpful Do Grantees Find Foundation Reporting and Evaluation Processes? (Not Very.)
June 27th, 2012
As foundations strive to understand their impact, many are pushing to obtain evidence of success from the organizations they support. Nonprofits are facing increasing expectations from their funders to demonstrate progress and effectiveness. ...
Data Point: Publicly Communicating Foundation Strategy
May 1st, 2012
Although our research shows that foundation CEOs and program officers overwhelmingly believe that strategy is important for achieving impact, and most possess something they call a “strategy,” we have also learned that many are not using strategy as we define it. In our research, we classify foundation leaders as “more strategic” and “less strategic” based upon the extent to which they embody two defining elements: 1) an external orientation to their decision-making and 2) a hypothesized causal connection between the use of foundation resources and goal achievement. ...
Are Funders and Their Grantees Discussing Racial Diversity?
April 10th, 2012
As my colleague Kevin Bolduc and I discussed in a previous post, CEP sought to understand the degree to which funders and their grantees are communicating about racial diversity. Between spring 2010 and fall 2011, we collected data about this topic from more than 10,000 grantees of 70 US funders. ...
CEP’s Work to Date on the Topic of Racial Diversity in Philanthropy
April 5th, 2012
In the past several years, discussions about foundations and diversity – in particular diversity as it relates to race – have surfaced more frequently in philanthropy. Perhaps one of the most widely known – if highly controversial – efforts came from The Greenlining Institute’s work on The Foundation Diversity and Transparency Act. ...
2013 Conference
assessing performance
beneficiary feedback
beneficiary perceptions
communications
community foundations
comparative data
conferences
developing strategy
Donor Perception Report
economy
effective philanthropy
Essentials of Foundation Strategy
foundation effectiveness
foundation governance
foundation performance
foundation staff/program officers
foundation strategy
foundation transparency
funder/grantee relationships
funder effectiveness
giving strategy
goals
Grantee Perception Report
grantee perspectives
Grantee Voice
indicators
leadership
nonprofit sector
overall foundation performance assessment
performance assessment
performance measurement
philanthropy
role of philanthropy
social media
Staff Perception Report
stakeholder engagement
strategy implementation
youth
YouthTruth
Will What Was Said in Detroit Stay in Detroit?
While I unable to attend the conference, I was interested in this edition of your blog. As someone who has moved in and out of...
While I unable to attend the conference, I was interested in this edition of your blog. As someone who has moved in and out of...
Lessons from a Risk Taken
I really appreciate your willingness to share this and your assessment of what didn't work out as planned or anticipated. Thanks.
I really appreciate your willingness to share this and your assessment of what didn't work out as planned or anticipated. Thanks.
Lessons from a Risk Taken
Jon, thanks for the comment. If there’s one thing we learned, it’s that the cost in time and effort and dollars were all higher than...
Jon, thanks for the comment. If there’s one thing we learned, it’s that the cost in time and effort and dollars were all higher than...
Lessons from a Risk Taken
Thanks for sharing the lessons learned, and what I sense are second thoughts about the cost/benefit of the whole enterprise. I appreciate the thirst for...
Thanks for sharing the lessons learned, and what I sense are second thoughts about the cost/benefit of the whole enterprise. I appreciate the thirst for...
Foundations and Impact Investing: What Is Really Going On?
Great insight. Sometimes it's great to invest in multiple countries as security as the economy in one country might decrease and increase in another.
Great insight. Sometimes it's great to invest in multiple countries as security as the economy in one country might decrease and increase in another.
