Tag Archive
funder effectivenessWhat 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. ...
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. ...
Avoiding a False Choice (Why We Need Both ‘Morality’ and Assessment)
July 21st, 2011
I am speaking today on a panel at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. ...
Why Foundations Need to Make a Leap of Reason
July 13th, 2011
When it comes to nonprofit performance assessment, Foundations need to do a better job of bringing their practices in line with their attitudes. A majority of CEOs said nonprofits should be held to a higher standard of evidence than they are today, in a survey of large foundations we conducted earlier this year. ...
How Understanding Their Fields Helped Three Foundations Make Better Decisions and Avoid Costly Mistakes
December 16th, 2010
At CEP, we are always looking for ways that our data can help foundations forge stronger relationships with their grantees and become more effective in their work. Recently, our research showed that when a foundation’s staff exhibits a high level of expertise in the field in which it funds, that expertise usually results in stronger relationships with grantees. ...
Introducing Linda Wood of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
July 20th, 2010
When it comes to soliciting feedback from grantees, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in San Francisco walks the talk. ...
Assessing Foundation Performance
April 15th, 2010
At last year’s CEP conference in Los Angeles, I presented on the Irvine Foundation’s approach to assessing foundation performance, joined by David Colby from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. I think it’s fair to say that David and I were presenting approaches used by our respective foundations that remain works in progress – Irvine’s even more so than RWJF’s given its focus on this area for many more years. ...
Jim Canales to Address Overall Foundation Performance Assessment as CEP Guest Blogger
April 15th, 2010
CEP is very lucky to have had the support and encouragement of Jim Canales of the James Irvine Foundation from the very early days of our establishment. He has allowed the Foundation, on multiple occasions, to be a test site for new CEP assessment tools, such as our Staff Perception Report (SPR) and Stakeholder Assessment Report (STAR). ...
Has Anything Really Changed in Philanthropy?
April 12th, 2010
Sean Stannard-Stockton, CEO of Tactical Philanthropy Advisors, and founder of the terrific blog Tactical Philanthropy, invited me to join a team of bloggers sharing thoughts on the GEO conference this week in Pittsburgh. What follows are some musings on what’s changed since the first GEO conference I attended in 2002. ...









