Past Speeches & Presentations - Highlights

2009

Aligning for Impact: Connecting the Dots

CEP’s 2009 conference
 
 
Keynote speaker Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall, challenges foundation leaders to question their leadership and operational methods, giving advice such as, “the presence of a to-do list, without the presence of a correspondingly robust stop-doing list, is a singular lack of discipline. Disciplined action begins with piercing clarity about what we chose to not do.”
 
 
Assessing Overall Foundation Performance: Jim Canales of The James Irvine Foundation, David C. Colby of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Crystal Hayling of the Blue Shield of California Foundation share how their organizations evaluate their progress against goals and how they translate their results into meaningful improvements.
 
 
In the opening address, CEP President Phil Buchanan and former Vice President—Research Lisa R. Jackson encourage philanthropic leaders to pursue challenging goals, but to do so strategically and methodically. The Stuart Foundation is highlighted as an example.

 
 

2008

The Challenges of Foundation Management

The Hudson Institute

CEP President Phil Buchanan, Grand Valley State University Distinguished Professor of Philanthropic Studies Joel Orosz, and University of Texas Professor of Public Affairs Peter Frumkin discuss the grantmaking dilemmas highlighted in Orosz’s book Effective Foundation Management: 14 Challenges of Philanthropic Leadership—And How to Outfox Them. Orosz observes that a grantmaker must "choose… to do one good thing at the expense of another equally good thing," and Buchanan expresses his concerns that the importance of strategy guiding managements decisions is often overlooked at foundations.
 

2007

Assessment to Action: Creating Change

In March 2007, more than 225 CEOs, trustees, and senior executives gathered in Chicago to discuss a wide range of important issues: the role of strategy and performance assessment, board functioning and the dynamics of race in the boardroom, and the challenge of inspiring — and leading — change. Among the report’s 11 articles are highlights and lessons learned from presentations by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey; MacArthur Foundation President Jonathan Fanton; Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor at Harvard Business School; Spelman College President Beverly Tatum; and former Atlantic Philanthropies President and CEO John R. Healy.

Leadership expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor at Harvard Business School, on overcoming the challenges facing foundation leaders in creating change.

 
 
Jonathan Fanton, former president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, on the promise, and pitfalls, of focusing on foundation effectiveness.

 
 
Spelman College President and nationally recognized expert on race relations Beverly Tatum on race in the foundation boardroom.

 

2006

CEP at 5

CEP at 5 reflects on CEP’s first five years through stories and pictures from CEP's Five-Year Anniversary Event held in New York in September 2006. The report features a speech by Rockefeller Foundation Vice President Nadya Shmavonian, who details the insights her foundation gained using comparative data to assess its performance. The report also includes a talk by CEP President Phil Buchanan on “The Foundation Effectiveness Imperative,” comments from foundation leaders, and descriptions of CEP's research agenda and assessment tools.

Phil Buchanan discusses “The Foundation Effectiveness Imperative” and calls on funders to embrace "five elements of foundation effectiveness."

 
 
Nadya Shmavonian, fomer Rockefeller Foundation Vice President, tells how CEP’s comparative data influenced a period of transformation at Rockefeller, saying the beauty of data is “it is simple to the observer, but has the real potential for an ‘ah-ha’ moment for people who are living up close and personal with the work every day.”

 
 
Martha Lamkin, retired CEO of the Lumina Foundation for Education, described Lumina's approach to performance assessment.

 
 
Duke University's Joel Fleishman discusses CEP's achievements and its future.

 

2005

Higher Impact: Improving Foundation Performance

In March 2005, more than 200 foundation leaders gathered to consider the challenges of achieving higher impact through their work. Speakers whose remarks are described in the CEP report include Independent Sector’s Diana Aviv; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Carol Larson; California HealthCare Foundation’s Mark Smith; The Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Kathy Merchant; The Bridgespan Group’s Jeff Bradach; Global Business Network’s Katherine Fulton; and Boston Globe’s investigative reporter Michael Rezendes. This report includes viewpoints of these practitioners and distills lessons learned.

President Phil Buchanan stresses the importance of a new language of assessment for foundations.

 
 
Bill McAlpin, formerly of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Kathryn Merchant of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and Kristen Burns, formerly of REDF, discuss their experiences in developing assessment approaches appropriate to their missions and organizational needs.

 

2003

Foundation Effectiveness: A Seminar for Foundation CEOs, Senior Executives, and Trustees

In October 2003, 100 foundation leaders — CEOs, trustees, and senior management — gathered to discuss four themes of foundation effectiveness: strategy selection, funder-grantee relationships, performance assessment, and governance. Participants heard talks by Michael Bailin, president of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Edward Skloot, executive director of the Surdna Foundation, and others; participated in interactive panels; and candidly shared their experiences in making their foundations more effective. This report includes viewpoints of these practitioners and distills lessons learned.

Michael Bailin, former president of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, draws on his foundation's experience as he describes the challenges foundations face on the path to greater effectiveness and accountability.

 
 
Edward Skloot, former executive director of the Surdna Foundation, affirms the value of striving for effectiveness and accountability, but also challenges seminar participants to look beyond management tactics and breathe new life into funder–grantee relationships.