| Dear
Colleague,
It's been almost five years since CEP received
initial funding: $345,000 from three foundations to support a pilot
study on foundation performance assessment. With the active engagement
and support of hundreds of foundation leaders and the participation
of thousands of nonprofit grantees in our research studies, we have
made much progress.
Our research and assessment tools have brought
new data to bear on questions of foundation effectiveness and performance.
Foundations have implemented significant – sometimes wrenching
– changes because of what they learned using a CEP assessment
tool such as the Comparative Board Report (CBR) or Grantee Perception
Report® (GPR), often drawing on findings from our broadly
available research reports to guide them in the process. The boards
and staffs of these foundations are determined to improve because
of their commitment to making the maximum positive impact with the
resources with which they have been entrusted.
As heartening as this is, there is tremendous work
to be done. Data and insights still need to be developed about some
of the most vexing questions foundation leaders face. And in 2006,
CEP's research will begin to confront some of those questions, for
example, through our Foundation Strategy Study.
We don't expect easy answers. But we believe in
the potential of data – rigorously collected – to elucidate,
clarify, and even motivate. We believe in the powerful combination
of dispassionate analysis and passionate commitment to creating
a better society. We have seen what it can bring.
We hope you will continue to join with us in this
effort. Our success depends on your support and participation.
We welcome your thoughts about what's in this newsletter
and about how together we can help ensure that foundations are as
effective as they can be in their pursuit of positive social impact.
Please feel free to contact me at philb@effectivephilanthropy.org.
Yours sincerely,
Phil Buchanan
Executive Director
 CEP
calls for a holistic approach to foundations' communications with
grantees in a new issue paper.
The report draws on analyses of thousands of grantee
responses to surveys and highlights best practices of foundations
that have received high ratings in the clarity of communications
of their goals and strategy.
"Our analyses reveal that there are three distinct
dimensions that foundations should focus on to improve their communications
with grantees and that there are two particular communications vehicles
that are vital in communicating clearly with this key constituency,"
said Judy Huang, author of the report.
The paper expands on findings from CEP's 2004 report,
Listening to Grantees: What Nonprofits Value in Their Foundation
Funders, which revealed that clarity of communication of goals
and strategy is one of three key dimensions that contribute to grantees'
perceptions of satisfaction with foundations. Since publishing that
report, CEP has expanded its data set and performed analyses on
survey data compiled from thousands of foundation grantees to explore
further the grantee viewpoint on effective foundation communications.
Foundation Communications: The Grantee Perspective
is the first in a series of issue papers designed to provide foundation
leaders with practical and actionable research on discrete topics.
To download the report, click
here.
 CEP's Foundation Strategy Study, funded by the
Surdna Foundation, is underway. In the first stage of its research,
CEP is conducting 40 in-depth interviews with CEOs and program officers
at 20 randomly selected large foundations.
To find out more about CEP’s Foundation Strategy
Study, click here
or contact Kevin
Bolduc.
To download Foundation
Strategy: Distinct Challenges, a working paper discussing literature
on strategy and its relevance to foundations, click
here (pdf).
In an op-ed in the February 9 Chronicle of
Philanthropy, Phil Buchanan praises Jim Collins' new monograph,
Good to Great and the Social Sectors. "I have become wary
of many of those who proselytize to nonprofit groups on the basis
of their experience in business," writes Buchanan. "That's because,
all too often, the proselytizers get it wrong in both style and
substance."
Buchanan argues that Collins' monograph is "a rare
exception to the rule," offering valuable insights. He praises in
particular the way Collins "squarely takes on one of the central
management challenges of the nonprofit world: the lack of universal,
quantifiable performance measures." To read the op-ed, click
here.
CEP has developed a suite of comparative assessment
tools that provide insight into key elements of foundation performance
– informing decision-making and changes that lead to greater
foundation impact. Deadlines for participating in CEP's assessment
processes are approaching:
 Foundation
communications and effective governance practices will be addressed
by CEP staff at the Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)
conference next month. On March 8, Judy Huang will present findings
from CEP's newest issue paper, Foundation Communications: The
Grantee Perspective. She'll be joined by CEP board member Barbara
Kibbe of the Monitor Institute and Frank Karel, former vice president
of communications at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who will
offer their practical insights on effective foundation communications.
On March 10, Phil Buchanan and Ellie Buteau will discuss Beyond
Compliance: The Trustee Viewpoint on Effective Foundation Governance,
a report that draws on CEP's survey of nearly 550 foundation trustees.
Ruth Massinga, board chair of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, will
join them and share the ways in which CEP's research and Comparative
Board Report (CBR) have inspired change at the Foundation.
For more information on these and other upcoming
events, click here.
 CEP’s
next national conference will be held March 8-9, 2007,
at the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago. Designed for foundation chief
executives, senior management, and trustees, Assessment to Action:
Creating Change will explore the challenges of improving foundation
performance and will feature new insights from the latest research
as well as practical examples.
We also invite CEP's assessment tool subscribers
to join us for a special one-day seminar on March 7, 2007. This
pre-conference event will focus on the practical application of
assessment tool results and will allow for candid, confidential
conversations among subscribers.
If you would like to receive updates on the conference
and its agenda, please contact Alyse
d'Amico at (617) 492-0800 ext. 206.
Effective Matters
is a quarterly newsletter published by the Center
for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), a nonprofit organization focused
on the development of comparative data to enable higher-performing
foundations. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, CEP's mission is
to provide management and governance tools to define, assess, and
improve overall foundation performance.
If you have questions about this newsletter or
would like general information about CEP and its activities, please
contact Alyse
d'Amico at at 617-492-0800 ext. 206.
Permission to use, copy, and/or distribute this
document in whole or in part for noncommercial purposes without
fee is hereby granted provided that this notice and appropriate
credit to the Center for Effective Philanthropy is included in all
copies. |
