Led by multi-million dollar general operating support commitments from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, CEP has raised $6 million from major funders to support the expansion of its research agenda, the development of new assessment tools, and investment in organizational infrastructure during a four-year period. The $6 million raised from this "Funders Collaborative" is $1 million short of CEP's goal of $7 million in multi-year commitments of at least $50,000 a year.
"We are closing in on our goal," said CEP President Phil Buchanan. "But we need an additional funder — or funders — to join the Collaborative and step forward to help us close the gap."
The funding commitments come from foundations with program areas dedicated to promoting the infrastructure of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, as well as those with other programmatic priorities that support CEP because of their belief in supporting the improved performance of foundations.
"We all benefit from foundations with clearer goals, improved strategies, and more and better data about their performance," said William and Flora Hewlett Foundation President Paul Brest. "And that's what CEP is working toward."
"We have a deep commitment to strategy, research, evaluation, and performance assessment and have used CEP's assessment tools and research to help improve our performance in health philanthropy," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO of RWJF. "CEP's work is having a profound impact on us and on other foundations and we're pleased to support CEP's continued development."
Joining RWJF and Hewlett is the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, which made a $500,000, four-year commitment. Also providing $500,000 in funding is the James Irvine Foundation, whose support is specifically targeted toward the establishment of CEP's West Coast office and expanding CEP's programming in California.
Other members of the Funders Collaborative include the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Stuart Foundation, and Surdna Foundation. CEP also receives significant funding from foundations that provide project funding or general operating support at lower levels. Earned revenue from foundations that use CEP's assessment tools is also a significant share of CEP's total revenue.
If you are interested in joining CEP's Funders Collaborative, please contact CEP President Phil Buchanan at philb@effectivephilanthropy.org or (617) 492-0800 ext. 203.
 CEP analysis reveals that male and female respondents to grantee surveys receive different treatment from foundations during the selection and reporting/evaluation processes — with females less likely to receive interpersonal contact and more likely to be asked for written information.
"Our data reveals a pattern of modest but statistically significant differences within aspects of the selection and the evaluation processes," said CEP Senior Research Officer Ellie Buteau, PhD. "For example, 55% of men indicate that they discuss their reports and evaluations with the foundation, while only 43% of women say they have these conversations."
This disparity holds true regardless of the gender of the program officer. "Male grantees tend to receive more interpersonal interactions than female grantees from both male and female program officers," Buteau said.
"The findings are cause for concern," said Buteau. "CEP research shows that grantee respondents who have interpersonal interactions, such as site visits or discussions of reports with their funders, view the funders more positively on a wide range of dimensions. It is also fair to ask whether more interpersonal contact gives men an advantage when it comes time for renewal."
"We don't have any reason to believe these differences are the result of any conscious decisions," Buteau continued. "They may even relate to differences in behavior on the part of male and females working at grantee organizations. Men might be more assertive in seeking interactions with their program officers."
"Whatever the cause of the disparity, it's important for foundations to be aware of it, and to seek clear standards to ensure that grantees are treated consistently," Buteau concluded.
 CEP is working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a process that would allow the Foundation to collect comparative data from an important group of constituents: students attending the schools that it funds. The Student Voice Initiative will explore the potential for developing a pilot process to be used by students to provide feedback about their experiences in Gates-funded schools.
"We see the Student Voice Initiative as a natural extension of CEP's efforts to bring the voices of those affected by foundations' work to the attention of foundation leadership," said Phil Buchanan, CEP president. "With the Student Voice Initiative, we seek to leverage our overall approach and methodology and apply it to the most important constituents of foundation work — those whose lives foundations seek to improve. We are excited to partner with the Gates Foundation to explore this potential expansion of our work."
Fay Twersky, director of impact planning and improvement at the Gates Foundation, describes the initiative as an exciting opportunity to bring student voices closer to the Foundation. "The Gates Foundation is interested in hearing more directly from the ultimate 'consumers' of our granting programs. Through this program, we hope to collect honest, rigorous, and actionable feedback which we can use to inform our education granting efforts."
"We are particularly excited to work with CEP given the organization's success in generating user-friendly, comparable performance data through rigorous survey processes and CEP's focus on creating actionable feedback loops to improve foundation performance," said Twersky.
The first phase of the Initiative is a planning phase, working closely with advisors from inside and outside the Gates Foundation, including school leadership and education experts. If the pilot planning is successful, the Gates Foundation will likely implement a pilot process with students in 2009. Both CEP and the Gates Foundation see significant opportunities for replication with this program. The Foundation is hoping to use it as a model for gathering feedback from those affected by the Foundation's work in other program areas, while CEP will explore the potential for creating similar tools to benefit other foundations.
CEP increased its staff to accommodate the Student Voice Initiative in early 2008. Valerie Threlfall joined CEP in March 2008 as director of the Student Voice Initiative. Rachel Niederman joined as research analyst in February 2008 and will be working primarily on this project. (See related article, "CEP Adds Four to Team")
The Gates Foundation's three main program areas — education, global health, and Pacific Northwest — participated in CEP's Grantee Perception Report® (GPR) process between 2004 and 2006. To read a message from Gates Foundation CEO Patty Stonesifer about what the Foundation learned from the GPR, click here.
 James R. Knickman, president and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation, and Nadya K. Shmavonian, vice president of strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation, have been elected to three-year terms on CEP's Board of Directors. Knickman's term began in January 2008, and Shmavonian's term begins in July 2008.
Both Knickman and Shmavonian bring a wealth of foundation experience to their new roles. Before joining the New York State Health Foundation, Knickman served as vice president of research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he led internal assessments of the Foundation's grantmaking goals. He also served on the faculty of New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service for 16 years. In addition, Knickman has co-authored a textbook on health policy and management, a topic that reflects his long-term commitment to improving the care of vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and the homeless.
"As one of the country's most respected foundation evaluators, Jim Knickman brings a unique perspective to his role as CEO, and he is a tremendous addition to our Board of Directors," said Phil Giudice, chair of CEP's Board of Directors.
 Shmavonian has served for three years at Rockefeller, where she has played a key role in a major strategic refocusing. Shmavonian's experience includes 12 years at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she held a variety of positions, including executive vice president, director of administration, and program officer. Between her tenures at Pew and Rockefeller, Shmavonian also worked as an independent consultant both domestically and internationally. She developed strategies and advised numerous senior executives, as well as the boards of over 30 foundations and nonprofits.
"Nadya Shmavonian has worked on the front lines of dramatic change processes within both foundations and nonprofits. She'll be a valuable member of our Board," said Giudice.
CEP tools have informed dramatic changes within foundations. At CEP's 2007 conference, Assessment to Action: Creating Change, Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) President Stephen Heintz and Blandin Foundation President Jim Hoolihan discussed their respective experiences with CEP's assessment tools and the impact that the findings had on their very different organizations.
Opening the session, CEP President Phil Buchanan observed, "There is no perfect measure and no one data source has all the answers. … Our goal is to develop assessment tools that allow foundations to increase their understanding of how they are doing in key areas that relate to the achievement of their impact goals."
 "We were trying to do too many things, in too many parts of the world, and with too few resources to achieve the deep impact that the Board and staff aspired to have," said RBF President Stephen Heintz, whose foundation has approximately $925 million in assets and makes grants in the areas of democratic practice, sustainable development, peace and security, and human advancement. With a goal to become a "center of philanthropic excellence," the RBF underwent a number of foundation-wide assessments, including CEP's Grantee Perception Report® (GPR), Applicant Perception Report (APR), Comparative Board Report (CBR), and Staff Perception Report (SPR). "We embarked on a process — a comprehensive institutional transformation — so that we could go deeper, achieve real impact, and be more careful and rigorous in assessing that impact," Heintz said.
Results from the assessments were affirming — but they also illuminated areas needing improvement. "We got a lot of good feedback. But we also found some things that were surprising and even disappointing," Heintz said. For example, grantees gave the Foundation low ratings on the clarity of its communications about goals and strategies. In addition, the GPR revealed room for improvement in the Foundation's responsiveness to its grantees and indicated that its grantees wanted more nonmonetary assistance.
To address those issues, the RBF hired a communications director, redesigned its Web site, and revamped its program guidelines. The Foundation also began tracking the time elapsed between grantee inquiries and program officer responses and has established an online pre-screening process to save grantees' and program officers' time. To address grantees' desire for more nonmonetary assistance, the RBF has increased its capacity building programs.
While CBR results were encouraging, they too led to a number of changes. For example, board meetings and board books were redesigned to focus on larger, more strategic issues. To address trustees' desire to better understand the work of grantees, the Foundation scheduled more frequent site visits, giving trustees a bird's eye view of grantees' work.
The SPR revealed that the RBF's staff members perceived the Foundation's internal culture to be too "bureaucratic," and that administrative and support staff felt less aligned with the goals of the CEO compared to other staff at the Foundation. In response, leadership instituted an auditing process to find ways to reduce the level of bureaucracy at the Foundation. To help administrative and support staff feel more aligned and connected, Heintz began meeting with them on a regular basis.
Heintz, who serves on CEP's Board of Directors, noted that while obtaining assessment data is crucial to making improvements, it is only a starting point. "All of this work, while extremely necessary and useful, doesn't get us to where we want to be. We can learn how to do our work better, but how do we know if we are really accomplishing the impact that we want to have to create a safer and better world against really profound challenges? The survey instruments and perceptual data can help us get there because they raise questions, and can shift the emphasis to the strategic question," he concluded.
 With $430 million in assets, the Blandin Foundation focuses on the economic viability of rural Minnesota communities, offering leadership development and public policy programs, and providing grants to support community-generated economic strategies. Like the RBF, Blandin also used data to create organizational change. Driven by increased public scrutiny and a resulting need for a greater emphasis on assessment and impact, the Foundation launched an evaluation effort that included, among other things, the CBR, the GPR, and the SPR. "Our board and staff put together an evaluation matrix — an internal document that lists all of our different evaluations including CEO assessments, staff surveys, both employee and grantee evaluations, outcome measures, process measures, and employee performance measures. Of these, three tools came from CEP," Blandin President Jim Hoolihan explained.
The CBR revealed a "great passion and uniform understanding of the mission of the Foundation," Hoolihan noted. However, he said, "Board members wanted more involvement in strategy and less on grantmaking." In response, the Foundation began devoting a portion of each board meeting to discussions of strategy and evaluation processes.
Blandin's GPR revealed that the Foundation needed to improve its communications on several fronts. According to Hoolihan, "We heard that we were not doing a good job of communications — not just of our goals and strategies, but communicating our aspirations and our sentiment. We got feedback on our tone at the Foundation. We heard that we could be arrogant. We heard that we weren't very welcoming. We heard that we could be confusing. Some grantees found the grant selection process 'cumbersome.'"
In response to these findings, the Foundation increased its communications with grantees. A thank-you letter was written to each grantee, describing the changes that would be made as a result of their feedback. With an "emphasis on hospitality," the Foundation held a networking reception for grantees. It also began implementing more streamlined grant request forms and now provides grantees with training sessions several times a year. These include training on topics such as technology, audit compliance, and administrative best practices.
While the SPR yielded high ratings from staff, Foundation leadership saw room to further enhance the internal culture. To that end, they set up weekly meetings and fun sessions to promote interaction and engagement among staff members. In summing up his approach to assessment, Hoolihan said, "First care and then cure. Our approach was not to list all our problems and cure them with an action plan. We first needed to renew our care for our grantees, communities, and each other. In context, the surveys helped on the 'to do' part and the cure part."
CEP has released the results of a market and impact assessment analysis conducted by LaFrance Associates (LFA) of San Francisco. The report, based on a large-scale survey of foundation CEOs and senior grantmaking staff, as well as a set of in-depth interviews, was commissioned to provide data to help CEP assess its performance and to inform CEP’s strategic planning process.
"This information has proven extremely useful to me, my staff colleagues, and the Board of Directors as we seek to heighten CEP’s ability to help foundations assess and improve their performance," said CEP President Phil Buchanan. Buchanan said the data has helped inform — or in some cases confirm — a number of decisions about CEP’s agenda for the next three years. For example:
- CEP’s research agenda will continue to expand well beyond analyses based on the grantee survey research for which the organization is best known. CEP will devote significant resources to research on foundation strategy and to the development of the kind of case studies that some of the survey respondents called for.
- CEP will seek to more effectively communicate the range of its assessment tool offerings beyond the Grantee Perception Report (GPR), devoting significant energy to further develop and offer newer tools including the Comparative Board Report (CBR), Staff Perception Report (SPR), and Stakeholder Assessment Report (STAR).
- CEP will develop new tools that respond to the needs of specific foundation segments, such as a Donor Perception Report (DPR) aimed at community foundations.
"Those are just a few examples of concrete steps we are taking to be responsive to the needs of foundation leaders," Buchanan said. The LFA market and impact assessment study is only one of several elements of CEP’s approach to assessing its own performance. LFA also continuously conducts more in-depth studies on the impact of CEP’s tools by surveying and interviewing subscribers one year after a tool is delivered. In addition, CEP reports to its Board on a range of performance indicators that connect directly to the organization’s goals and strategy.
"CEP has always consulted closely with foundation leaders, particularly those represented on our Board of Directors and Advisory Board, about what kinds of data and insights will best serve them in their efforts to define, assess, and improve effectiveness and impact," said Buchanan. "The value of the LFA study is that it casts a much broader net, capturing the perceptions of those who might be less familiar with CEP and those who might have elected, for various reasons, not to use the resources we develop."
An executive summary of the report is available for download here.
 CEP has welcomed four new employees during the first several months of 2008, bringing the number of CEP staff to twenty-five.
To support CEP's new initiative with the Gates Foundation (see related article, "Gates Foundation and CEP Aim to Pump Up the Volume of Students' Voices"), Valerie Threlfall, director of Student Voice Initiative, and Rachel Niederman, research analyst, joined CEP's Cambridge office. Threlfall worked as a nonprofit consultant before joining CEP, and also has nonprofit experience with the Opportunity Finance Network. Prior to her consulting work, Threlfall was the director of commercial and strategic planning at Momenta Pharmaceuticals, a biotech start-up. Threlfall holds a joint MBA/MPP from Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and earned her undergraduate degree at Swarthmore College.
"Our initiative on constituent voice with the Gates Foundation is very exciting for CEP, but is also new territory for us. We are lucky to have a fine leader like Valerie to manage this project," said CEP President Phil Buchanan.
Niederman will be working with Threlfall on the Student Voice Initiative and will also produce and present CEP's assessment tools. Niederman graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a BA in Human Biology: Children in Society, and was a fellow at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and an analyst at The Center for Applied Research before joining CEP.
Working on CEP assessment tools is new Research Analyst Joseph Lee, who graduated from Harvard University in 2007. At Harvard, Lee was the director of Chinatown Citizenship, an ESL Program, and the Harvard Community Health Initiative, a health education and advocacy group.
CEP's newest research analyst, Andrea Brock, will work on CEP's two current major research initiatives — foundation strategy and the provision of assistance beyond the grant. Brock graduated from McGill University in 2005 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and has worked for both a nonprofit organization in Seattle and a marketing research and consulting firm.
 John Davidson, who joined CEP as an intern in 2003 when the staff numbered just five, will be leaving CEP in June 2008 to pursue a Masters in Business Administration at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Davidson has held many roles at CEP and is currently Manager – Client Relations.
"During John’s five years at CEP, he has been an essential contributor to the design and implementation of all of our assessment tools and has also contributed significantly to our major research projects," said CEP President Phil Buchanan. "In addition, he has literally helped build this organization from the ground up, contributing to the development of its processes, people, and culture."
Davidson’s first project at CEP was to work with Vice President – Assessment Tools Kevin Bolduc and Senior Research Officer Ellie Buteau to develop a foundation-specific staff survey instrument and tool, the Staff Perception Report (SPR). The SPR has since been used by 26 foundations. Davidson estimates that he has produced 75 assessment tools for foundation clients during his five years at CEP, often playing a role in presenting findings to foundation staff and boards.
"John has seen CEP through tremendous growth and expansion, and he will be leaving a legacy behind. He will achieve great success at Tuck and beyond, but I, and all of CEP, will be missing him both as a colleague and as a person," said Bolduc.
"Working at CEP has given me opportunities I would not have found anywhere else," said Davidson. "Not only have I had the pleasure of joining forces with a set of truly outstanding colleagues, I have also had the privilege of interacting with the many thoughtful and committed people working at foundations. I look forward to following CEP’s progress as it continues to thrive and create positive change."
Davidson can be reached at johnd@effectivephilanthropy.org.
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. 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
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