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The CEP blog aims to offer a range of perspectives, experiences, and opinions related to effective philanthropic practice. We welcome submissions that address crucial issues facing individual and institutional donors and are not self-promotional in nature. The views expressed in these posts are not necessarily CEP’s own.
At the approach of a high-stakes election, voter turnout is top of mind for many, including which segments of the population are likely — or unlikely — to turn in a ballot in the coming days. Low rates of youth voter turnout often take center stage in these...
Introducing CEP's research on grantee experiences with intermediary funders, lead author Emily Yang notes "a significant rise in both the interest in and number of intermediary organizations." Accompanying this rise in interest in funding through intermediaries –...
According to the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s recent report on grantee experiences with intermediary funders, 33 percent of intermediary grantees report receiving multiyear funding, compared to 58 percent of grantees of other traditional funders. I find this...
I came to GreenLight Fund after leading Fresh Lifelines for Youth, a direct service and advocacy nonprofit that works with a variety of philanthropic partners. I’ve been struck by how much GreenLight as an intermediary works to align with grantees to support community...
A new report from CEP looks at the grantee perceptions of “intermediary funders” — which it defines as a variety of “entities that are regrantors of philanthropic dollars.” It asks two main questions: how do grantee experiences with intermediaries differ from those...
The recent settlement reached in the case against the Fearless Fund, which provides grants to businesses led by women of color, should not deter funders from supporting racial and gender equity initiatives. As I recently wrote in TIME Magazine: “Targeted efforts like...
This is the third and final post in a series in which I revisit some of the big questions for philanthropy I discussed in a post published in the fall of 2022. The first dealt with whether changes in philanthropic practice made in the wake of the pandemic would be...
CEP’s new research, Bridging the Gap: Grantee Perspectives on Intermediary Funders, makes one very clear point: Grantee experiences with intermediary funders mirror their experiences with originating funders (those that are often supporting intermediaries). As we’ve...
When I was approached by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to serve on the advisory group for a research project on intermediary funders, I was immediately keen to participate. From two decades of first-hand experience, I know how valuable it can be to...
Joel Fleishman, who died September 30 at the age of 90, is rightly being remembered as a man who was, in the words of the New York Times, “an unparalleled influencer among the nation’s wealthy and powerful.” Many of the beautiful obituaries and reflections on Joel’s...
For the past several years, my colleagues and I at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have been working with donors who are choosing collaborative funds — those that pool the donations of multiple funders to amplify the impact that any one donor could have — to...
A funder’s choice to collect grantee feedback by partnering with CEP on the Grantee Perception Report (GPR) signals a commitment to learning, improvement, and ultimately, effectiveness. This is particularly true of the many funders who repeat the GPR and observe their...
In the organizing world, a key tenet of power is that "power is the product of relationship," meaning people in strong relationships with one another produce power. At EdTrust-West, we embrace this principle of power-building through one of our signature programs, the...
The frequency and intensity of natural hazards, including hurricanes, wildfires, and floods, are reaching unprecedented levels and devastating communities across the globe. Just last year, we witnessed the destruction caused by Hurricane Idalia, which left thousands...
America’s public schools were founded with a clear mission: to prepare each generation anew for the responsibilities of citizenship. Over the last year, YouthTruth, an initiative of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), set out to evaluate how well schools are...
One of the fastest growing philanthropic practices in recent years is the use of collaborative, or pooled, funds — one form of intermediary funding, the subject of a recent CEP report. Like many others, the Ford Foundation participates in multiple funder...
Philanthropy has experienced an explosion in intermediaries in the past decade and I was privileged to have a front-row seat to that growth during my tenure at Arabella Advisors, a leading provider of fiscal sponsorship services to some of philanthropy’s largest...
Over the past decade, there has been a significant rise in both the interest in and number of intermediary organizations — those that primarily regrant funds from institutional sources on their behalf, including nonprofits that act as regrantors, collaborative or...
Listen to the trailer here. I’m thrilled to announce that the Giving Done Right podcast is returning for another season! This summer, CEP’s president Phil Buchanan and I have been busy in the recording studio, and we’ll be bringing you 16 new episodes...
In the evolving landscape of philanthropy, lean funders — those operating with few or no staff — are playing a crucial role in advancing racial equity. The latest edition of Racial Equity in Lean Foundations, an annual report from Exponent Philanthropy, sheds light on...