Transparency Starts at Home
There seems to be more and more talk of “transparency” among foundation leaders. Leading the charge is Brad Smith, the CEO of Foundation Center, who has brought tremendous new energy and vision to that...
View ArticleGloves Off Wisdom for Donors from the UK: A Philanthropy “How-To”
I did not necessarily expect to like Caroline Fiennes It Ain’t What You Give, It’s the Way You Give It, but I’d rank it among the best in the burgeoning industry of philanthropy how-to literature. I...
View ArticleWhich Data? And Who Will Pay for It?
The following post originally appeared on Markets for Good. Markets for Good is a welcome push for the development and use of data to inform better decisions and, ultimately, better philanthropy. I...
View ArticleWhen “Dependency” is Not a Bad Word
I have a dependency problem. No, it’s not drugs or alcohol. My dependency is on something else—philanthropic support. The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), the organization I lead, is hooked on...
View ArticleMaking Evaluation Matter
Evaluation matters. When we surveyed foundation CEOs about performance assessment in 2011, we saw that nearly all rely on formal evaluations—including of grantees, program areas, and grant clusters—to...
View ArticleSifting Through the “Research”
An op-ed in The New York Times on March 8 titled “Does This Ad Make Me Fat?” points out that a recent journal article in BMC Public Health that established a correlation between advertising for junk...
View ArticleFoundations and Impact Investing: What Is Really Going On?
Impact investing has been hailed as potentially transformational by nonprofit sector, corporate, and foundation leaders. Elizabeth Littlefield, President and CEO of the Overseas Private Investment...
View Article‘Strategy’ Is Not a Bad Word
The following post originally appeared in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. In philanthropy, the word “strategy” gets tossed around a lot. To some, it’s become a bad word, conjuring up images of...
View ArticleGetting Clear About Overhead, Part 1
To many donors, the percentage a nonprofit spends on “overhead” is important in their decision about which organizations to support—too important, in my view. What matters most is not the way a budget...
View ArticleGetting Clear About Overhead, Part 2: Questionable Fundraising Costs
In my last post on overhead, I discussed the way in which a lack of investment in the capacity for nonprofits to assess performance contributes to overhead ratios becoming a sort of default measure by...
View ArticleWorking Well with Grantees: A Guide for Foundation Program Staff
Foundations and grantees are often working on the toughest, most heart-wrenching social problems. The stress and strain of that effort makes working productively together especially challenging. This...
View ArticleStudying Philanthropy for Its Own Sake
I have lamented, probably all too often on this blog in recent years, the degree to which MBA programs are becoming the centers of discussions on philanthropy, and not always in a good way (see, for...
View ArticleOn Peter Buffett’s Op-Ed
In a much-discussed op-ed in Saturday’s New York Times titled “The Charitable-Industrial Complex,” Peter Buffett, Chairman of the NoVo Foundation and son of Warren Buffett, shares his dismay about...
View ArticlePhilanthropy End of Summer Beach Reading: Part 1
It’s nearing the end of August but it’s been anything but quiet when it comes to pieces about nonprofits and philanthropy. A few particularly thought-provoking pieces have been released in recent days,...
View ArticlePhilanthropy End of Summer Beach Reading: Part 2
In my last post, I discussed the exchange on Nonprofit Quarterly between the always provocative Bill Schambra and the current president and immediate past president of the William and Flora Hewlett...
View ArticlePhilanthropy End of Summer Beach Reading: Part 3
In my musings about some of the stuff I’ve been reading this month, I discussed the quest for impact and the role of strategy. Too often overlooked by foundations is the vital role of strong...
View ArticleFoundations Get Ready: There’s a #GivingTuesday Coming
Foundations should start planning for #GivingTuesday, which falls on December 3 this year. #GivingTuesday, launched last year, is intended to create “a national day of giving to kick off the giving...
View ArticleLooking Within for the Next Foundation CEO
Does the appointment of La June Montgomery Tabron as president of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, falling on the heels of the Ford Foundation’s appointment of Darren Walker as its new CEO, signal a trend...
View ArticleHelping Grantees Assess and Improve
I recognize that I run the risk of sounding like I am always telling foundations what I think they should do. Probably too many of my blog posts and Chronicle of Philanthropy columns have contained the...
View ArticleNot Gettin’ It: Dispatch from After the Leap
“Noooo!” That was the chorus of responses to the question I posed to the audience at the After the Leap conference in Washington yesterday. The question was “Do funders get it?” and the “it”, at least...
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