Grantees' Limited Engagement with Foundations' Social Media

It is not surprising that foundations are investing in social media tools. These tools can serve myriad functions for foundations, from promoting a culture of transparency to the public at large, to influencing thought leaders, to connecting with grantees

Employee Empowerment: The Key to Foundation Staff Satisfaction

Although few in numbers, foundation staff are responsible for managing hundreds of billions of dollars in charitable assets. These staff make crucial decisions about how best to allocate those resources to address some of our most pressing domestic and global challenges -- from child welfare to climate change. Given the important goals that foundation staff members are working to achieve, their performance should be a concern not just to those who supervise them, but to all of us. If we accept the argument that staff experiences are connected to performance, then foundation staff perceptions matter greatly. To better understand the experience of foundation staff, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) surveyed 1,168 staff members at 31 foundations. The surveys were conducted from 2007 to 2011 as part of CEP's Staff Perception Report (SPR) process. Through these surveys, we collect quantitative and qualitative data from respondents. Though our dataset is limited to the 31 foundations that chose to commission an SPR from CEP, it is the largest dataset that exists about foundation staff members' job satisfaction. We have sought, therefore, to analyze it to understand the answers to some basic questions: How satisfied are foundation staff in their jobs? What contributes to their satisfaction? What the data strongly indicate is that leaders set the tone. Their choices -- about a wide range of issues, including communication, delegation of authority, role definition, availability of resources, provision of feedback, recognition of contributions, and opportunities for learning and growth -- shape staff experiences. These dimensions matter far more than the issues that often are the focus of conversations about staff retention and satisfaction, such as pay levels or workload.Also included in this report are case studies of two foundations whose SPR results were particularly strong: The Commonwealth Fund and The Skillman Foundation. These two foundations' staff members rated highly on satisfaction and a host of other dimensions

A Time of Need: Nonprofits Report Poor Communication and Little Help From Foundations During the Economic Downturn

Highlights grantee survey findings on how communicative and helpful foundations have been in response to the recession and the need for foundations to better understand grantees' goals and strategies. Includes interview with Cleveland Foundation staff

How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact

The performance of major U.S. foundations is much discussed and debated. It is also very difficult to gauge. The past decade or so has seen increased interest and effort related to the question of how foundations are doing, and how they might do better. These questions are not new. The earliest major American philanthropists were interested in answering them. But recent years have seen an uptick in at least the discussion of these issues.Indeed, our organization, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) has focused much energy on this issue, and we have noted how uniquely challenging assessing foundation performance can be. Among the challenges are the difficulty of drawing a causal link between what a foundation funds and change on the ground, the extended time horizons associated with making progress on the difficult issues foundations often address, and the fact that information from different program areas cannot be easily aggregated using some common measure. There is no universal measure -- no easy analog to return on investment -- for foundations.So what conclusion do foundation leaders draw about their success? Brest and others suggest that, "philanthropy remains an underperformer in achieving social outcomes."6 Do foundation CEOs agree? How much progress do they believe foundations have made?In January 2013, we sent surveys to 472 full-time CEOs leading U.S.-based foundations that give at least $5 million annually in grants; 211 CEOs completed the survey for a 45 percent response rate. The survey was designed to collect data on CEOs' understanding of progress and their attitudes and practices in relation to foundation impact. This research was not meant to serve as an objective evaluation of how much progress foundations have made through their work

Grantees Report Back: Helpful Reporting and Evaluation Processes

Nonprofits are facing increasing expectations from their funders to demonstrate progress and effectiveness. Most foundations strive to understand their own impact in large part through the successes of their grants and grantees, and many within the philanthropic community are pushing to obtain evidence of effectiveness from the nonprofit organizations they support.At the same time, a number of foundations are also working to simplify reporting and evaluation processes. Project Streamline, for example, is an effort aimed at "reducing the burden on nonprofits" and freeing up "more time and money for mission-based activities." Recommendations to trim processes include funders "right-sizing" reporting and evaluation requirements, enabling web reporting, creating standardized reporting processes, and making other operational improvements.There can be tension between these dual emphases -- on better understanding effectiveness and on streamlining processes -- and at the center of this tension is how best to structure reporting and evaluation processes. Some funders push for a more rigorous and often time-intensive process, while others seek to trim it down to free grantees' time, resources, and energy for their core work. But how are grantees experiencing foundation required reporting and evaluation processes? How helpful do they find them? What actually matters most to grantees? To shed light on these questions, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) collected survey responses from more than 24,000 grantees about their views of 130 foundations. We learned that: On average, grantees do not find current reporting and evaluation processes to be very helpful in strengthening their organizations and programs.Strong relationships between grantees and their funders are central to helpful reporting and evaluation processes.Grantees who report discussing their report or evaluation with their funder perceive the reporting or evaluation process to be more helpful -- yet nearly half of grantees say no discussion occurred

Working with Grantees: The Keys to Success and Five Program Officers Who Exemplify Them

Successful foundation-grantee relationships hinge on the prowess of individual program officers, whose abilities may vary widely within a single foundation. This research explores what grantees value in their relationships with program officers and identifies four keys to success. Five high-performing program officers share their stories

State of Foundation Performance Assessment: A Survey of Foundation CEOs

Over the past decade foundations have worked to assess their performance in the fields and communities they seek to address. Data-driven forms of measurement have become more widely used to judge the results of programs, as part of a broader range of information used, as CEOs place great importance on assessing their foundations' effectiveness

Working Well With Grantees: A Guide for Foundation Staff

CEP's research shows that program officers can be the distinguishing factor between a foundation that makes a difference -- and one that simply makes grants. "Working Well With Grantees: A Guide for Foundation Program Staff" offers program staff critical guidelines for building better relationships with grantees. The findings and suggestions in the guide are based on data from tens of thousands of surveys of nonprofits conducted by CEP during the past decade. We've updated, summarized, or expanded upon findings from six of our publications that focus on how foundations and grantees can best work together. We also share for the first time some new data and analysis about what foundations might want to consider when declining funding to nonprofits, based on our surveys of declined applicant

Assessing to Achieve High Performance: What Nonprofits are Doing and How Foundations Can Help

For foundation leaders to most effectively support grantees, more needs to be understood about the extent to which nonprofits are assessing performance, how they are approaching this work, and what they are looking for from their funders to support it.To better understand the state of practice of performance assessment at nonprofits, The Center For Effective Philanthropy (CEP) turned to its national panel of nonprofit leaders with questions about their assessment strategies and how they are supported. For nonprofits, measuring and improving performance is a challenging endeavor. Yet, the data from these surveys reveal that nonprofits are assessing performance -- but lack the resources they need to do all they seek to do.The report shows that most nonprofits receiving funding from large foundations collect and use information about their performance, yet many want to gather additional -- or better -- data. The typical nonprofit in the study allocates just two percent or less of its budget to assessing its performance, and few employ staff who are dedicated to this work full time. In approaching this work, only a minority of nonprofits in the study report receiving support from foundations for their performance assessment efforts

Hearing from Those We Seek to Help: Nonprofit Practices and Perspectives in Beneficiary Feedback

For nonprofit organizations, hearing from the beneficiaries they seek to serve is an important practice for planning, implementing, and evaluating their programs and services. But does this feedback and an understanding of intended beneficiaries' needs reach foundation funders and influence their funding and strategic decision-making?To answer this question, CEP investigated what nonprofits are doing to hear from those they seek to help and whether their leaders believe their foundation funders are tuned in to the needs of their intended beneficiaries. The data reveals that most nonprofits are collecting and using feedback from their beneficiaries to improve their programs and services, but nonprofit leaders believe most of their foundation funders lack a deep understanding of their intended beneficiaries' needs. The research shows that this matters. Nonprofit leaders believe foundations' lack of understanding of their beneficiaries' needs is reflected in their funding priorities and programmatic strategies, and that nonprofits believe foundations can benefit from deeper engagement with beneficiary feedback