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Much Alarm, Less Action: Foundations & Climate Change

July 14, 2022

Despite the urgency of climate change and the narrowing window for action, philanthropic funding to address climate change remains very limited. Total philanthropic giving by foundations and individuals focused on climate change mitigation represents less than two percent of total global philanthropic giving, according to the ClimateWorks Foundation. While there is some evidence of increased momentum in recent years, more action will be needed to match the scale of the climate crisis.

Foundations Respond to Crisis: Lasting Change?

November 29, 2021

Philanthropic and nonprofit leaders have called for changes in foundation practice for decades, asking funders to, for example, provide more flexible and unrestricted funding; streamline and simplify processes; listen to, trust, and support their grantees; and pursue racial equity and racial justice.But there had been little evidence of change until the spring of 2020, when many foundations shifted their practices as the scale of the COVID-19 crisis became clear. In a series of three reports released late last year by CEP, we found that foundations made many changes to their practices, such as providing more unrestricted support and streamlining processes. In addition, many foundations reported providing new support to lower-income, Black, or Latino communities, and to organizations created and led by people from the communities most affected by systemic inequities.Since then, CEP has collected new survey and interview data from foundation and nonprofit leaders to examine whether these changes continued into 2021 and whether they will continue in the future.

Foundations Respond to Crisis: Toward Equity?

December 9, 2020

The disproportionate public health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain communities, along with nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice, have intensified the calls for foundations to focus on equity and reckon with anti-Black racism in a deeper way than they had before. To what extent have staffed foundations changed their practices in 2020 in response to this push for substantial shifts in how philanthropy approaches its work?CEP surveyed and interviewed foundation leaders to find out. Foundations Respond to Crisis: Toward Equity? reveals that almost all foundations participating in CEP's study report placing new, or more, focus on supporting Black, Latino, and lower-income communities; and most foundation leaders say they are reckoning with racism and paying greater attention to racial equity in their work. However, there remains still significant room for further progress, and it remains to be seen how deep and sustained this new focus will be.

Foundations Respond to Crisis: Toward Greater Flexibility and Responsiveness?

December 1, 2020

Nonprofits and funders alike have long called on foundations to be more flexible and responsive, to provide more unrestricted funding, to reduce what they ask of grantees, and to build more trusting relationships. In 2020, these calls for change only intensified in a time of immense challenge for nonprofits and the people and communities they serve.Have foundations responded to these calls with newfound urgency? And if so, is that response merely a momentary adjustment? Or will the crises of 2020 spur substantive, long-term change in how funders approach their work?CEP surveyed and interviewed foundation leaders to find out. Foundations Respond to Crisis: Toward Greater Flexibility and Responsiveness? reveals that foundations say they are loosening grant restrictions, providing more unrestricted funding, and reducing what they ask of grantees. Many plan to continue these practices in the future, though to a lesser degree than during their pandemic response.Findings in this report are based on survey data gathered from 236 foundations — 170 of which signed the pledge hosted by the Council on Foundations to act urgently in response to COVID-19, and 66 of which had not — as well as in-depth interviews with leaders of 41 foundations that signed the pledge. All data was collected between June and August 2020.This study is the final in a series of three reports from CEP examining the extent to which staffed foundations have changed their practices in response to calls for change to meet the unprecedented challenges of 2020.

Foundations Respond to Crisis: A Moment of Transformation?

November 1, 2020

Amid the compounded crises of COVID-19 and the long-standing structural inequities and racism the pandemic is exacerbating, the myriad calls for funders to make fundamental changes in how they approach their work have grown in number and intensity. How are foundations responding to 2020's unprecedented challenges? What high-level changes in practice are they making — and will these changes be for the long term?CEP turned to foundation leaders for answers to these pressing questions. As Foundations Respond to Crisis: A Moment of Transformation? shows, foundation leaders are reevaluating and making significant changes to their practices in 2020 — including loosening or eliminating grant restrictions, increasing their spending levels, and placing a newfound emphasis on listening to grantees and the communities they serve.

Making it Happen: A Conversation Guide

October 1, 2020

This companion piece to New Attitudes, Old Practices: The Provision of Multiyear General Operating Support provides resources for foundation leaders and boards seeking to start providing, or provide more, multiyear general operating support (GOS) grants. It shares insights and suggestions from leaders whose foundations provide more multiyear GOS than typical, as well as questions to guide foundation discussions.

New Attitudes, Old Practices: The Provision of Multiyear General Operating Support

October 1, 2020

New Attitudes, Old Practices: The Provision of Multiyear General Operating Support examines the state of practice in philanthropy regarding multiyear general operating support (GOS). Findings of this study reveal a sobering disconnect between attitudes of foundation leaders and the experience of nonprofits, as well as a similar disconnect between the attitudes of foundation CEOs themselves and their foundations' practices.

The Future of Foundation Philanthropy: The CEO Perspective

December 1, 2016

Based on the perspectives of more than 200 foundation CEOs collected through in-depth interviews and responses to a survey from May to June of 2016,The Future of Foundation Philanthropy: The CEO Perspective captures foundation leaders' views on challenges and concerns about the changing landscape in which they work, practices they believe to hold the most promise for helping foundations reach their potential, and the most pressing issues that will influence foundation philanthropy in the coming years.The report shows that two-thirds of foundation CEOs believe in the potential of foundations to make a significant difference in society, but most do not see foundations taking full advantage of their opportunities for impact. However, it also finds reasons for optimism for the future of philanthropy: much of what CEOs see as standing in their way is under their control to change, and they identify a number of ways foundations can get closer to realizing their potential for the future — such as learning from the experiences of those they are ultimately trying to help and learning from the knowledge or experiences of grantees.

The Jewish Resource Specialist Program Year 3 Evaluation Findings

August 1, 2014

This report presents the final cumulative evaluation findings for the Jewish Resource Specialist Program (JRS) over the three years of the JRS pilot, including key achievements and challenges. The evaluation assesses the JRS program overall—as a model—and not individual sites.This evaluation addresses the following two distinct evaluation questions:1. How, and to what extent, are families at JRS schools increasing their engagement in Jewish life and learning within JRS schools and in the community? 2. How, and to what extent, is JRS deepening Jewish learning within the JRS school environment? This evaluation also seeks to document the growth and change of JRS across the three years, providing insights into aspects of the program best poised for replication and scale.