The Center for Effective Philanthropy

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) is a nonprofit organization focused on the development of comparative data to enable higher-performing funders. CEP’s mission is to provide data and create insight so philanthropic funders can better define, assess, and improve their effectiveness – and, as a result, their intended impact. This mission is based on a vision of a world in which pressing social needs are more effectively addressed. It stems from a belief that improved effectiveness of philanthropic funders can have a profoundly positive impact on nonprofit organizations and the people and communities they serve.

CEP pursues its mission through data collection and research that fuel the creation of assessment tools, publications, and programming. Since receiving initial funding in 2001, CEP has produced widely referenced research reports on foundation performance assessment, foundation strategy, foundation governance, and foundation–grantee relationships. CEP has created new data sets relevant to foundation leaders and hosts highly regarded programming focused on key issues related to funder effectiveness.

CEP has also developed, widely used assessment tools, such as the Grantee Perception Report® (GPR), which provides foundations comparative data on grantee perceptions of key elements of foundation performance. CEP's other assessment tools are the Staff Perception Report (SPR), the Applicant Perception Report (APR), the Stakeholder Assessment Report (STAR), the Operational Benchmarking Report (OBR), the Donor Perception Report (DPR), and the Beneficiary Perception Report (BPR). More than 200 foundations, most among the largest in the United States, have used CEP’s assessment tools, and many have implemented significant changes on the basis of what they have learned.

CEP is funded through a mix of earned revenue from its assessment tools and programming and foundation grants. CEP currently has a staff of 31.

CEP has offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Francisco, California.