Bridging Philanthropy’s Say-Do Gap | The Center for Effective Philanthropy

Most Funders Say They Get It — Only Half of Grantees Agree

A striking disconnect sits at the heart of the new Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) report: 93% of foundation leaders believe we grasp the challenges facing our grantee partners, yet barely half of nonprofit leaders say their funders actually understand what their organizations and the communities they serve are up against.

This profound misalignment extends to our sector’s responsiveness, communication, and probably the most important work we do as foundations: the movement of money at a pace and scale that meaningfully advances our visions for a better world.

The data points to a crisis of trust and effectiveness. As one nonprofit leader put it, “foundations have either retracted, become ambiguous, or [become] very mysterious about what their next move is going to be.” In a moment defined by political assaults on basic rights, rising inequality, and climate catastrophes, such ambiguity from institutions that are collectively holding nearly $1.5 trillion in endowments is startling.

The CEP data illuminates a sector struggling to translate our values into action. Nonprofits report funders requesting more burdensome reporting, shifting priorities away from equity work, and retreating from advocacy and organizing precisely when it is needed most. The message grant recipients receive is, “Your survival is your problem.”

This must change. If philanthropy is to play a meaningful role in creating a future worth living in, we must close the say-do gap with swift, concrete action. Based on lessons from our work at Marguerite Casey Foundation, here are three urgent priorities we’ve implemented.

1. Leverage Giving: Unrestricted, Frontloaded, and Increased

The single most powerful signal a funder can send is trust backed by dollars. Moving money is our sector’s superpower. Yet, the default of restricted project funding persists, treating visionary leaders like contractors rather than leaders with the expertise and knowledge to build a better world.

In our work at Marguerite Casey Foundation, we’ve aimed to demonstrate our trust by granting unrestricted, multiyear general operating support. This is the gold standard for nonprofit resilience, impact, and experimentation — all of which are needed now more than ever. It allows organizations to invest in leadership, build infrastructure for lasting change, and take risks.

Increase Giving

In 2025, the Foundation increased our giving by 500% of our typical annual giving, because if this isn’t the crisis we say we want to protect people from, then what is? With needs soaring and federal safety nets being shredded, we decided to critically examine and rigorously stress test the upper limits of what was possible in our giving so we could confidently increase our distribution. We had the money and didn’t feel the need to look outside of our institution to move it.

Frontload Commitments

A five-year grant spread evenly is helpful. That same sum delivered in year one can be transformative. It provides capital to scale, to experiment, and to build power without the constant anxiety of cash flow. We learned that acting with urgency in this moment demands that we continue to accelerate our payout schedules and ensure that our staff is trained and supported to move money with the least amount of friction for grant recipients as possible. 

Give Unrestricted Support

This is one of the ways we demonstrate respect for the expertise and leadership of the organizations we support. Unrestricted support conveys, “You are the expert in your community and your work.” It is an antidote to the burdensome, misaligned reporting requirements that nonprofits cited in the CEP report.

2. Engage Your Entire Endowment: Bring Capital Into Lockstep With Mission

Endowments are our sector’s most powerful and most hypocritically deployed tool. We cannot claim to support immigrant rights while our investments profit from private prisons, detention centers, and surveillance contracts. Our work to fund climate justice isn’t all that serious if the endowments we steward are holding fossil fuel stocks. Reviewing and revising your endowment commitments to be in lockstep with your mission allows you to actually deliver on your mission.

Tap Your Endowment

At Marguerite Casey Foundation, we made the conscious decision to use our endowment to surge funds to communities in the crosshairs of this administration. We quickly earned back the majority of the spent capital through market returns, while providing irreplaceable support during acute crises. While the financial risk was minimal, the moral and strategic imperative was absolute. 

Mission-Align Investments

Not all foundations can increase grantmaking, but that doesn’t mean you can’t apply rigorous positive and negative screening criteria to your investment portfolio. There is excellent reporting that details the corporations bankrolling and profiting from the deportation machinery and militarized policing. These corporations and investment funds are often financially bolstered by endowment investments.

As part of a strategy the Foundation started five years ago to align the full weight of our endowment with our mission and vision, we began a process to screen out these entities — private prisons, weapons manufacturers, technological surveillance, predatory lenders, and others that harm our communities — as a basic matter of ethical due diligence. This work was accelerated in response to the genocide in Gaza.

We added additional screening criteria in the last two years because we did not want any of our capital providing resources to companies profiting off of this administration’s commitment to surveillance and death. This coincided with a decision over the last two years to divest from military weapons across the globe, and very specifically here in the U.S., to exit any holdings in corporations providing support to autocracy, such as Meta, Tesla, and Palantir, despite them often screening very positively in common industry metrics across philanthropy.

Invest For the Future

Beyond screening out harm, we have also applied positive screening to invest in collective well-being proactively. The Foundation actively seeks opportunities in community development financial institutions, affordable housing, and locally owned essential businesses. Entities like this put the wind of our capital into the sails of the communities our grantmaking supports, creating a reinforcing circle of dignity and well-being in contrast to the typical 5% toward good, 95% invested at cross-purposes.

The CEP report highlights profound frustration with opaque communication. Too often, nonprofits are left guessing, revising language, and jumping through new hoops. This wastes the most precious resource nonprofits have: time and expertise.

3. Clarity is Kindness

Too many of our partners have shared stories with us about the time and energy they spend trying to read between the lines of funder communication. If you will not fund an organization, tell them quickly and candidly why. Be simple, direct, and truthful. And please don’t make funding commitments only to rescind them. This is philanthropic malpractice. 

Internal Clarity Is Also Essential

Foundations function best when everyone in the organization, from program staff to board trustees, is clear on how decisions are made and who holds the power to make which decisions. This is especially true when it comes to investments, strategy, and funding shifts. During times of change and crisis, ambiguity is a sure path to anxiety and stagnation.

Taking time to set up and clarify a decision-rights framework early on is a gift that will allow staff to act with confidence and purpose. It also allows the foundation as a whole to move with speed when opportunities for strategic interventions present themselves. We work closely with Brava Leaders to train our staff and people managers to ensure this clarity and alignment.

Putting Commitments Into Action

Philanthropy stands at a defining juncture. We can continue to be well-intentioned observers, or we can take action, shoulder-to-shoulder, with our grant recipients as they work for transformation from the ground up.

The converging crises we face — authoritarianism, climate collapse, structural racial and economic inequity — demand that we use every tool we have: our grants, our investments, and our voices, wielded with clarity, courage, and speed.

May 2026 be the year our sector closes the perception gap with vastly more resources, aligned capital, and full–throated support for the nonprofits our institutions exist to serve.

Carmen Rojas, Ph.D., is president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation.