Candid insights
The big picture of the social sector, backed by data and expertise
How to Leverage Your Nonprofit Data to Win Corporate Grants
Data is literally everywhere. Every search done on Google or every second spent on LinkedIn is collected and converted to data. According to Internet Live Stats, Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second or 3.5 billion searches per…
July 23, 2018
Opening Up from the Inside to Engage Philanthropy in Race and Equity
At the age of 7, I remember the sheer terror of my family of five fleeing Vietnam to find political asylum. Branded “alien” and “outsider,” I found it hard to speak about the trauma of my experience as a refugee.…
June 28, 2018
The Risky Business of Foundation Opacity
In case there was ever any doubt that foundation philanthropy suffers from an opacity problem, a recent Foundation Review article, Foundation Transparency: Opacity — It’s Complicated, by Robert J. Reid, helps settle the matter through research findings that confirm the…
May 23, 2018
Three Easy Steps To Identify New Funding Prospects
With so many potential funders out there, grant research can be a daunting task. But with a few simple tricks, grant research can produce amazing results pretty quickly. First off, there is a wealth of information to be found in…
May 17, 2018
Are You Over or Under-Protecting Your Grants Data? 5 Ways to Balance Transparency and Data Protection in Sensitive Contexts
Over the last few months, this blog has presented insights gained from the Advancing Human Rights initiative’s five-year trend analysis. Getting to these insights would not have been possible had not a growing number of funders decided to consistently share more detailed…
April 12, 2018
6 Top Tips When Funders Aren’t Accepting Applications
Candid's vice president of Influence, Aleda Gagarin, shares her development expertise to answer the burning question every fundraiser asks themselves: Does the grantmaker accept applications and should I even consider this funder if they don't? What do I do when…
October 18, 2017
Foundations and Endowments: Smart People, Dumb Choices
This post is part of a Transparency Talk series, presented in partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, examining the importance of the 990-PF, the informational tax form that foundations must annually file. The series will explore the implications of…
August 3, 2017
10 Ways Technology Can Advance Family Planning
Family planning and contraceptive social marketing used to be a straightforward, relatively low-tech affair. You would design an attractively packaged condom or contraceptive product and sell it to as many retail outlets as possible. To increase demand, you would create…
April 28, 2017
Warren Buffett Has Some Excellent Advice for Foundations That They Probably Won’t Take
This post is part of a Transparency Talk series, presented in partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, examining the importance of the 990-PF, the informational tax form that foundations must annually file. The series will explore the implications of…
March 16, 2017
Apocalypse Later? Philanthropy and Transparency in an Illiberal World
This post is part of a Transparency Talk series, presented in partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, examining the importance of the 990-PF, the informational tax form that foundations must annually file. The series will explore the implications of…
March 6, 2017
Ten Characteristics of High Performing Nonprofit Organizations
Despite the size of the $1.5 trillion nonprofit sector in the U.S. - nearly 10% of the economy - nonprofits are subject to rather minimal independent professional scrutiny beyond annual audits. Publicly traded companies publish quarterly financial reports, are subject…
February 2, 2017
Find a Fiscal Sponsor that Fits
You've got a brilliant idea for a nonprofit. You've done your research, gathered your team, and even have a lead on some funding. Someone suggests fiscal sponsorship as a smart way to start your project. But what is that? And…
June 6, 2016