What Funders Need to Know: The State of Nonprofits and Grantee Well-Being

Phil Buchanan, president of CEP, is a passionate advocate for the importance of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. Hired in 2001 as the organization’s first chief executive, Phil has led the growth of CEP into the leading provider of data and insight on philanthropic effectiveness.

Phil is author of Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count, published by PublicAffairs and named the “Best Philanthropy Book of the Year” by Inside Philanthropy in 2019. He is co-host of a podcast, also called Giving Done Right, with CEP’s Grace Nicolette. Phil is a frequent blogger for the CEP Blog, author of op eds that have appeared in a variety of publications including The New York Times and Financial Times, and a frequent commentator on philanthropy in the media.

Phil is co-founder of YouthTruth, an initiative of CEP’s designed to harness student perceptions to help educators and funders accelerate improvements in K–12 schools and classrooms. In 2016, he was named the Nonprofit Times “influencer of the year” and he has been named 12 times to that publication’s “Power and Influence Top 50” list, most recently in 2023. Phil serves on the boards of directors of the National Council on Aging (where he has chaired the Governance Committee) and the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.

Born in Toronto, Phil grew up in Portland, Oregon before attending Wesleyan University, where he majored in Government and was awarded the Butterfield Prize for character, leadership, intellectual commitment, and concern for the Wesleyan community. He also has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Since 2008, Tim Delaney has served as President & CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, which – now the largest network of charitable nonprofits in North America – champions, connects, and informs nonprofits to advance the public good.

An accomplished attorney and policy advocate who previously served as a partner at a multi-state law firm, state Solicitor General, Chief Deputy Attorney General, and founder of a nonprofit promoting ethical leadership across the country, Tim has successfully argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, testified before Congress, and negotiated in the White House. He now applies his diverse leadership experiences to help charitable nonprofits identify emerging trends, engage in critical policy issues, exchange proven practices, and advance their missions through advocacy to achieve greater impact improving lives in local communities.

After graduating from Yale and earning joint degrees in law and public affairs from the University of Texas, Tim began his career in Arizona as a litigator at a large law firm, where he helped prosecute the impeachment and removal of a Governor, protected and advanced civil rights, and led the firm’s government relations practice. Appointed as Arizona’s Solicitor General, and promoted later to be Chief Deputy Attorney General, Tim led the state to win four out of four cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and prosecuted the removal of numerous elected officials for breaching the public trust. Then he founded and led the Center for Leadership, Ethics & Public Service, championing ethical leadership and advancing civic engagement across the country.

Tim has helped nonprofits from a variety of vantage points. He’s served as an adjunct faculty member at ASU teaching graduate courses on “Leadership and Ethics in the Nonprofit Sector,” author of a guidebook on nonprofit advocacy, board chair of Valley Leadership, co-founder and Interim CEO of the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, national Training Fellow for the nonprofit Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest, member of the national Leadership Council of Nonprofit VOTE, and Steering Committee member for the international Affinity Group of National Associations.

Since 2008, Tim has drawn on his unique experiences in law, government, and nonprofits as he leads the National Council of Nonprofits, which is the only national, sector-wide group that integrates policy analysis and advocacy both vertically (local, state, federal) and horizontally (legislative, executive, judicial) on issues of concern to all subsectors of the 501(c)(3) community, such as charitable giving, nonpartisanship, regulatory oversight, property-tax exemptions, and much more. NCN looks out for the common good of the entire sector – charitable nonprofits, faith-based groups, and private foundations – while focusing primarily on the health and well-being of small and midsized community-based charitable nonprofits (97% of nonprofits have budgets less than $5 million; 92 percent less than $1 million).

Tim writes extensively, publishing analyses, articles and reports about advocacy, current events, nonprofits, and public policy. A sought-after speaker, Tim has delivered more than 400 keynote and other presentations for a diverse range of groups, domestic and international. Additionally, he’s been interviewed by ABC News, CBS, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, The New York Times, Nonprofit Quarterly, The NonProfit Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many other news outlets.

Numerous organizations have formally recognized Tim’s community and professional contributions, including the National Association of Attorneys General (Marvin Award for leadership and service, and co-recipient of the Best Brief Award for legal writing in the U.S. Supreme Court), LBJ School of Public Affairs (Distinguished Public Service Award – alumnus of the year), ASU School of Public Affairs (Faculty Associate Award for teaching excellence), ASU College of Extended Education (Outstanding Faculty Member Award for “excellence in teaching” at the Nonprofit Management Institute), the City of Phoenix (which dedicated the Delaney Family Playground in recognition of years of public service), and The NonProfit Times (named as a Power & Influence Top 50 nonprofit leader in the country 11 times and the “Influencer of the Year” in 2023).

Elisha Smith Arrillaga, Ph.D., Vice President, Research, manages CEP’s Research team, leading the creation, development, analysis, and release of various research projects and initiatives relevant to the philanthropic sector’s most pressing issues.

Before joining CEP in 2023, Elisha was a faculty fellow and professor of practice in philanthropy and education policy at the University of Texas, and she was the founder and CEO of Student Success Solutions, an education consulting firm that partners with philanthropies, nonprofits, and government to analyze, design, and execute equity-focused student success strategies. She previously held the role of managing director of the Dana Center at the University of Texas and executive director of Education Trust West. Earlier in her career, Elisha served as director in the Career Ladders Project at the Foundation for California Community Colleges, the first fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and a director at Mathematica Policy Research.

Elisha has additionally served on a range of state and national advisory groups including Google’s Equitable Artificial Intelligence Research Roundtable, the advisory board of the American Mathematics Education Study, and the national advisory board at Just Equations, where she is also a research fellow. She has spoken widely at conferences such as South by Southwest, has published articles and op-eds on educational inequities, and has been interviewed by various media outlets, including CNN.