Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

08/19/2025

💫 NEW: Perspectives Blog💫

Thriving through Trust: Building Capacity of Black-Led OKC Nonprofits in Uncertain Times

✍️ Stephen Butler, Director of The Butlers Did It, shares how the Northeast Oklahoma City Nonprofit Incubator positioned Black-led nonprofits to thrive and how we can use these lessons in every wave of uncertainty.

🔗: Read more here: https://bit.ly/3JodCEH

07/07/2025

🗣️ GEO's 2024 Annual Report is LIVE!

Together, we’re shifting philanthropic culture to meet today's reality, centering racial justice now and sustaining it for the future.

See our highlights from 2024 and view the report here: ➡️ https://impact2024.geofunders.org/

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) is a community of funders committed to transforming philanthropic culture and practice.

06/30/2025

💫 Featured GEO Event:

Reimagining Capacity Building by Navigating Culture, Systems & Power
📅 September 18, 2025
📍 GEO Office, 1310 L Street NW, Suite 650, Washington, D.C. 20005

This interactive workshop invites grantmakers to reexamine traditional models of support and explore how equity-centered capacity building can lead to more durable, community-rooted outcomes. Participants will reflect on their roles, learn practical tools, and leave with clear, actionable strategies for aligning their work with the realities nonprofits are facing today.

🔗: https://bit.ly/46f9P5T

Nonprofits today are stretched thin—navigating staffing shortages, rising demand, and dwindling resources. In this moment of compounding challenges, philanthropy must go beyond technical fixes and embrace capacity-building approaches that address the deeper roots of sustainability: equity, power, ...

06/24/2025

💫 NEW: Perspectives Blog💫

Strengthening the Ecosystem: Resourcing Racial Equity Capacity Building Organizations for the Long Haul

✍️ Aja Couchois Duncan, Rachel Hutt and Lauri Valerio share how their experience in the Knowledge Share Group, supported by The Kresge Foundation, gave them support for capacity building to keep racial equity at the center.

🔗: Read more here: https://bit.ly/4k4jTBS

06/17/2025

💫 NEW: Perspectives Blog💫

Learning as Our Anchor – Evaluation as Our Compass

Nalisha Henry, Vice President of Community Engagement at United Way of Greenville County shares how the VUCA framework was used as part of the 2025 Learning Conference and how learning and evaluation can be an anchor and a guide.

🔗: Read more here: https://bit.ly/405RiFa

05/30/2025

Strong culture 🟰 stronger mission impact. 📈

Join us in Des Moines in partnership with Iowa Council of Foundations for a deep dive into organizational culture, values, and equity.

📅 July 24 – 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. CT
📍 Nationwide & Nationwide Foundation Offices, 1100 Locust St, Des Moines, IA 50309
🔗 Register https://bit.ly/4dAqTou.

Organizational culture can either support or hinder effectiveness. This interactive workshop is designed for grantmakers looking to shift their organization’s culture to better align with their mission and values. Join Grantmakers for Effective Organizations in partnership with the …

05/27/2025

💫 NEW: Perspectives Blog💫

The Garden and Grantmaker: Highlights from the GEO 2025 Learning Conference

Millie Brobston, founder of Sycamore Philanthropy, invites us to explore how the garden can be a guide for an equitable future in philanthropy. Read more here: https://bit.ly/4mA4ITI

05/14/2025

GEO is deeply concerned with the impacts the pending tax legislation will have on nonprofits and communities. A thriving nonprofit sector is critical to a healthy society. Granting the executive branch authority to revoke nonprofit status without due process and increasing taxes on nonprofits and foundations will have a chilling effect on the very communities we seek to support. Please take action, as outlined by the National Council of Nonprofits, whose leadership is critical in these times.

Learn more here ➡️: https://bit.ly/3GWMJGB

The draft tax bill includes many provisions which, if enacted, could have a significant impact on nonprofit organizations nationwide and the people they serve

05/09/2025

Are you ready to shift power and deepen your listening practice with communities? Join us next week⬇️:

💡Community & Partner Call: Funder Listening in Action
📅May 14, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Join Fund for Shared Insight for an interactive webinar about creative ways to approach listening and shifting power in philanthropy, featuring the Funder Listening Action Menu. Together, we will learn more about the power of community and give you tools to develop an intentional listening practice for lasting impact. Join us to learn about effective strategies for shifting power to meet the needs of your communities and support sustainable change.

Register here: https://bit.ly/4jPH2ZK

04/22/2025

Nonprofits and funders are aligned on their goals to achieve lasting community prosperity. 🤝 But how do we get there? In our new video series, GEO President and CEO Marcus Walton and Nonprofit Finance Fund President and CEO Aisha Benson sit down to discuss what they’re seeing in the field – Marcus from funders and Aisha from nonprofits – and how philanthropy can better support communities.

Watch the series: https://nff.org/invite-communities-in

04/09/2025

🎉 Join us in welcoming our newest members to the GEO community:

Palm Healthcare Foundation
Victoria Foundation
AccessLex Institute
National Lotteries Commission
Evanston Community Foundation
Hector and Gloria López Foundation
Bonfils-Stanton Foundation
Thrive Lights

We looking forward to supporting you along your journey of transforming philanthropic culture and practice.

📧 If you're interested in being a GEO member, connect with us at [email protected] or click here to learn more: https://www.geofunders.org/.

04/02/2025

🎉 We're thrilled to announce the 2025 Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellows (CLIPF) cohort!

CLIPF's goal is to develop a community of practice where senior leaders find coaching, resources and peer support to implement transformative change within their grantmaking institutions in ways that advance equity and support thriving nonprofits and communities.

Over the next 10 months, this group will deepen their leadership, build connections with peers, and explore new ways to drive meaningful, equity-centered change in philanthropy.

We look forward to this journey with an inspiring cohort of changemakers! Read more here ➡️: https://tinyurl.com/5y5cmfzt.