Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) is a diverse community of 500 grantmakers working to reshape the way philanthropy operates. Understanding that grantmakers are successful only to the extent that their grantees achieve meaningful results, GEO promotes strategies and practices that contribute to grantee success.

Nonprofits are successful at achieving more meaningful change in our communities when they have the resources and skills to be effective. By not adequately responding to what nonprofits say they need most to maximize impact, funders can inadvertently do harm to the organizations and causes we intend to support. Changing grantmaker practice is hard work, but our communities can’t afford for us to wait.

In 1997 a group of philanthropic leaders saw the need for a space where grantmakers could come together to share knowledge and best practices, and inspire their colleagues to act. What started out as a small gathering has grown into a movement connecting grantmakers dissatisfied with the status quo for practical conversations about the best ways to support nonprofits to achieve better results.

For more than 15 years the GEO community has advanced smarter grantmaking practices that enable nonprofits to grow stronger and more effective. As a result, GEO members consistently outpace other funders in terms of making productive changes to help nonprofits achieve more — such as providing support for grantee capacity building, engaging external voices in decision-making, giving multiyear grants, forming strategic partnerships and funding collaboration among grantees.