GEO 2024 Annual Report. Our Strategic Direction in Action.
Dear GEO Community,
As we reflect on the past year and look toward the future, we are filled with gratitude for the collective efforts of our members, partners and staff who make this work possible.
At Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, we continue to challenge ourselves and the philanthropic sector to embrace practices that lead to more just, equitable and thriving communities.
2024 was a pivotal year for GEO. We deepened our commitment to racial equity, expanded our efforts to support grantmakers in reimagining their role in creating systemic change and strengthened our internal culture through collaboration and learning. Through bold leadership, thoughtful learning and a commitment to community-driven solutions, we are shaping a philanthropic sector that is responsive, resilient and rooted in trust. Some highlights include:
- 2024 National Conference held in partnership with Philanthropy California
- Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship (CLIPF)
- Entering into a Collective Bargaining Agreement at GEO
- Working with GEO on shared Ways of Being
The 2024 annual report highlights the progress we have made together. Launched in 2024, our strategic direction — centered on culture, practice, learning and community — guides our path forward. As you read our highlights and testimonials, we hope you find inspiration and insight from ways our members and our team are showing up to build capacity.
As we embark on the next phase of our journey, we invite you to deepen your engagement, challenge the status quo and join us in shaping a future where philanthropy serves as a true catalyst for positive transformation. Together, we can create the conditions for nonprofits and communities to thrive.
Thank you for your commitment, partnership and unwavering belief in this work. We look forward to all we will continue to accomplish.
In solidarity and purpose,
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GEO transforms philanthropic culture and practice by connecting members to the resources and relationships needed to support thriving nonprofits and communities.
2024 by the Numbers
Strategic Direction: A Guidepost
Launched in January 2024, our new strategic direction outlines four transformative goals in the interconnected areas of:
These goals underscore the imperative of grounding philanthropic culture in intersectional racial equity, advancing responsive and equitable practices, fostering a learning mindset and effectively collaborating within a larger ecosystem for transformation across sectors.
The 2024 Annual Report highlights these areas and illustrates ways our members are living into these goals. You will also see how GEO is advancing internally to realize an organizational culture where equity and change coexist. These are just a few examples of GEO’s activities and impacts in 2024.
As we embark on these next steps in a transformative journey, we invite every member of the GEO community to join us in realizing our vision of a philanthropic sector that serves as a powerful force for equity and positive social change. Together, we will shape a future where thriving nonprofits and communities are not just aspirations but also living realities.
Grantmakers in the GEO community develop and deepen an intersectional racial equity analysis, including understanding (1) philanthropy’s historical roots in racism and exploitation, (2) the contemporary realities created and sustained by systems of oppression and (3) the current context of the communities they serve.
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Culture: In the Field
A critical aspect of shifting philanthropic culture is creating shared learning experiences that help deepen understanding and spark transformation. GEO’s convenings and conferences serve as spaces where grantmakers can challenge assumptions and embrace new ways of thinking and doing.
Hosted in partnership with Philanthropy California, GEO’s 2024 National Conference offered grantmakers and other practitioners a variety of entry points to support and challenge them to advance equity. In Los Angeles on May 20 – 22, we came together to contribute to the collective journeys of a thousand changemakers with a vast array of intersecting identities and experiences within philanthropy. Featuring 166 speakers, the conference co-created a challenging and supportive space where grantmakers connected to amplify the meaningful work being done in their communities to advance racial equity.
Debbie I. Chang, MPH, president and CEO of Blue Shield of California Foundation, reflected on her time at the conference:
We must invest in the work of shifting hearts and minds so that people’s consciences can create and support the changes. The 2024 GEO Conference was more than just an event; it catalyzed deeper reflection and a renewed commitment to philanthropy that truly takes humanity seriously.
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Unionization
Culture: In Our Organization
Shifting philanthropic culture begins internally. In December 2024, GEO and 1199 SEIU entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement — only a year after employees formed a union, which GEO voluntarily recognized in November 2023. The agreement provides GEO staff, leadership and board with a three-year line of sight on benefits and wages and marks a milestone in GEO’s organizational development.
Our collective efforts reflect a consistent adherence to GEO’s organizational values. As the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors continue to see a rise in unionization, we’re proud to model how organizations can engage in this work by centering love, racial equity, community-centered collaboration, trust and accountability. Movements for workers’ rights and collective power-building are both vital to the just, connected and inclusive society we envision. We look forward to sharing our learnings with the GEO community.
Grantmakers in the GEO community advance responsive and equitable practices such as providing long-term, flexible support to communities harmed by intersecting systems of oppression; centering community and shifting power in their grantmaking, capacity building, learning, and evaluation; and fostering equity in internal operations.
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Practice: In the Field
GEO is not just focused on what grantmakers do, but also on how they get there. In 2024, GEO continued a multiyear initiative to support grantmakers exploring and making changes to their governance practices and culture to make boards more equitable, meaningful and valuable. Highlights include:
- Conducting a landscape scan to map GEO members’ learnings and governance work in the sector;
- Amplifying Reimagining Nonprofit Governance from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation;
- Holding a standing-room-only session at the GEO 2024 National Conference;
- Convening a webinar on governance with over 300 registrants;
- Bringing together an intimate group of CEO and board pairs to share what change looks like in practice;
- Developing a working paper outlining how boards often fall short, what we need from governance to advance equity and grantmakers’ experiments to close the gap andcting a landscape scan to map GEO members’ learnings and governance work in the sector;
- Partnering with organizations like BoardSource, Northern California Grantmakers, Philanthropy New York, Camelback Ventures and others to exchange learning.
This work supports a growing peer community of grantmakers exploring how to move from traditional governance models to ones that reflect shared power, community voice and long-term equity commitments.
Practice is the bread and butter of GEO. We are a community of practice and that remains true. We really believe in moving from knowledge to doing.
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Grantmakers in the GEO community have an equity-centered learning mindset and embrace vulnerability, collective learning and unlearning, and collaboration.
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Learning: In the Field
GEO creates supportive and challenging spaces where grantmakers can learn from communities, nonprofits and each other and can build the skills to transform mindsets and practices. In 2024, GEO’s peer communities and cohorts offered members the opportunity to share insights and learning, deepen relationships and co-create solutions. Following are some highlights:
An engaged and vibrant learning community of grantmakers who embrace grantee-centered capacity building as a strategy for supporting nonprofits to thrive — met quarterly throughout the year.
A 10-month intensive peer cohort program for senior leaders who are responsible for developing and guiding change efforts in their organizations — completed its sixth successful year.
A learning community dedicated to identifying, interrogating and shifting internal practices within human resources, finance, risk management and information technology — met quarterly throughout the year.
A peer-learning cohort for experienced equity and change leaders, offered in partnership with Movement Tapestries — met year-round, both in-person and virtually, to support individual, organizational and community transformation.
A network of individuals with responsibility for guiding internal learning for staff — met quarterly, leveraging external learning to improve grant-making practices, and capturing and sharing learning with external audiences.
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In the Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship, the tools, the facilitation within each of the retreats, the dialogue between fellows between retreats have been so valuable. I really think I have gone miles ahead of what I probably would have had I not been a part of the fellowship.
Learning: In Our Organization
Over the past few years, GEO staff have been developing, refining and implementing our Ways of Being, a list of shared agreements guiding how we show up and collaborate with each other in transforming philanthropic practice and culture to be in service of equity.
This work was spearheaded by a staff-led group bolstered by learnings from the Art of Leading for Race Equity program, with support from The Kresge Foundation’s FUEL initiative and refined through an engagement with Brigham Consulting. The Ways of Being encourage practices such as compassionate accountability, speaking in first draft, and prioritizing joy and community building.
Grantmakers in the GEO community work effectively within a larger ecosystem of people and institutions, advancing equity across sectors.
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Community: In the Field
GEO promotes opportunities for grantmakers to effectively learn and partner with community leaders, nonprofits, government agencies and businesses. We ask grantmakers to consider how our work fits into a larger ecosystem of change. By working collaboratively, we can better align resources, amplify impact and support solutions that are informed by those closest to the issues.
We embrace this commitment by curating spaces for unfiltered dialogue, relationship building and reflection. For example, sessions at the 2024 National Conference explored topics ranging from asset framing, civic engagement and multilingual organizing to centering community care as a practice — offering insights for shifting power and advancing ecosystem change.
Taryn Palumbo, Executive Director of Orange County Grantmakers, shares her insights on the value of community convenings:
Community leadership is never an afterthought. It’s a model that has proven successful in Orange County, and our efforts are reaffirmed by the conversations at GEO about the bold things that can happen when we approach philanthropy through the lens of partnership and collaboration.
But when people authentically desire to be in dialogue to listen and understand, I think about what I’m called to do working for an organization trying to shift philanthropic culture and practice.
Without me leaning into uncomfortable conversations, I’m potentially not reaching people who could join the movement to create institutional and systemic change.
Grantmakers in the GEO community develop and deepen an intersectional racial equity analysis, including understanding (1) philanthropy’s historical roots in racism and exploitation, (2) the contemporary realities created and sustained by systems of oppression and (3) the current context of the communities they serve.
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Unionization
In December 2024, GEO and 1199 SEIU entered into a Collective Bargaining Agreement. The agreement is the first union contract for employees of GEO, who formed a union with 1199 SEIU that was voluntarily recognized by GEO in November 2023.
As a result of the agreement, GEO staff, leadership, and board have a three-year line of sight on our benefits and wages. We are grateful to the individuals on both sides of the bargaining table for reaching this milestone in a relatively short timeframe. We attribute our collective success to the consistent adherence to GEO’s organizational values of love, racial equity in practice, community-centered collaboration, and trust and accountability.
Grantmakers in the GEO community advance responsive and equitable practices such as providing long-term, flexible support to communities harmed by intersecting systems of oppression; centering community and shifting power in their grantmaking, capacity building, learning, and evaluation; and fostering equity in internal operations.
If you have a change initiative, but it is not communicated well and then space isn't provided to make sense of that, people will jump to their own conclusions.
For me, this breakthrough was around sense making and the importance of sense making in any anything in one's life, but especially if it's a big change. It’s important to be able to process it, to be able to share thoughts and feelings and desires around future states.
In the Change Leaders in Philanthropy Fellowship, the tools, the facilitation within each of the retreats, the dialogue between fellows between retreats have been so valuable. I really think I have gone miles ahead of what I probably would have had I not been a part of the Fellowship.
In fall 2023, GEO began a multiyear learning initiative to support grantmakers who are exploring and making changes to their governance practices and culture to make boards more equitable, meaningful and valuable. In 2024, we:
- conducted a landscape scan to map governance work in the sector and understand what GEO members are learning and trying
- amplified Robert Sterling Clark Foundation’s resource Reimagining Nonprofit Governance
- held a standing-room-only session at the GEO 2024 National Conference
- explored governance on a webinar with over 300 registrants
- convened an intimate group of CEO and board pairs to share what change looks like in practice
- developed a working paper outlining what we know about how boards often fall short, what we need from governance to advance equity, and experiments some grantmakers are trying to close the gap
- convened an intimate group of CEO and board pairs to share what change looks like in practice
- exchanged learning and worked toward joint programming with partner organizations like BoardSource, Northern California Grantmakers, Philanthropy New York, Camelback Ventures and others
Together, we are exploring the expectations and assumptions about what transformation of boards means and looks like, the actual changes needed, and what keeps a board from snapping back to old ways under stress or pressure. We’re inviting leaders to experiment and to share what they’re learning in a supportive peer community.
Grantmakers in the GEO community have an equity-centered learning mindset and embrace vulnerability, collective learning and unlearning, and collaboration.
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Philanthropy does not have a great record of supporting social movements and organizing. For the most part, it has been a story of benign neglect–simply ignoring them.
When foundations have supported social movement organizations, the interests of the funder have generally driven the strategy and focus, not the organization or the community most impacted. That approach has resulted in movement capture, whereby the energy and strength of the people and the movement are subverted from the issues most critical to them.
For the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, the elections of 2016 led us to question our commitment to the education justice and racial justice youth organizing groups we supported at a time of trauma, fear, and also opportunity. That question resulted in the decision to move all of the Foundation’s assets to the field by 2025–a century after the Foundation’s establishment.
Teachings from the field
The strength of a partnership often depends on the willingness to share vulnerabilities. This openness fosters a deeper level of trust and collaboration, enabling both funders and grantees to navigate challenges more effectively together. “It’s especially helpful when program officers are transparent about internal challenges at their funding institutions and ask us to help them strategize about how to address those challenges,” shares Alicia Olivarez, associate director at Power California.
The realities of capitalism continue to drive more communities into poverty and nonprofit workers are not immune to these pressures. “Housing and living costs keep increasing, and our communities are affected. That includes our organizers and our staff. At least three of our staff members have side jobs, and one of them is full-time,” reveals Sandra Hernandez-Lomeli, director at Latinos Unidos Siempre. Funders must recognize the need for living wage salaries and benefits to keep nonprofit staff focused on mission and reduce burn out. Or, to put it bluntly, why shouldn’t nonprofit partners get what those of us privileged to work in philanthropic institutions have come to expect for ourselves?
We know many of our peers in the field have long worked to implement strategies and practices that develop authentic relationships with nonprofit leaders and center justice. We hope this report adds to their work and is a catalyst for pushing philanthropy to go further in the pursuit of a just society.
We also know many of our peers are interested in stepping onto this path but have not yet moved from conversation to action. We invite our peers in the early stages of their efforts to use our examples and the experiences of our nonprofit partners to motivate their next steps. The movement for social justice requires our reflection and our action.
Living Into Shared Ways of Being that Advance Equity
GEO’s learning strategy is about creating supportive and challenging spaces where grantmakers in the GEO community can learn from communities, nonprofits and each other, in order to change their mindsets and practices. Over the past few years, GEO staff have been developing, refining and implementing our Ways of Being, a list of shared agreements to guide how we show up and collaborate with each other in order to help transform philanthropic practice and culture to be in service of equity.
This work was spearheded by a small group of staff, who were bolstered by learnings from the Art of Leading for Race Equity program – a collaboration between Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. Their participation in the training was generously supported by The Kresge Foundation’s Fostering Urban Equitable Leadership Initiative (FUEL). Our first draft Ways of Being was further refined through an engagement with Brigham Consulting to strengthen GEO’s capacity to lead racial equity work, both internally and externally.
Our ways of being are:
- Compassionate Accountability
- Intentional Agenda +/or Intention Setting w/ Openness to Emergent Needs
- Prioritize Joy & Community Building
- Freedom to Speak in First Draft
- Cultivate Openness
- Offering Constructive Feedback as a Form of Trust, Believing that we all want to do Better and be in Partnership in the work
- Listen to Hear
- Communicate and Honor Preferences & Boundaries
- Culture of Appreciation
- Technology Check-In From Every Facilitator for Every/All Staff Space
- Camera Optional Culture
Grantmakers in the GEO community work effectively within a larger ecosystem of people and institutions, advancing equity across sectors.
But when people authentically desire to be in dialogue to listen and understand, I think about what I’m called to do working for an organization trying to shift philanthropic culture and practice.
Without me leaning into uncomfortable conversations, I’m potentially not reaching people who could join the movement to create institutional and systemic change.
Supporters
GEO would like to extend a special thank you to the foundations that have supported us with contributions beyond membership support:
In Memory: Janine Lee
Janine Lee, president and CEO of Philanthropy Southeast, passed away on February 28, 2024. As one of GEO’s co-founders, Janine was integral in the creation and early work of our community, setting a standard and laying a path forward for who we are today through her early leadership on the GEO board of directors.
Janine remained active in GEO over the past twenty-six years through many different contributions both formal and informal, seen and unseen. Janine ensured a strong ongoing relationship between GEO and Philanthropy Southeast, helping to connect our work more deeply to the communities she served so well. She tied GEO’s past to our future when we commemorated the community’s 20th anniversary in 2018, and by serving as a member of the search committee that brought Marcus Walton to the organization as our second president and CEO. Perhaps most importantly, she served as a longtime trusted advisor, wise colleague and treasured friend to many GEO staff and board members, as well as countless others across the philanthropic sector.
The outpouring of support for Janine’s family, friends and colleagues at Philanthropy Southeast is a testament to the life Janine lived and the legacy she built. Janine was both a prominent, respected leader of transformative change in our sector and a generous, warm mentor to so many of us on a personal level. All of us at GEO wish peace and grace to everyone who loved and admired Janine. We miss her deeply, and we remain committed to working to realize her aspirations for a more just and equitable world.
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