Resources

Through our research over the past 20 years, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations has identified a set of grantmaker practices that help nonprofits achieve better results. Every three years, GEO conducts a study to help us understand how we are doing as a field, including trends over time as well as new areas of inquiry.

By confronting gaps between its mission and its way of doing business, The Florida Bar Foundation is deepening impact in the communities it serves.

I’m interested in hearing about policies and practices that your organizations have in place related to board composition, especially those that pay particular attention to board diversity.

Northwest Area Foundation is entering into a new phase of being more intentional around diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI). I’m working with an internal team and we’ve developed goals, purpose, an initial work plan, and are capturing our current DEI practices, but right now what I’m seeking is “lessons learned” around engaging full staff and the board on a DEI effort. How did you think strategically about what input, when and why? I’d also love to see other examples of DEI “work plans” out there and if you have any dos/don’ts around org-wide assessments.

At GEO’s Learning Conference 2017, Rami Nashashibi, the executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), discussed how funders can engage with American Muslim identity, community activism and social justice issues for effective and truly transformative grantmaking.

At GEO’s Learning Conference 2017, Trabian Shorters of the BMe Community discussed how negative portrayals of black men and African American communities affect the ways we interact with communities. And Trabian outlined how “asset-framing” and changing the way we think and talk about certain communities can be used to combat bias, shift perspective and inspire constructive action.

Grantmakers committed to equity know that it must be incorporated into every facet of their work, including learning and evaluation. This session showcases different perspectives on this topic.

I’d be interested to hear of ideas or changes your organization has made (big or small) to make online grant applications more accessible, particularly to individuals who are blind, have low vision, are deaf, and/or have limited hearing. I recognize that the grants application is just the beginning, and so I’m keeping in mind informational webinars, Q&A sessions, and how individuals connect with us are also a part of the equation here. If there are any suggestions, we’d love to hear of them.

How listening to the needs of its community inspired a foundation to develop a new capacity building program that supports civic leadership, community collaboration and more equitable outcomes.

We are in the midst of some annual planning and are curious if any funders have commissioned or conducted a nonprofit report card/state of the sector analysis for their local community, state, or region.