2012 National Conference Blog

This is a repost of a guest blog post by David Greco from Nonprofit Finance Fund for Beth Kanter's blog.

There have been a lot of conversations about what funders can do to support nonprofits to scale impact. But one of the more interesting areas brought to the forefront here at the GEO conference is what can funders stop doing, what bad "best" practices need to be abandoned, and how can funders get out of their own way. It is refreshing to hear the conversation about 'how not to grant'.

This is a repost of a guest blog post by Peter Laugharn of the Firelight Foundation for Beth Kanter's blog.

Glinda the Good Witch:  ”You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas.
”

Dorothy:  ”I have?
”

Scarecrow:  ”Then why didn’t you tell her before?
”

Glinda:  ”Because she wouldn’t have believed me. She had to learn it for herself.”

Tin Man:  ”What have you learned, Dorothy?”

The Wizard of Oz (next-to-last scene)

I often think of the above exchange when foundations talk about learning.  Especially the last sentence. What have you learned?

By: Michelle Torgerson, Vice President, Draper Consulting Group

Grantmakers have many resources at their fingertips that are critical for initiating change and influencing public service: access to powerful individuals, financial resources, and talented and educated staff and trustees. One of the often overlooked resources is the most valuable: nonprofit leaders.

This is a repost of a guest post by Albert Ruesga for Alliance magazine, blogging from the GEO National Conference.

Is grantmaking getting smarter? According to a survey recently released by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), the answer appears to be ‘not by much’ – or at least not fast enough. Last conducted in 2008, this study of primarily US foundations found that there was little to no change in the degree to which grantmakers incorporated practices deemed important to the success of grantees. The survey will be one of the centrepieces of discussion at this year’s GEO conference being held in Seattle on 12-14 March.

We understand that some of you may have received inappropriate and offensive material in the mail or through email that contained the logos for GEO and Philanthropy Northwest and a reference to our National Conference. This communication was not endorsed or authorized by either GEO or Philanthropy Northwest. There have been several similar episodes over a number of years that have been dealt with in conjunction with the Texas governor’s office and court orders are in place to remove offending materials from the Internet. GEO is not formally involved in these legal matters or the ongoing situation, but has sought legal counsel in order to protect the privacy of members of our community and the quality of our brand. GEO adheres to a strict privacy policy and does not sell, rent or lend to anyone the personal information of its members, conference participants or registered website users. Please feel free to contact Danielle Yates ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 202.355.9541) or J McCray ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 202.898.1823) if you should have any questions about GEO’s policies.

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By Danielle Yates, GEO’s manager of marketing and communications

Want to hear all of the latest and greatest ideas coming out of sessions that you may have missed at the conference? We know there is just too much great stuff going on and want to make sure that you don’t miss a thing! We encourage you to join your colleagues from the conference and the broader GEO community on Facebook, Twitter (use #2012GEO, the official twitter hashtag) or Beth Kanter’s blog to hear what your peers are saying and to share your session insights or burning questions.

By Aroha Bahuguna, GEO's winter associate

From seasoned GEO conference veterans to new grantmakers looking to orient themselves to grantmaking, the upcoming National Conference in Seattle has plenty to offer to everyone. In particular, GEO facilitates conversations between grantmakers interested in trying new and innovative things. In this post, Marianne Philbin from The Pierce Family Foundation in Chicago shares her thoughts with us on why she wants to attend the conference — hearing from other grantmakers about supporting nonprofit development beyond traditional grantmaking.

By Aroha Bahuguna, GEO's winter associate

In our last post in the attendee spotlight series, we mentioned the diversity of foundations that will be represented at GEO’s 2012 National Conference. However, the conference is also remarkable in the number of countries represented. We have attendees from six countries! While most attendees are from the U.S., quite a few are from Canada. In this post, we feature Dave Doig, director of grants and community initiatives at Vancouver Foundation in Canada, who talks about seeking opportunities at the conference to orient himself to his new role as a grantmaker after working for 20 years as a grantseeker.

By Aroha Bahuguna, GEO's winter associate

The National Conference is now less than two weeks away, and I continue to be amazed at the number of people that are attending this conference to explore smarter grantmaking that leads to stringer nonprofits and better results. We have 656 registered attendees, representing all types of grantmakers — from family foundations to corporate foundations. In this blog post, we feature Gale Berkowitz, director of evaluation and learning for the MasterCard Foundation. She shares her thoughts on the challenges around aligning the mission of a corporate foundation with the vision of the parent company, and how she plans to leverage the conference for her role in evaluation and learning at MasterCard.

By Kamasha Hendrickson, GEO’s senior events specialist

With the conference less than two weeks away, I wanted to share with you a list of activities to take in while visiting the Emerald City, especially for those of you who are taking advantage of the Westin’s discounted pre- and post-conference room rates.

Happy Exploring!