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Equitable Operations

GEO’s Equitable Operations Community is dedicated to identifying, interrogating and shifting internal practices with the goal of operationalizing intersectional racial equity. In areas from human resources and finance to risk management and information technology, the community supports participants to strengthen internal policies and practices in ways that match a grantmakers; equity commitments.

About the Community

Organizations making external commitments to equity can encounter internal dissonance if organizational culture, policies and infrastructure reproduce, rather than challenge, “business as usual”. Organizational change is critical to shifting philanthropic culture and practice—and operations teams play an essential role in leading and implementing these shifts. 

Members of the Equitable Operations Community are leaders working on core operations issues in philanthropy in the areas of: human resources, finance, facilities, risk management and information technology.

Members of the network come together to discuss shared questions, challenges and opportunities we are encountering in our work. Through virtual and in-person convenings and a network listserv, we share resources and insights and develop ideas for accessibility, transparency and vulnerability across all operational functions.

To express interest and found out more information, please fill out this form.

Featured Events & News

2025 Member Orientation

Join our next member orientation to learn about community benefits and discover…

  • Member Orientation

2025 Member Orientation

Join our next member orientation to learn about community benefits and discover…

  • Member Orientation

2025 Learning Conference

Save the Date for GEO’s 2025 Learning Conference, hosted in partnership with…

  • Conferences

2025 Member Orientation

Join our next member orientation to learn about community benefits and discover…

  • Member Orientation

2025 Member Orientation

Join our next member orientation to learn about community benefits and discover…

  • Member Orientation

2027 Learning Conference

Save the Date for GEO’s 2027 Learning Conference, from May 25-26, 2027…

  • Conferences

Building a Better Cookout

Throughout my time in philanthropy, I’ve developed coping mechanisms. Connecting back to…

  • Perspectives Piece

Two Steps Forward

Suprotik Stotz-Ghosh reflects on how grantmakers can generate meaningful results in response…

  • Perspectives Piece

My Journey to GEO

Throughout my career, I have committed myself to service. First, as a…

  • Perspectives Piece

Perspective Matters

After three years of working to expand the bench of evaluators, the…

  • Perspectives Piece

Get on the Balcony

In September 2018, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations released "Get on the Balcony:…

  • Perspectives Piece

Cross-post: The Search

After the 2017 Unity Summit, AAPIP (Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy) invited…

  • Perspectives Piece

What we know for sure

Often unprecedented circumstances seem to necessitate bigger or radically different strategies. But…

  • Perspectives Piece

Focus and Hope

Now is the opportunity for foundations to gain a clarity that has…

  • Perspectives Piece

Embracing Discomfort

We need to face the structural and systemic causes of racial disparity…

  • Perspectives Piece

The CIA Made Me Do It

I recently ran across a historical document that surprisingly holds many parallels…

  • Perspectives Piece