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.
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.
This study provides longitudinal data on trends in grantmaker practice on:
- strengthening relationships,
- flexible, reliable funding,
- capacity building,
- learning and evaluation, and
- collaboration.
We are a community that strives to get better because our communities depend on it. Over the past decade, we have made some progress. We are listening harder to grantees and members of our communities. More of us are making capacity-building investments in the organizations we fund. We are also increasingly gathering information to learn from and evaluate our progress.
But are we changing in all the ways we need to so that we can reach our full potential? The unfiltered answer is no. As we look around at the world in which we, and the groups we fund, are doing our work, we see many ways in which we are still missing the mark.
What nonprofits need most is for grantmakers to provide stable and flexible support. Nonprofits also need us to commit to using our power to help break down the causes of systemic inequity. As grantmakers, we have a choice. Will we continue with the status quo, or will we use this moment to take stock of how we are approaching our work and our relationships with nonprofits and the communities they serve?
What will it take to become smarter grantmakers? It starts from within. Since the last field survey in 2014, GEO has done a deep examination of what it takes to shift both culture and practice in grantmaking institutions.
There is still work to be done; only about half the funders in our study believed that their institutional culture was where it needed to be to maximize effectiveness. One emerging aspect of change is our increased understanding that we need to become more equitable institutions, both in how we operate internally and in what we choose to fund. If we hope to achieve results as grantmakers, it is critical for us to look at our organizations and our work through an equity lens.
This is difficult work, and we are not alone. Stories from the GEO community, which we present throughout the report, show that real progress is possible. We will continue to support each other as we push to do better, and we will hold each other accountable as we make the changes that are needed. We look forward to tackling these challenges together.