What is organizational effectiveness?
GEO defines organizational effectiveness as an organization’s ability to fulfill its mission measurably through a blend of sound management, strong governance, and a persistent rededication to assessing and achieving results. GEO promotes organizational effectiveness by identifying and promoting grantmaking practices that improve grantee performance.
Why is it important to focus on organizational effectiveness?
Nonprofits cannot have impact unless they have well trained, capable staff, strong management and a committed, accountable board of directors. Grantmakers have the power to increase the impact of their grantees by giving grants that encourage them to build well managed structures that support their mission-based work, and measure performance to inform the work and make the mid-course corrections necessary to succeed.
What are grantmaking practices that improve nonprofit performance? Here are just a few; see this fuller list of barriers that impede nonprofit success.
- Providing operating or unrestricted funding that organizations can use to support the very things required to run strong organizations such as sound management and evaluation. This includes investing in planning, fundraising, financial oversite, adequate facilities and evaluation.
- Providing multi-year support so that nonprofits can focus more of their energies on achieving their mission and not on fundraising.
- Supporting adequately compensated staff, professional development, sabbaticals and other approaches for nonprofit leaders to combat burnout and recruit and retain talented staff.
- Eliminating onerous application and reporting requirements that require a nonprofit spending precious time and resources on grantmaker compliance — time that could be better spent delivering on the organization’s mission.
What is GEO doing to identify and promote these practices?
GEO encourages and assists grantmakers as they adopt and maintain practices that increase their organizational effectiveness and enhance their ability to achieve their goals and mission. GEO identifies and highlights grantmaking practices that improve nonprofit performance. Resources and examples of successful practices are featured on the GEO Web site, in e-newsletters, publications and through our conferences.
What is GEO currently working on?
We’re building knowledge on effectiveness via research and resources in the following areas:
- GEO's Change Agent work provides grantmakers with the resources, ideas and connections they need to make the greatest contribution to the nonprofits they invest in. Our Change Agent work will identify the most promising change opportunities, engage grantmakers who have overcome these barriers and learn how they did it; and build resources to equip other change agents to achieve similar results.
- Leadership Development. Research shows that capacity-building interventions often fail if strong organizational leadership is not first in place. Therefore, leadership is a key area to address by grantmakers interested in improving nonprofit performance. We highlight promising investments made by grantmakers in leadership development, and engage groups of grantmakers who seek to take their investments to the next level.
- Organizational Learning. A crucial component of organizational effectiveness is how grantmakers use what they are learning to make decisions and affect change. GEO seeks to make the connection between learning and effectiveness crystal clear, and to refocus discussions about knowledge management and evaluation onto the result we all want: improved organizational performance.
What value do GEO members receive?
GEO Premium Members enjoy a host of benefits and services to help them work more effectively and have a greater impact on the issues they care about and the nonprofits they fund. By making annual membership contributions to GEO, grantmakers can have access to the full resources available through GEO and connect to other funders who are committed to organizational effectiveness. These resources include:
- Full access to resources available on www.geofunders.org. The GEO Web site is a tool to connect funders with one another as well as access and share information about organizational effectiveness and grantee capacity building.
- Participation in membership topic areas, including leadership development and organizational learning, which includes subscriptions to topic-specific e-newsletters.
- Priority registration and discounts to GEO national conferences, roundtables and case study workshops and free copies of GEO reports such as the Tool for Assessing Startup Organizations and co-published books with Wilder and Jossey-Bass.
- Access to a members-only listserv where members share challenges and solutions related to grantmaking and where GEO staff post current news, trends and resources related to organizational effectiveness.
More information on GEO membership.
Why should funders support GEO?
GEO members have access to the latest information and resources on the best ways to increase grantee performance. Supporters join a community of grantmakers who share this challenge. An investment in GEO also has a ripple effect throughout the philanthropic sector. By supporting GEO’s programs and research, funders share their knowledge of organizational effectiveness practices with a large community of grantmakers. By supporting GEO, funders are lifting the standards of the entire nonprofit sector, while helping to ensure that the practices of more grantmakers improve. Please see GEO's current financial supporters.
Last updated 28 July 2006 jss