New GEO initiative helps grantmakers navigate change with purpose.
Today, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) launched Rooted & Responsive, a multi-year leadership initiative helping grantmakers stay grounded in racial equity and community-centered practice amid disruption.
As grantmakers navigate coordinated attacks on equity, economic uncertainty and political shifts, we’re often pulled to either resist change or react quickly without clear direction.
Rooted & Responsive supports a more intentional approach, helping funders navigate change with purpose so communities feel the difference when our values and practice align.
This initiative brings together GEO programs and resources under a shared framework for leadership and learning, with multiple ways to engage, including convenings, peer learning, cohorts, governance-focused programming and field insights.
Designed for philanthropic practitioners at all levels — including CEOs and executive directors, foundation staff, and board members and trustees — it supports leaders working to strengthen practice and align values with action.
At its core are two leadership qualities:
- Rooted: maintaining clarity of purpose and values, and staying grounded in long-term relationships.
- Responsive: adapting strategically — not reactively — to changing conditions, centering community voice in decision-making and aligning practice with values.
Together, these qualities help grantmakers stay anchored in our commitments while adapting thoughtfully to what our communities need.
“By supporting both individual leadership and institutional practice, Rooted & Responsive helps grantmakers lead through change with clarity and purpose, so our collective work remains grounded in values and responsive to communities,” said Kristina Wertz, GEO Vice President of External Affairs.
Learn more at: geofunders.org/rooted-and-responsive