In the summer of 2025, GEO staff invited The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (CFGNH) to join the host committee of the GEO 2026 National Conference and a co-sponsor of the event. CFGNH was pleased to accept. I served on the host committee representing CFGNH. I have been a long-time follower and participant of GEO’s programs. I consistently gain relevant and timely knowledge from GEO’s learning and networking opportunities. It had been several years since I attended a GEO conference. This year, to my delight, GEO held their annual conference in beautiful historic Boston. The conference was a short train ride from New Haven. For these reasons, I was excited to participate in the planning of the conference and attend what I knew would be an inspiring experience, especially in such a challenging time for equity and social justice.
The conference, “Transforming Philanthropic Culture and Practice,” was appropriate given that much is changing rapidly in our field and our communities. It is essential that philanthropy not only keeps up with change but anticipates and responds to community-led change.
Intentional Collaboration
CFGNH is actively working to transform philanthropic culture and practice through its partnership with the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation (GHGF) and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation (FCCF) to form the CT Urban Opportunity Collaborative (CUOC). At the conference, CUOC presented a breakout session to share how this three-way community foundation collaborative was created. CUOC Director Liany Arroyo, CFGNH Senior Vice President of Planning and Community Strategies Christina Ciociola and GHGF Vice President of Community Impact Elysa Gordon discussed the launch of CUOC and the implementation of a direct cash assistance pilot that centered residents as co-designers and grassroots community organizers and is grounded in racial and economic justice. They discussed practical aspects of the collaboration such as how CUOC aligns funding, shares a staff person, and works through each organization’s structures to create the direct cash Changemaker Fund pilot in partnership with UpTogether.
While many funders encourage their nonprofit grantee partners to collaborate with each other, funders do not always lean into collaboration with each other.
As a Connecticut native and resident, I was pleased that two powerful and dedicated leaders from the nutmeg state were on the main stage for the plenary discussions – Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center, Kica Matos and Executive Director of CT Students for a Dream, Tabitha Sookdeo. These two powerhouse leaders are fighting to ensure the safety and protection of immigrant communities that are currently under attack for simply existing in this country. Last year over 500,000 immigrants were deported from the U.S. and most of these individuals never saw a judge. Kica and Tabitha’s powerful messages of solidarity and being anchored in purpose were motivating and encouraging for the continued struggle to protect immigrant communities and to build the multiracial democracy that we seek to create. Philanthropy has an important role to play in this work and must not be silent.
Listening and Responding to Communities
One important practice change in philanthropy is listening to community and how funders respond to and deal with current and long-term challenges. The breakout session Listening in Chaos: Practical Skills for Responsive Philanthropy provided practical, research-backed guidance from experienced foundation staff, feedback practitioners, and sector experts. The presenters – Britt Lake (CEO, Feedback Labs), Bryan Simmons (VP, Communications, Arcus Foundation), Marvin Vilma (Founder & CEO, Bevy Studio) – walked us through tangible tools for high-quality listening in crisis contexts.
It is essential that funders understand how to solicit feedback without overburdening grantees.
An important skill for funders to build is to listen across ideological differences because there are not enough of these spaces for this type of listening to happen. Also critical is building internal organizational alignment for listening efforts. Feedback Lab’s Listening in This Moment: A Guide for Funders will be a resource I use regularly in CFGNH’s work.
Balancing the Work and the Risks
Another critical practice change for funders is how to do our values focused equity and social justice work while balancing the risk of doing this work in the current political environment. This was highlighted by the breakout session, Risk to Resilience. Vice President of the Seattle Foundation, Michelle Frix and Senior Principal at Slalom Consulting, Ann Sonnen led an excellent discussion about reframing risk as a strategic tool to guide values-based decisions. This is an important perspective to help funders evaluate when to be risk averse and when taking bold, mission‑aligned risks can unlock even greater impact. Session participants had the opportunity to practice defining our appetite and tolerance for risk. We learned about how the Seattle Foundation built alignment among senior leadership and board members to construct shared language around five key risk assessment areas: reputational, financial, regulatory, equity & inclusion, and mission related.
Centering Love in Philanthropic Practice
Leading with Love was the theme of the lunch plenary with Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Freedom Together Foundation, Rodney McKenzie, President and CEO of Skillman Foundation, Angelique Power and GEO’s President and CEO, Marcus Walton. Philanthropy is derived from the Greek word philanthropia—meaning “love of humanity.” The premise of the discussion was the examination of questions at the core of this theme: What happens when love—rather than strategy—is the starting point for how philanthropy leads and partners with nonprofits and communities? I appreciated the deeply personal stories that the speakers shared and concrete practice examples about how they lead with love in their work in philanthropy. The discussion of grief and mourning what has been lost in our country resonated deeply with me. They provided much needed language for a feeling I carry while also creating space for leaning into what is possible for our communities.
Moving Forward
In closing, I will continue to shift philanthropic culture and practice in my role by putting into practice many of the learnings from the GEO conference described above. As CFGNH enters the third year with CUOC, our collective work on economic mobility will continue with the Changemaker Fund and our qualitative evaluation. We are eager to learn how the current political landscape has impacted power building efforts in urban communities across Connecticut and sharing those lessons with the field. On a personal level, I will hold space for deep listening and centering love in philanthropic practice. Doing so will help our community to stand steady and move towards the societal and equitable change that we are seeking.
Yolanda Caldera-Durant is the Vice President of Program & Community Engagement at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (CFGNH), providing leadership, direction, and oversight of the foundation. Yolanda held a variety of leadership roles at the Fund the People, Connecticut Health Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation.