Resources

In your first year of GEO membership, to help you stay informed of the emerging trends and promising practices from the field, we'll point you to GEO's publications, research and peer conversations. Below, find some of GEO’s tools and resources on learning and evaluation. We hope these are helpful as you explore how GEO can support your work.

The power of our community is undeniable when we look at the confidence we found and the change we accomplished while working together in 2017.

I am exploring the idea of funding quality improvement collaboratives that focus on maternal care and infant health up to one year of age. I’m tossing around some ideas in my head but I would love to learn from others who have done something similar in a rural context. What were some of the lessons learned? How was the funding opportunity structured given some of the constraints in terms of providers, geographic variations and organizations?

Do you know of any examples or best practices on how to serve grantee cohorts and grantees when they speak different languages? Democracy Fund is part of a state funder collaborative in North Carolina that will support a cohort of local news and information nonprofits through grants, and probably will have at least one organization that has leaders that speak primarily Spanish. We also are hoping to support some convenings, as well as other types of resources such as informal mentorships, readings, etc. We hope to continue to make this funder collaborative’s offerings, as well as other work we do beyond NC, more accessible to organizations that have staff and leaders that speak languages other than English. We started by making this collaborative’s application and guidelines available in Spanish, and provided an interpreter for conversations during the application process, but know that we could do more. Thanks for any thoughts, ideas, feedback or links!

Hello all, We have just completed an amazing year of learning and personal development as a staff (adaptive leadership, racial equity, crucial conversations and facilitation for accountability), and we are ready for more! What trainings have your organizations supported for your staff?? What recommendations would you make for our next year of personal development trainings? All the best, Melanie

Hello GEO Members, The McGregor Fund is interested in hearing from other funders that offer grants (either in addition to programmatic funding, or as stand-alone grants) for grantee evaluation capacity and/or data infrastructure. These grants might support evaluation consultants, or experts in data management or data system acquisition. They might support training to strengthen grantee data collection, evaluation, or performance measurement. In my scan of GEO archives and the web so far, I have found numerous foundations that fund research, or evaluation of the impact of their funding, and some who fund IT infrastructure, but less that are focused on building grantee capacity to better manage and use their data to inform programmatic and strategic decision-making. If you know of any funders that do this, or do something similar yourself, I would love to hear from you, and am curious about how these grant opportunities are assessed by staff, and any reflections on the value of these grants.

For the sake of diversity, equity and inclusion, the Saint Louis County Children’s Service Fund would like to expand the application process to encourage organizations that may not have capacity for the regular core funding request for proposals. We are considering a small grants process that would remove barriers for grass roots and/or small capacity organizations. What processes do GEO members have for small grants or to encourage new/small agencies to apply?

What sort of paid maternity, paternity, and/or family leave does your Foundation offer and who does it cover – ie, birth parents, adoptive parents, employees providing caregiving for aging parents?

I’m looking for recommendations of consultants and/or organizations that offer racial equity training specifically for foundations and grantmakers.

As they contemplated a period of significant growth in the foundation’s assets (along with a potential expansion of staff and programs), the staff of GHR Foundation began to explore the kind of organizational culture they all wanted to create together.