Resources

From publications to toolkits, GEO’s resources lift up experiences from your peers to help you turn knowledge into action.

Publication

A Change Management & Deep Equity Primer: The What, Why, How & Nuance

This publication from Movement Tapestries offers insights and guidance for organizations navigating equity-embedded transformations, and the challenges that can come with embarking on such journeys.
  • January 16, 2023
  • Sheryl Petty, Ed.D.

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About 740 results.

  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Wellness Grants for Executive Leadership

    Dear GEO Community, Our foundation works closely with nonprofits that serve families and children in the region. We have focused on organizational resiliency and capacity building, and over the last several years, we noticed a critical need for executive leadership wellness and self-care. The foundation plans to offer new wellness grants to executives at our partner nonprofits, but this is a new funding area for us! What is your experience with wellness grants, leadership burnout support, and nonprofit leadership self-care? I would love to know more about your grant guidelines, how funds were used, and overall feedback from your grantees. Thank you very much! Laura
    • February 8, 2023
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Fundraising foundations - do you charge an administrative fee?

    Dear GEO Community, Siebert Lutheran Foundation (SLF), an independent, private foundation that advances the Lutheran church and its ministries, recently created a new initiative we call Siebert Serves to increase resources and grants for our grantees. This is the first time in our history we are accepting gifts from donors and foundations, which will be used to support our grantees. Some of the ways donors give: 1. Make a "pass-through" gift (money designated for a grantee which is dispersed by SLF directly to the grantee) 2. Create a named Endowment Fund 3. Direct their DAF gift to a grantee 4. Make an unrestricted gift for endowment, bequests, or estate gifts. We are considering implementing a "fee for service" agreement where a percentage (1-3%) of funds from the types of gifts named above will be retained by Siebert to support the fundraising cost associated with securing gifts. We are interested in knowing if your foundation has/has not implemented a “fee for service” agreement, the rationale behind the decision, and the result. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here or if you are willing to take a 2-minute survey to provide your information, please click here: Siebert Lutheran Foundation - charging administrative fees Survey (surveymonkey.com). Thank you! Your input and experience will help us make an informed decision regarding this process.
    • January 26, 2023
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Lowering proposal rejection rates

    Hi everyone, We're wondering if anyone knows if there is an "industry" average for the decline rate of proposals? If you do not know of an average, would you be willing to share your decline rate so we can create an average of these responses? Also, if there are funders who have reduced the number of rejected proposals, we'd be appreciative of any tips or methods that helped. Many thanks,
    • January 4, 2023
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Monitoring and evaluation consultants for community impact strategy

    Good morning, CFU has undertaken a process to develop a community impact strategy for our endowment, issue-based funds, and initiatives. We'd appreciate recommendations for any monitoring and evaluation consultants that this group has been especially impressed with. It would be a bonus if there were any experiences with ESG metrics. Many thanks in advance!
    • April 8, 2022
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Are any community foundations working with local governments to regrant ARP funds?

    Good morning! I’m reaching out to see if there are any community foundations working with their local governments to re-grant ARPA funds to nonprofit organizations in their service area? We have been approached by a county government in our region to manage the distribution of the ARP (American Rescue Plan) funding they have allocated to nonprofit organizations. We could see how this would fit within our purview as the region’s community foundation but have some questions about the financial and legal implications of receiving federal à county funding. Are there any community foundations in this network that have worked with their local governments in general, or more specifically, around ARP funding that could share their experience related to these questions? Thank you!
    • April 8, 2022
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Primary grantmaking committee questions

    Hello Everyone, We would love to gain deeper insight from this community about grantmaking committees. Here are our questions: • What is the structure of your evaluating body – do you have one core committee or multiple committees (fund, sector, or program dependent, for example)? • What steps has your organization taken to diversify committees and to incorporate participatory grantmaking? How are community members considered for your committee (application process, word-of-mouth, staff-driven, etc)? • Is your organization utilizing content experts for proposal evaluations? If so, are they part of your core decision making body or used as advisors? • Would anyone be willing to share sample committee materials, such as training documents? • Finally, how do you show appreciation to your committee in cases where they are participating on a volunteer basis?
    • April 8, 2022
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: What is the best GMS? SmartSimple or Salesforce or Other?

    Dear grantmaking colleagues, Our team is in the search of a grants management system that will help automate our current manual grantmaking process. We’ve narrowed down our top 2 choices - SmartSimple and Salesforce – and want to ask if folks here have any thoughts, opinions, and / or red flags on these systems. Or – please let us know if you know of any exceptional GMS product that has served well for your organization. We are looking for a GMS that is easy to use, highly secure, functional, and continuing to grow in capabilities with our growing organizational needs. Thank you!
    • March 30, 2022
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: States/Funders with Funding Priorities Using A Racial Equity Lens

    Hello – we are wondering if any of you know of states and/or funders that have already developed funding priorities using a racial equity lens and/or prioritized communities hardest hit by the pandemic? Thanks! Best Ken
    • March 29, 2022
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Collecting Applicant Demographic Data

    In 2021 we piloted the collection of applicant staff and board demographic data (race/ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation) in partnership with our evaluation partner, as one step to understand who our grants were going to and how applicant organizations were representative of the communities they and we want to be serving. It was not mandatory and doesn’t look it will be next year either. But, we are taking feedback and trying to understand how we can be more supportive of our grantees in 1) collecting this information in a safe and appropriate way and 2) using this information appropriately to reflect and strategize on what potential gaps there may be in representation within their own organizations. We haven’t done a ton in that second space, but wanted to reach out more about the mechanics of the data collection process to understand if and what others are doing. Some questions: Are you collecting demographic data from staff and/or boards of applicant organizations? If so, what is the method or conduit for which you do this? Is the applicant responsible for getting all of their data and putting it into the application/portal or a spreadsheet of sorts? Are there any third party programs or software that allow for collecting and aggregating data this data? We also heard that organizations, and particularly the people responsible for submitting application information, would appreciate an opportunity for anonymity for themselves and their coworkers within the data collection process. Has anyone seen any tools, or know of any strategies that allow for the organization to anonymously collect this data from their own orgs?
    • March 29, 2022
    • Bo Dorsey
  • GEOList Members Only

    GEOList Summary: Foundation Giving to Rural vs Urban Communities

    We are currently conducting research on foundation giving to rural vs urban communities, and I am reaching out to inquire if anyone is aware of any resources in the past 5 years specifically focused on demonstrating this difference? Thank you,
    • March 29, 2022
    • Bo Dorsey