The theme of this year’s GEO Conference in Pittsburgh on 12-14 April, ‘Unleashing Philanthropy’s Potential: Smarter Grantmaking for Better Results’, was firmly in line with GEO’s focus: how funders can help their grantees achieve success and meaningful results. Sessions throughout the conference clearly reflected what is being done and what could be done to improve philanthropic impact.  

Sessions were organized around five key areas: foundation effectiveness, leadership, learning, money (types of support grantmakers can provide to strengthen nonprofits’ financial sustainability) and stakeholder engagement. Among the ideas that resonated with me (most were not new) were the importance of creating a learning culture that improves impact; the value of embedding meaningful grantee conversations in foundation processes; and the importance of taking time to reflect and learn from what we do.