Giving Compass' Take:

• Writing for Social Velocity, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations discusses their 20-year vision for philanthropy, in which courage, inclusion, collaboration and other big ideas are all common practices by 2038.

• This could be a good way for other organizations to take a step back and assess their own long-term goals. How much will the nonprofit landscape change over the next two decades?

• Liberating philanthropy means breaking down traditional power structures. Here's where to start.

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations turns 20 this year, and it’s come a long way since 12 people decided they needed a space for grantmakers who geek out on the art and science of their trade.

Today more than 600 foundations belong to GEO, and 950 people have gathered this week in San Francisco for the group’s biannual conference. Thanks in part to GEO’s tireless efforts, practices that once were outside the mainstream of organized philanthropy — general operating support, evaluation for improvement, funder collaboration, use of grantee feedback, and investments in nonprofit capacity building — are now widely recognized as essential in our field ...

A commitment to racial equity is now at the center of GEO’s 2038 vision. That vision includes other transformative practices as well:

Courage, by supporting new, non-traditional, and bold leaders, organizations, networks and ideas.

Inclusion, by actively engaging people of color, low-income people, and others least heard in our society as we develop grantmaking strategies and make our funding decisions.

Complexity, by investing in multiple players for the long-term rather than focusing on short-term, linear outcomes.

Learning, by using data to assess progress, challenge our own assumptions, and improve our work as well as the work of our partners.

Collaboration, by working in partnership, and on an equal playing field, with other funders as well as with communities, rather than insisting that “if you’ve seen one foundation, you’ve seen one foundation.”

Flexibility, by making multi-year, general operating support and nonprofit capacity building the norm rather than the exception.

Ambition, by focusing on systems change at the community, regional, national or global level.

Read the full article about GEO's bold vision for philanthropy in 2038 by Nell Edgington at Social Velocity.