In April, Jessica Anders-Mulcahy, vice president, Success Measures Evaluation, attended the 2026 GEO conference in Boston. Jessica shared her reflections on her experience.
There is something wonderful that happens when you spend nearly three days in a room full of people who have chosen, in their own way, to envision a better world and hold a curiosity about how to get there. The 2026 Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) conference was an inspiring place to be.
The conference created the opportunity to openly engage with complex questions: What are ways that philanthropy is thinking about supporting infrastructure and what does it mean to support whole ecosystems? How can systems be built to support place-based work across extended time periods? And, undergirding it all, how do we hold ourselves accountable within the context of love — love of place, shared humanity and ourselves?
Sparked by passionate plenary speakers and performances, these conversations bubbled up in the breakfast line, in hallways, within crowded session rooms and in the turbulent moments between sessions. Concepts that resonated for me and directly intersect with our work at Success Measures included:
- Grounding oneself in the responsibilities of one’s community can provide a sense of purpose and future vision (Opening plenary remarks from Native Youth Grantmaker Dasia Peters);
- Using the concept of Measuring Love may be a bridge between philanthropy and communities translating what is at stake for community organizations and their approach to the work;
- Remembering that effective organizational capacity building begins with trust building with the organization and its staff (from a presentation on learning from the Reimagining Capacity Building Table) .
Thank you to the GEO team for holding such a unique space for these conversations. Looking forward to the Learning Conference in 2027!
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