Grantmakers For Education

Impact groups: impact groups are communities of members who agree to learn and lead together. Grantmakers for education hosts impact groups as member-driven spaces in which participants with a common interest can connect and collaborate around a specific topic to exchange ideas, share and develop strategies and build relationships. From grappling with ideas about critical problems to studying potential solutions to taking action with others, and more, impact groups allow participants to explore and understand their individual, organizational, and collective role in tackling the large and complex issues within our education systems.the influence and impact of grantmakers for education impact groups continues to grow over the years. In 2024, the out-of-school time impact group held over 20 programs and events, which included almost 1,000 participants. In addition, they published a database with multiple partners on strategies to support a thriving out-of-school time workforce. The postsecondary access and attainment impact group maintained regular communication with almost 300 member colleagues, started a new webinar series and researched and published a landscape scan of postsecondary collaboratives. In addition, grantmakers for education launched a new impact group in 2024 on playful learning. Other impact groups continued their strong work in bringing together mindful leaders in their areas of interest to learn, connect and advance the field.

Member service and strategic initiatives: grantmakers for education provides individualized technical assistance and guidance to help grantmaking organizations refine their strategies and to connect them with other peer grantmaking organizations for peer assistance and collaboration opportunities.

Communications and publications: the communications and publications function includes developing reports, case studies and newsletters that promote deeper knowledge of effective grantmaking practices as well as highlight trends and emerging developments in the field. Grantmakers for education had an active year in communications, launching a feature to showcase member voices, releasing publications that helped grantmakers make sense of and drive action in the field, and closing season two of our podcast.member insightsmember insights is a new offering this year created for members to share ideas, successes, challenges or lessons that can build knowledge, grow our community and strengthen the field of education philanthropy. The quarterly feature in our newsletter and website featured four members writing about topics that covered the value of investing in public education advocacy, the potential of playful learning and the importance of leadership for education equity.publicationsover the year, grantmakers for education produced three publications: afterschool and summer workforce solutions database landscape scan of postsecondary funder collaboratives grantmakers for education's top 10 of 2024