Policies

GFE Mission and Principles

Grantmakers for Education is a membership organization for private and public philanthropies that support improved educational outcomes for students from early childhood through higher education. GFE promotes dialogue, inquiry, and learning to strengthen practice within the field of education philanthropy.

GFE is guided by the following principles:

• Diversity of Opinion and Approaches
• Inclusiveness
• Collegiality
• Learning

GFE Membership

All grantmaking and operating foundations, corporate giving programs, and non-profit organizations whose primary activity is philanthropic support to education are welcome to join Grantmakers for Education. For more details, learn about becoming a member.

GFE Governance

GFE is governed by a 19-member board of directors comprised of grantmakers who are currently employed by or serve as trustees of foundations who are contributing members of GFE. Board members serve three year terms. Click here to see the members of GFE's board of directors and to learn more about the qualifications and process for becoming a board member.

The board organizes its work into four standing committees: Board Development, Communications, Membership, and Program. The latter three committees (all but board development) include both board members and non-members and are a key vehicle for grantmakers to shape and influence the activities of GFE. Contact GFE if you are interested in participating on a committee.

GFE Resources

The GFE web site is intended to promote networking among education grantmakers. By making information about the interests, strategies, regional emphases, and organization of different foundations easily accessible, GFE hopes to increase information sharing and collaboration. We think a web site that facilitates networking is one of the best ways GFE can serve a foundations that are spread across the country.

GFE's on-line database—accessible through the "members" page of the web site—represents the most comprehensive collection of information about key organizations and individuals involved in education philanthropy.

GFE asks members of the database to be thoughtful about its use:

• Under no conditions is the database or contact information about individual GFE member foundations to be used for fundraising or solicitation purposes.
• The database is for the sole use of individuals at GFE-member organizations.
• We caution users to be judicious in their use of email blasts or queries to GFE members. Email functionality in the database is designed to facilitate networking and to help identify members with certain interests and expertise; it is not intended to function as a listserve.
• Mailing lists generated by the database are not to be shared with others and are intended for GFE members to share reports or papers of interest with other GFE members.

GFE Events

GFE events and programs are designed for and open to grantmakers and philanthropists only. In its programs, GFE strives to promote information sharing, networking, and improved grantmaking by attendees.

While we often invite experts, grantees, and researchers to participate and present their ideas or share their expertise, GFE programs are designed as unique professional development opportunities for grantmakers and not grantseekers. We believe grantmakers have too few opportunities to meet with each other to discuss lessons learned and how to be more effective investors in school systems. (For GFE member organizations that both seek grants and make grants—such as public charities—we ask that program and grantmaking staff and not development staff participate in GFE events.)

Members agree that the defining function of membership is to learn from and contribute to understanding how to make grantmaking increasingly effective in improving pre-kindergarten through higher education. Accordingly, members and their guests agree not to engage in fundraising activities when meeting under the auspices of GFE.

In addition, attendee lists for events are not to be used for solicitation.

Privacy Policy

GFE respects the privacy of those who visit our web site. Any and all information collected at this site will be kept strictly confidential and will not be sold, reused, rented, loaned or otherwise disclosed. Any information you provide will be held with the utmost care and will not be used in ways that you have not consented to. If you have any questions about this web site, please contact information@edfunders.org.

We analyze our web site logs to improve the value of the materials available on the site. Our logs are not personally identifiable, and we make no attempt to link them with the individuals that actually browse the site. Information, including IP address (not your personal e-mail address), click-through pages visited, traffic patterns, search terms, length of time on site and URL referrals to our site, is collected as appropriate. These aggregated statistics are used internally to provide better services to users but again, the statistics contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information.

GFE does monitor use of the database to see which features are being used.

Finally, links on the GFE site are provided as a convenience and intended to guide users toward additional information they may find interesting. We accept no responsibility for the privacy practices of other web sites or their use of information from links on our site.