Grantmakers for Education 2025 Annual Conference

The Grantmakers for Education 2025 Annual Conference was held under the theme Transformative Philanthropy: Courageous and Visionary Leadership for Education and Civil Rights, in Memphis, Tennessee, October 21-23, where we celebrated our 30th anniversary. Preconference activities took place on October 20.

2025 Conference Resources

• Conference web site
• Photos – A collection from three days of conference plus 30th anniversary events.
• Videos – A collection from two days of conference including the IgnitED Awards.
• 30th Anniversary video – A dive into 30 years of Grantmakers for Education, and where we’re headed in the future, including interviews with founders and key players.
• 30th Anniversary slide show – Historical photos from 1995 to the present.

Transformative Philanthropy: Courageous and Visionary Leadership for Education and Civil Rights

Where can philanthropy make the most strategic and powerful impact in education – now and for the future – and how? This is the central invitation that education philanthropy and its partners are being called to engage at the Grantmakers for Education 2025 Annual Conference. 

We are gathering at a time when so much is on the line for learners of all ages, in all places and spaces, and when their access, attainment and agency are being shaped. Philanthropic organizations are evaluating how they lean into their values and enact their strategies in the near and long term. Education leaders in all spheres are operating in shifting environments where the nexus between education and other systems and sectors prompts examination, exchange and action. 

This is a milestone year for the Grantmakers for Education community. We celebrate 30 years since our founding by a group of visionary leaders who sought to improve student outcomes by strengthening philanthropy’s capacity and effectiveness. Returning to the city of our first conference, we are gathering in a place that offers a poignant backdrop for looking at the issues of the day with a historical lens, illustrating resilient and intrepid resolve, and illuminating universal needs, opportunities and aspirations. 

We are all key players in a time when the very nature of education may be transformed. This moment requires courageous and visionary leadership from philanthropy – an exchange for its profound privilege to address immediate needs in creative and collaborative ways and imagine a future where education is a true public good that affirms individual civil rights and delivers broad societal benefit. 

At this year’s conference, we will be inspired to grapple with issues from a range of experiences and angles, to sharpen our thinking about what transformative philanthropy looks like for an affirmative vision of education, to showcase models of innovative leadership strategies, and to show up as the best version of ourselves as a sector.