Dec 2025
Celebrating 30 Years of Grantmakers for Education
It has been an honor to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of Grantmakers for Education throughout 2025!
Grantmakers for Education has been an effective connector and community builder, a quality information provider and illuminator, and a trusted partner in the field of education philanthropy for 30 years. In 1995, leaders in education philanthropy joined together to develop a professional community with the purpose of strengthening the sector’s connection, capacity and effectiveness. (review the original mission, scope and goals here). Since that time, the organization has grown in size and evolved in its approach, while retaining many of its original core goals and values.
Memorializing Our Past
Members, partners, staff and others joined us in honoring this milestone in October, 2025. Founders and long-time members joined a special private dinner. Members and other conference attendees celebrated with toasts, speeches, music and dancing at a conference-wide happy hour.
We looked back on the organization’s history and highlighted the vital partnerships with members and others within and beyond the field of education philanthropy in a video that featured interviews with founders and key players. The video also provided an opportunity to imagine what we can do over the next 30 years as a robust network that can address complex questions and find shared purpose to generate learning, innovation and social impact in the field of education philanthropy.
Watch the slide show of historical photos that we showed during the events.
Our members have had impact and influence within philanthropy, as well as on education practices and policies, and have made countless positive contributions to the field of education over the past three decades. Grantmakers for Education is honored to have supported this work and we’re excited to continue serving as essential infrastructure for the field—adapting to changing sociopolitical realities, sparking productive dialogue, building bridges, championing educational equity and justice, and leading with principle.
Poem written by Lisa Ann "LAMARKS" Markuson of Ars Poetica at the 2024 annual conference in honor of our coming anniversary. The poem was signed by the founders, early members and stewards of the organization, and current education philanthropy leaders during the October, 2025 anniversary dinner.
The poem reads:
ignitED, together
when we put our heads together
amidst the worry, scarcity & fear
we remind each other this:
our work fuels
the powerful momentum of
collective liberation
Sponsors
Thank you to those organizations that invested in strengthening philanthropy to improve opportunities and outcomes for all learners by sponsoring Grantmakers for Education’s 30th anniversary.
Gold:
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Silver:
Bezos Family Foundation
Bronze:
Schott Foundation for Public Education
Strada Education Foundation
Founding Organizations
Organizations that participated in the 1996 Grantmakers for Education planning retreat:
Amoco Foundation
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Atlantic Philanthropic Service Co.
BellSouth Foundation
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Danforth Foundation
Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Ford Foundation
The George Gund Foundation
Hegeler Institute
The Heinz Endowments
Helen Bader Foundation
Hitachi Foundation
International Paper Foundation
The Johnson Foundation
Knight Foundation
Learning Communities Network, Inc.
Lilly Endowment, Inc.
Mississippi Power Foundation
The Moriah Fund
National Foundation for the Improvement of Education
Oppenheimer Family Foundation
The Panasonic Foundation
Pew Charitable Trusts
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Rockefeller Foundation
Southern Education Foundation
Stuart Foundation
Walter & Elise Haas Fund
Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation