The GWG is a National System for Geospatial-Intelligence (NSG) forum that serves the Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) , in executing the functional management responsibilities authorized in NSG Directive FM 1100, 14 August, 2014. The GWG provides the forum for the coordination of GEOINT standard activities. The GWG is led and chaired by the NGA's National Center for Geospatial Intelligence Standards (NCGIS).

In addition to its designation as an NSG Functional Management forum, the GWG is a Joint Technical Working Group that participates in the DoD and IC Joint Enterprise Standards Committee (JESC) standards governance process. Approved GEOINT standards are then cited in the Enterprise Standards Baseline (ESB) hosted in the DoD Information Technology (IT) Standards Registry (DISR) [Account and PKI/CAC required and in the IC Enterprise Registry and Repository Sharepoint on JWICS.

The GWG consists of nine chartered focus groups made up of subject matter experts that address topical issues related to GEOINT standards.