Sharing Information in Philanthropy

I’ve been writing for awhile about information sharing in philanthropy and the way that institutional foundation can leverage their accumulated knowledge about “doing good” by sharing it with the public.

Tactical Philanthropy reader Tom David is a foundation consultant and emailed this week to share the fact that he has been making reports he has been commissioned by large foundations to create available on his website. They are free to the public. The reports cover subjects like The Craft of Grantmaking, Philanthropic Strategy and Evaluation. They were commissioned by foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation and The California Wellness Foundation.

This is an example of the way that third parties will step forward to aggregate and present information in a user friendly way if foundations simply permit the release of internal information. This isn’t a perfect example because Tom of course is the author of the reports. But it is still a useful way for the public to benefit from the research paid for by foundations. Transparency is not about accountability, it is about increasing impact.

You can find Tom’s website here.