IssueLab Wins Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Grant

Last week I announced that the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund had offered me a $100 charitable “Gift4Giving”.

I wrote:

I’d like to give the funds to a philanthropic intermediary. A nonprofit group who is improving the state of philanthropy in some way. I’d like your help to decide where to give. If there is a nonprofit group who you think is improving the field of philanthropy, leave a comment to this post with the name and your argument (short or long, it is up to you) as to why you think they are improving the field. The explicit mission of the nonprofit does not need to be to improve the field of philanthropy. I want to hear why you think they are doing effective field building.

Having reviewed nine entries, I’m pleased to announced that the $100 grant goes to IssueLab. As I stated in the originally post, this is based strictly on the argument presented in the entry (although I did verify the facts presented).

IssueLab’s entry came from Gabriela Fitz, co-director of IssueLab:

I am going to advocate on behalf of an organization and a mission that I believe wholeheartedly in. IssueLab is filling a critical gap in the sector’s infrastructure, enabling nonprofits nationwide to disseminate their research findings to a much larger audience than they could on their own.

The web provides easy access to a vast array of information but notably this is not the case with nonprofit research. IssueLab.org solves this problem by pooling the collective knowledge of thousands of nonprofits in its online archive and then working to bring that research to a broader audience.

Valuable information about the causes of and solutions to our society’s most pressing problems, like homelessness, voting rights, access to health care, and child welfare, is just waiting to reach the right researcher, foundation officer, or legislator.

When we pool our knowledge about social issues we better coordinate our approaches to social problems. Funders avoid supporting the same research over and over. Advocates get access to quality information about what lies behind some of the toughest questions we face. Nonprofits can share experience about what works and what doesn’t.

In just the last year, hundreds of new pieces of research have been added to the IssueLab collection, and more than 10,000 other web sites, blogs, and online communities have linked to the IssueLab library!

And just in case you were looking for one more reason to support IssueLab? We make $100 go a long way!

There were lots of other good entries, but I found Gabriela’s arguement regarding the critical gap in the information infrastructure and IssueLab’s solution to be the most compelling. Check IssueLab out. You can even subscribe to an rss feed or get email alerts of all their research here.