OPEN KNOWLEDGE
Open For Good is Doing Great!
February 08, 2018
In July 2017, Foundation Center launched Open For Good — a movement to encourage foundations to openly share their knowledge. When we are #OpenForGood, we all learn from each other — and that can make incredible things happen. Each year, foundations make more than $5 billion in grants toward knowledge production, including assessments, evaluations, reports, …
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Special Collection: Gun Violence
October 03, 2017
The recent mass shooting in Las Vegas has left many of us, again, wondering why this uniquely American problem keeps happening and what can be done about it. This special collection brings together evidence and insights from nonprofits, foundations, and research organizations working to understand the full impact of firearm use and gun violence in the …
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New Evaluation Collection Allows Social Sector to Easily Share Results
July 07, 2017
We believe that the ability to learn shouldn’t be limited by who you know. Every day foundations and nonprofits learn hard-earned lessons about what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why. But not enough of them share those lessons consistently and openly. Now there is a simple way for foundations, nonprofits, and the evaluators they work with to …
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Why We Make Free, Public Information More Accessible and How You Can Help
February 16, 2017
One of the key roles the nonprofit sector plays in civil society is providing evidence about social problems and their solutions. Given recent changes to policies regarding the sharing of knowledge and evidence by federal agencies, that function is more critical than ever. Nonprofits deliver more than direct services such as running food banks or …
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Special Collection: Multi-party Advocacy
February 15, 2017
For many foundations, collaboration is key to advocating for policy and practice change. But these kinds of partnerships can be challenging to execute well. “Sticking points”, like conflicts over decision-making power or competition for resources, can derail advocacy-focused efforts and make even the most earnest collaborator wary. Given the current conversation around philanthropy’s role in funding …
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Special Collection: Disconnected Youth
December 07, 2016
IssueLab’s new collection on the topic of disconnected youth brings together 139 reports, case studies, program evaluations, factsheets, and toolkits from nonprofits and foundations across the U.S. This diverse collection of “grey literature” from organizations both large and small, dates back 16 years and describes a broad range of approaches to meeting the needs of …
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Special Collection: Risk and Philanthropy
October 31, 2016
Almost every philanthropic decision involves some consideration of risk, whether it’s financial, programmatic, or reputational. But how do foundation staff talk about, let alone manage, those risks? That’s exactly the question that Open Road Alliance asked us. And in response we gathered dozens of articles, blog posts, reports, case studies, and the all too rare toolkit, from across …
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Special Collection: Race and Policing
July 18, 2016
Again and again the data show that people of color in the U.S. are being disproportionately, and systematically, stopped, frisked, arrested, and exposed to the use of force by police. Across the country, police departments and communities are struggling with these realities and with what has become a glaring divide in how Americans experience and …
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Looking for Answers About Funding Intermediaries
June 23, 2016
IssueLab recently partnered with the Grants Managers Network (GMN) to explore a question that not only affects grants managers but also those individuals and organizations who often serve as the connective tissue between funder and grantee, funding intermediaries. What GMN wanted to know is this … when grantmakers use intermediary organizations, or “regranters”, they generally do so …
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Scan, Synthesize, Share
February 29, 2016
Freshwater is one of our most precious and valuable resources. And yet, across the globe, water supplies are often not dependable or simply insufficient to meet human and ecosystem needs, water quality is often poor, and climate change threatens to exacerbate existing challenges. One approach to reducing pressure on water resources is the use of incentive-based …
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