With our third anniversary approaching, Fund for Shared Insight continues to gain momentum! We have expanded our grant-making efforts and our network of partners, and are now proud to have 39 funders supporting our work to help over 60 organizations that are collecting feedback from the people they seek to help.
We’re continuing to build on this growth with three exciting developments:
- We have posted a national, open request for proposals for nominated nonprofits to participate in our signature initiative: Listen4Good (L4G).
- We have welcomed four new core funders: the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.
- Omidyar Network has joined as an additional funding partner.
Here’s more information about each of these developments:
Listen4Good 2017 Request for Proposals Posted
We are thrilled to announce that we are offering up to 75 Listen4Good (L4G) grants in 2017!
The goal of L4G is to help nonprofit organizations—across issue areas, populations served, geographies, and budget levels—build the practice of high-quality feedback loops with those they serve. The L4G methodology is simple, yet systematic and rigorous. In order to engage more funders in supporting beneficiary feedback efforts and using the data to inform their work, L4G is structured as a co-funding opportunity.
To participate in L4G, a nonprofit must be nominated by a current funder (existing or new). If the nonprofit(s) a funder nominates is selected to participate, the nominating funder will contribute $15,000 of the $45,000 grant total for each nonprofit selected. Grantees will receive a grant of $45,000 over two years: $30,000 paid the first year and $15,000 the second year. We will accept proposals from funder-nominated nonprofits until Friday, May 26, 2017 at 11:59pm Pacific Time.
For funders, to learn more about how to nominate a grantee, click here.
For nonprofits, to learn more about how to apply for a L4G grant, click here.
New Core Funders Join Fund for Shared Insight
Since July 2014, Fund for Shared Insight core funders have collaborated and pooled financial and other resources to make grants to improve philanthropy. We are delighted to announce that four new core funders have joined this collaborative effort: the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.
“The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust is thrilled to join Fund for Shared Insight and contribute to this vital work to improve philanthropic effectiveness” says Jennifer Hoos Rothberg, Einhorn’s executive director. “Our relationship-based approach to philanthropy—when done well—is one of the chief factors in helping our partner grantees achieve impact, and we’re thrilled to work in partnership with such a talented group of colleagues from foundations we have long admired to help support and advance the field in this way.”
Don Howard, president and CEO of Irvine, adds: “We are big believers in Fund for Shared Insight’s goal of improving services and impact by listening. We’re especially interested in advancing funders’ abilities to listen to the people we seek to support, and using that information to guide our decisions.” He continues, “Joining Fund for Shared Insight is a great opportunity for Irvine to partner with like-minded funders that are experimenting with incorporating community-level input into our work and the work of our grantees. We look forward to being part of these efforts and to sharing what we learn.”
“As a leader in philanthropic innovation for over a century, The Rockefeller Foundation is excited to become a core member of Fund for Shared Insight and further our ongoing commitment to strengthening both our own practices and the field of philanthropy writ large” says Dr. Rajiv Shah, Rockefeller’s president. “Today, institutions like ours are more rigorous, analytical, and results-oriented than ever before, but there is still much we can learn—not only from each other, but also from researching and experimenting with new approaches. The more ways we can listen to and understand the perspectives of the people we seek to serve, the more effective our efforts will be.”
The original core funders of Shared Insight are the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, The JPB Foundation, Liquidnet, the Rita Allen Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
Omidyar Network Supports Shared Insight
We are grateful Omidyar Network is supporting our efforts to improve philanthropy through a one-year grant. With this latest funder, there are now 39 funding organizations participating in Shared Insight as either a core funder, additional funder, or Listen4Good co-funder.
As we continue to spring forward, introducing new partners and new grant making, we welcome additional funders to join our effort. For more information on how to get involved please contact Melinda Tuan at melinda@fundforsharedinsight.org.
