Fund for Shared Insight

Overview

“Philanthropy. Open for Improvement.” That’s the motto of Fund for Shared Insight — a collaborative effort among funders that pools financial and other resources to make grants to improve philanthropy. We believe that foundations can be more effective and make an even bigger difference if we are more open to sharing what we learn and also open to taking input from others, including grantees and especially the people we seek to help with our funding.

Launched in 2013 by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, the collaborative effort counts three dozen funders among its participants. Core funders include the Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the JPB Foundation, Liquidnet, the Rita Allen Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. We are thrilled that other funders have joined to support either the overall initiative or specific projects.

Goals

Encourage and incorporate feedback from the people we seek to help, understand the connection between feedback and better results, foster more openness between and among foundations and grantees, and share more of what we learn.

Our Team

Jehan Velji
Jehan Velji 
Director
Amy Arbreton 
Evaluation Officer
Kathleen Badejo
Kathleen Badejo 
Program Associate
José Larios 
Program Fellow
Leeanne Oue 
Grants Officer
Kristen Carriker
Kristen Carriker 
Digital Communications Officer
Jen Kwong
Jennifer Kwong 
Senior Counsel

Learn More

In 2014, the Hewlett Foundation began to participate in Fund for Shared Insight. Administered by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, it pools financial and other resources contributed by a core group of eight funders and makes grants each year in three main areas.

It funds nonprofits that want to initiate or improve the practice of systematically collecting and using feedback from the people they seek to help, and to share those data and insights with their funders, who can also use it to inform their own work. It supports research to explore the relationship between constituent feedback and outcomes, including whether such feedback provides a useful early indicator that a change in strategy is warranted. And it invests in efforts to increase openness on the part of foundations – both what they share with others and what they are open to learning.

To encourage nonprofits and foundation to more consistently consider the experiences, perspectives and preferences of the people we seek to help, the Fund for Shared Insight launched a grantmaking initiative called “Listen for Good.” Listen for Good helps nonprofits implement simple and rigorous feedback loops through a partnership with SurveyMonkey. Funders from around the country nominate grantees and contribute $20,000 if their grantee is selected; the Fund for Shared Insight, in turn, provides a two-to-one match – resulting in a $60,000 grant for the selected organization. Bringing more funders and nonprofits together can help set a norm for high-quality feedback in the field.

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