A campaign from the Foundation Center and Grantcraft centred around the new guide Open for Good: Knowledge Sharing to Strengthen Grantmaking, is calling on foundations to openly share knowledge as an integral and strategic aspect of philanthropy.

The guide is written by Clare Nolan of Engage R+D and co-edited by Janet Camarena and Jen Bokoff, from the Foundation Center. It emphasizes that sharing knowledge can deepen internal reflection and learning, lead to new connections and ideas, and promote institutional credibility and influence.

In her recent letter posted on the Grantcraft website, Jen Bokoff said: “Each year, foundations make $5 billion in grants toward knowledge production. These assessments, evaluations, communities of practice, and key findings are valuable, but only a small fraction of foundations share what they learn, with even fewer using open licenses or open repositories to share these learnings. And while (maybe not surprisingly) foundations value lessons about “what did and didn’t work,” this is the knowledge that foundations themselves are often most reluctant to share. #OpenForGood is our campaign to change that, and this guide can be a tool for advocacy within your foundation to make sharing happen. As with other GrantCraft guides, it is full of interviews with field leaders, so the perspectives, approaches, and suggested actions are all grounded in practical, lived experience.”

For more see: http://www.grantcraft.org/guides/open-for-good