The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has taken an important step in the movement towards transparency with the creation of their new blog, “Work in Progress.” The Foundation’s public commitment to improve transparency in the philanthropy space is a commendable action, and will offer a vision for how to resolve some of philanthropy’s biggest failures. Embracing openness and transparency in regards to their strategies, insights and policies fosters a more collaborative philanthropic environment and will help to dispel some the mysteries behind the grant making process.
While there has been a lot of buzz surrounding openness in government, foundations are just beginning to make this important leap. As Larry Kramer, the President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, wrote in the announcing blog post, “Just because foundations are not formally required to disclose information does not relieve us of the responsibility to expose ourselves to challenge and critique—even (or perhaps especially) if that means having our ideas and actions questioned.” We’d like to congratulate Larry Kramer and his team for taking this step towards complete openness.
