New York, NY — April 10, 2014. The Foundation Center and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have announced a strategic partnership to align and share international funding data to promote greater visibility and understanding of global development finance. By working together, the two organizations will be able to deliver a large and varied set of data into the hands of international policymakers, practitioners, and funders to improve strategic decision making by these groups and increase efficiencies in tackling global challenges.
The New York-based Foundation Center’s commitment to data sharing supports its ongoing expansion of global philanthropic intelligence, a critical component of the organization’s “Foundation Center 2020” strategic plan. Its data and knowledge on private philanthropy for international development will complement OECD’s data on official sector funding.
The Paris-based OECD has a mandate to measure and monitor external development finance. This partnership will vastly increase the private charitable funding data available to the organization and its partners, an important component of the OECD’s efforts to offer data on private philanthropy in developing countries.
“OECD welcomes this partnership with the Foundation Center as an important step forward in our drive to offer broad, comprehensive and reliable data to improve results in development,” said Jon Lomoy, director of the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate. “This will enable all partners in development to move quickly and effectively to address pressing priorities.”
“No one organization or governmental agency has the ability to single-handedly collect all the information needed to provide a complete picture of funding for development,” said Bradford K. Smith, president of the Foundation Center. “This partnership will go a long way to address that situation and to support decision makers by providing the knowledge they need.”
The partnership between the Foundation Center and the OECD will enable the organizations and their partners to compare private foundation funding with official development finance, including Official Development Assistance (ODA), to provide a more complete picture of resource allocation in developing countries and enable decision makers in the international development community to gain knowledge, spot funding gaps, and identify opportunities for collaboration. The combined data sets can include information such as funding amounts, subject areas, beneficiaries, and regional allocations side-by-side for use in the organizations’ analyses, presentations, and knowledge tools. The Foundation Center’s WASHfunders.org web portal is an example of how the OECD and the Foundation Center have already collaborated to deliver comparable data on international funding for water, sanitation, and hygiene issues in developing countries, providing a more holistic view of aid flows.
About the Foundation Center
Established in 1956, the Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit the Center’s web site each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of more than 470 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundations, and educational institutions nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230.
CONTACT:
Cheryl Loe
Communications Project Manager
The Foundation Center
(888) 356-0354 ext. 701
communications@foundationcenter.org
