Awake, listening for the future I love talking to scientists, social entrepreneurs, fellow philanthropists—anyone wrestling with the intersection of big ideas and reality.

Today we are excited to introduce a new way of highlighting the transformative ideas we support in science and society—and their unexpected connections. As we debut a fresh look and flow to our website, we are also looking for new opportunities to provide helpful resources and insightful features about the…

Celebrating 40 years of the Rita Allen Foundation Scholars program

“I like crossing the imaginary boundaries people set up between different fields—it’s very refreshing,” the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani told Quanta Magazine after winning the Fields Medal in 2014. With different mathematical tools that may or may not work, “It’s about being optimistic and trying to connect things.”…

Today we announce the 2015 class of Rita Allen Foundation Scholars, seven extraordinary researchers who are working to expand our understanding of the fine-tuned phenomena that enable our bodies to grow, survive and thrive. While each of their projects represents a new beginning, their efforts build on the findings…

Our civic lives are changing. This change is being driven by new tools and approaches that fall under the umbrella of civic tech—as well as by people who recognize that new tools must serve the enduring aims of democracy. We are seeing a fruitful struggle to apply rapidly changing technology…

How do you know if you’re changing people’s lives for the better? The most fundamental way is to ask them, of course. But how to ask and how to act on what you hear is not always clear. A new resource is here to help. The Feedback Toolkit…

Jonathan Kartt works in Programs & Evaluation for the Rita Allen Foundation. Tom Glaisyer is the program director of the Informed Participation Initiative at the Democracy Fund. Kelly Born is a Program Officer at the Hewlett Foundation, where she works on both Special Projects and the Madison Initiative. This is…

Jonathan Kartt works in Programs & Evaluation for the Rita Allen Foundation. Tom Glaisyer is the program director of the Informed Participation Initiative at the Democracy Fund. Kelly Born is a Program Officer at the Hewlett Foundation, where she works on both Special Projects and the Madison Initiative. How will…

Fund for Shared Insight marks a new chapter for philanthropy In 2012, Oakland, California, was drowning in public record requests. An already overworked system had been flooded by requests for video, email and internal documents related to the Occupy Oakland protests. But there was no clear way…