Federal Agency Releases Names of Social Innovation Fund Reviewers

The federal government on Friday took another step to reveal more about how it awarded $50-million in Social Innovation Fund grants, posting online the names of the people who reviewed the grant applications and the organizations that applied unsuccessfully for the money.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which operates the fund to identify and expand innovative social projects, also said it would follow a more open selection process when awarding the 2011 grants.

The agency has come under fire for failing to disclose more about the process it used to select 11 grant winners in July, especially after one of the reviewers questioned the selection of an organization that his panel had rated poorly.

The corporation previously posted the winning applications and the ratings and comments that they earned from reviewers. But up to now, it has declined to release the names of reviewers or unsuccessful applicants, citing promises of confidentiality. It said they had all now agreed to be named.

Patrick Corvington, the corporation’s chief executive, said in a statement that the grant process had “generated a healthy debate about openness and transparency,” adding: “It has also demonstrated to us that we need to do a better job of explaining all the measures we have in place to ensure a fair, rigorous, and effective process.”

He said that next year, the agency will alert participants from the start that it will post the full applications and reviewer comments for successful proposals, identify all organizations that apply for money and provide a summary of their applications, and release the names of all outside reviewers after the competition is over.

The corporation, which also awards hundreds of millions of dollars in grants each year for national-service programs like AmeriCorps, will consult with its grant recipients, experts, and others about how to make its grant-making process more open, Mr. Corvington said. However, he warned that “there is no one-size-fits-all approach to transparency,” and policies may vary by program.

The agency did not post the affiliations of the 63 innovation-fund reviewers, although some are well known in nonprofit circles—Peter Frumkin, director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas at Austin; Mark Kramer, managing director of FSG Social Impact Advisors and a founder of the Center for Effective Philanthropy; and Lester Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies.

The 43 applicants that did not win grants included the Cleveland Foundation, National Council of La Raza, and the Points of Light Foundation.