Foundation Opens Grant-Making Process to Public

The Case Foundation has announced a new program to involve the public more in its grant making, reports The New York Times.

The foundation, created by Steve Case, the founder of America Online, and his wife, Jean, will solicit individuals and small nonprofit groups for ideas on improving their neighborhoods.

Judges will select the best suggestions, request more-formal proposals, and then narrow the finalists to 20 winners, which will each receive $10,000.

Later, the foundation will ask the public to vote on those proposals and will grant the four that receive the most votes another $25,000.

“The reality is that anyone who ever created a foundation really did want it to make a difference,” Ms. Case tells the Times, “but the way things have been done isn’t making those differences, or at least not as often as we’d like. We’re looking for new ways forward, and this program is an example of that.”

(Free registration is required to view this article.)