(Almost) real time grant data

My hat is off to the Foundation Center!*

- check out these maps of foundation giving and program related investments in response to recession - it isn't a $700 billion bailout, but there is activity to note, and the Foundation Center maps make it easy and useful! This is a big hurrah from me, about one of my longest standing complaints - philanthropy needs better data, better access to it, better use of it, better sharing of it...So these tools are a great addition to the industry - Jump in, check out the maps, make them better,  http://maps.foundationcenter.org/economic_crisis/RecipTypeUS.php.

And - look - an RSS Feed too!
http://feeds.feedburner.com/FoundationsRespondToTheEconomicCrisis

So the data are not really real-time (but that is a down-stream problem - foundations have to send their data to the Foundation Center first) but they are getting closer....I'm writing this on Dec 12 and a random click on grants within the maps found several from 2 weeks ago....way  better than 2 years ago...And foundations can now feed data to Foundation Center electronically and Foundation Center feeds it to you...

Tags: philanthropy, data, foundationcenter

*This is a big deal, I'm writing this from Austria where taking your hat off is akin to freezing to death.