The JRS Biodiversity Foundation is committed to transparency and open access to data. In this spirit, we are proud to contribute our grantmaking data to the Foundation Center Mapping effort. We participate in our philanthropy community by sharing our policies and practices (e.g., our grantmaking process), attending grantmaker conferences, contributing to GlassPockets, and participating in online forums.
The Foundation Center, by Candid, maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and global grantmakers and their grants. The comprehensive Foundation Map compiles funders’ data from the IRS 990/990-PF tax forms and data contributed directly from funders. We have contributed geographic information, as well as approaches, subject matter, and a short description for the 29 grants comprising our current strategic portfolio (2016 – present) and $4.9M in investment. The data is added to the comprehensive database and compiled into funding landscapes, issue-based web portals, such as the Sustainable Development Goal Funders: https://sdgfunders.org/home/.
Our goal in sharing our data is to encourage other donors to identify gaps and future opportunities for funding biodiversity conservation across the African continent and so that grant seekers can explore JRS’ funding history and interests. We believe in the open access to biodiversity data and for all data generated by public support and for charitable purposes. (We recognize exceptions for sensitive and private data.) JRS also posts and updates detailed summaries of all our grants on our website and the basic grant data on 94 JRS investments ($14.5M total) is downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet at Our Grant Portfolio.
The full comprehensive Candid-Foundation Center database can be accessed by researchers and others through a subscription that costs $1,500-$2,000. The Foundation Maps’ data may be accessed for free at one of roughly 400 Funding Information Network partner locations in the U.S. and overseas. Regrettably, the only access point in all of Africa is in Abuja, Nigeria making the Foundation Maps resource both physically and financially inaccessible in Africa. We’re proud to be on the Candid-Foundation Center map and hope that the data and tool – based on public data and charitable investment – can be made Open Access on the African map!