I began 2013 writing about how the Rita Allen Foundation draws inspiration from the young biomedical scholars we support. We aim to be, in a sense, a philanthropic lab—where creativity, risk, collaboration, assessment and learning are part of everything we do. Never has there been a more exciting…

A few years ago, the City of Boston decided to tackle an age-old municipal problem in a new way. Using the motion-sensing capabilities of smart phones, volunteers who download Boston’s Street Bump app automatically send to the city information about the condition of the streets they’re driving…

Last fall, the Rita Allen Foundation gathered six emerging nonprofits to talk about performance measurement. Each of the organizations works on some aspect of civic engagement. One, for instance, based in Seattle, seeks to change attitudes and action through environmental news, with a twist of humor. How do…

Young leaders in science and social innovation. Community building. Civic engagement. These are all areas of passion and investment for the Rita Allen Foundation—we sometimes call them our “domains.” But that makes them sound separate from each other, as if you close the door on community building, walk down the…

This spring marked the debut of a powerful new force in civic literacy and civic engagement. The debut came in the form of a set of 50 report cards grading anticorruption mechanisms in each of the states. For the overall grades, there were no A’s, and there were 8 F’s.

As Stephen Heintz, President of Rockefeller Brothers Fund, has emphasized, foundations such as Rockefeller and Rita Allen have a responsibility to support philanthropic stewardship for philanthropic leader organizations that develop and widely disseminate knowledge about best practices. The reports issued and information publicized by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP),…

It took 34 years for the telephone to reach 50 million customers; 13 years for television to attract 50 million viewers; but just 2 years for Facebook to surpass 50 million users. Social media is powerful and global, and nonprofits are eager to maximize the use of it to increase…

I am often asked what compass the Rita Allen Foundation uses for our charitable investment decisions: How do we choose to fund a particular group or cause when there are so many worthy organizations and projects in need of our support? Of course answers found on our Website include our…

Welcome to our blog! Since 2009, the Rita Allen Foundation has undergone a great transformation. Our expanded mission is to invest in transformative ideas in their earliest stages to leverage their growth and promote breakthrough solutions to significant problems. As an emerging organization, we have built a more professional business…