Following the roll out of real time tracking of foundation grants in support of Haiti, the Foundation Center has quietly launched a new project called Glass Pockets.

With a mission to “bring transparency to the world of philanthropy,” Glass Pockets offers reports on how transparent large, well-known foundations are. These reports rate the foundations across 28 elements of transparency and accountability such as whether they explain their grant making process, provide a public assessment of the foundation’s performance, and whether they offer a knowledge center that shares program evaluations and lessons learned.

Glass Pockets reports can be currently found for:

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• The Ford Foundation
• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Most importantly, the Glass Pockets reports offer direct click-thru access to each element, as well as a fascinating Foundation Transparency 2.0 database that shows the social media tools being used by over 400 foundations. From the database you can directly access Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, blogs, e-newsletters, and other tools being used by some of the country’s largest funders.

Finally, the site offers a Google-based search tool that lets users search the websites of thousands of private foundations. For instance, a search for the term Haiti brings back The Boston Foundation’s Haiti Relief & Reconstruction Fund, The Gates Foundation’s statement on their response to the earthquake, and the Case Foundation’s blog post on ways that individual donors can support Haiti.

I think this is fascinating stuff. Not only is Glass Pockets suddenly the most important way to access information about foundations, but the reports begin to set a level of expectation for large, staffed foundations to share more about their activities and what they know with the public.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about philanthropy