Foundation Center's IssueLab Provides Comprehensive Access to Third Sector Research

Knowledge Sharing Platform Now Contains 11,000 Resources

New York, NY — November 8, 2012. The Foundation Center has launched the next generation of IssueLab, a web site that provides free and open access to resources that analyze the world's most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges and their potential solutions. The platform contains more than 11,000 documents and represents one of the largest collections of social sector knowledge, spanning 40 issues areas, from agriculture to immigration to welfare.

Earlier this year, the Foundation Center acquired IssueLab, then an independent online publishing forum. Since then, it has worked to integrate IssueLab with PubHub, the Center's catalog of more than 7,000 annotated links to foundation-sponsored reports. The result is a unified platform that retains the name IssueLab and contains a wide range of case studies, white papers, evaluations, fact sheets, issue briefs, annual reports, and toolkits from the social sector.

"IssueLab's integration into the Foundation Center is a critical first step in our ongoing commitment to the spirit and practice of data sharing," said Gabriela Fitz, director of knowledge management initiatives at the Foundation Center. "This resource makes it easy for anyone to find, access, and share the collective intelligence of the social sector."

IssueLab's features include:

• Efficient searching and browsing by social issue area, author, publishing organization, or geography;
• A one-of-a-kind searchable database of more than 9,000 authors and researchers in the social sector; and
• The ability for any organization to add research to the collection as a way to share valuable resources with a broader audience.

In addition, IssueLab offers customizable "Knowledge Centers," which organizations, coalitions, and networks can use to create and maintain their own online libraries in a proficient and sustainable way, while allowing automatic and easy sharing of their knowledge with new audiences through IssueLab.

As a centralized collection and knowledge sharing platform, IssueLab keeps users current on social sector research, and it also provides long-term access to important documents that may otherwise be lost. For example, when the organization Public/Private Ventures recently ceased operations after 35 years, its large body of groundbreaking research was transferred to the Foundation Center under a Creative Commons license. These reports — many that evaluate programs that help young people from high-poverty communities — are now part of IssueLab's permanent collection and continue to be freely available to others working to help children, youth, and families.

The re-launch of IssueLab aligns with the Center's Foundation Center 2020 strategic plan and reflects its commitment to building the global data platform for philanthropy, providing nonprofits with the resources they need to succeed, and empowering donors with knowledge tools for strategic decision making.

IssueLab can be found at www.issuelab.org.

Cheryl Loe
Communications Project Manager
The Foundation Center
(888) 356-0354 ext. 701
communications@foundationcenter.org

About the Foundation Center
Established in 1956, the Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit the Center's web site each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of more than 470 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundations, and educational institutions nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230.

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