Seven foundations have pooled $6 million to fund the first year of grants for a consortium that hopes to provide funding for programs that improve philanthropy and impact.

Co-chaired by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the funders announced the creation of the Fund for Shared Insight (www.fundforsharedinsight.org), which is financial and other resources for grantmaking. The $6-million for the first year covers administrative costs, evaluation and grants ($5.4 million). The fund’s leaders hope to grant between $5 million and $6-million each year for the next three years.

Shared Insight will award one- to three-year grants to nonprofits to encourage and incorporate feedback from the people the social sector seeks to help; understand the connection between feedback and better results; foster more openness between and among foundations and grantees; and share what social-sector organizations learn, according to a spokesman for the group.

“Shared Insight builds on years of work we and others have done to make philanthropy more effective,” said Shared Insight Co-chair Fay Twersky of Hewlett Foundation.

Shared Insight is a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. In addition to the Hewlett Foundation and the Ford Foundation, initial participating funders include the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The JPB Foundation, Liquidnet, the Rita Allen Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. They leaders are seeking additional foundations to join as funding partners.

“We believe foundations don’t have all the answers. We believe many and diverse voices, not just expert voices, give us the perspective needed to make a bigger difference in the lives of people we want to help,” said Shared Insight Co-chair Hilary Pennington of the Ford Foundation. “We hope to unearth good ideas from lots of different places.”

Requests for proposals (RFPs) in three different grant categories are available now, with proposals due Oct. 15. Organizations may apply for and receive grants in more than one category. To download the RFPs and learn more about the Fund for Shared Insight, visit www.fundforsharedinsight.org. For more information, contact Melinda Tuan at [email protected]