The more information and transparency we have the more we will see marked improvements towards the world’s most pressing issues. Last week we saw two new developments in transparency that are worth noting.

Catapult: Catapult is a new crowdfunding platform by Women Deliver that is specifically targeted to programs for women and girls. What is compelling about Catapult is every dollar donated goes directly to programs, not to organizational overhead. That is why I believe Catapult and the programs that run their programs on the site will do quite well.

What’s more, after a program has been funded, the organizations are required to provide a 90 day and one-year look through photos and video about how the funds were used directly for women and girls.

Women Deliver says it will raise $45 million for women’s and girls’ programs. That should not be a problem with such a smart outlook at the outset.

Glass Pockets: Launched in 2010 Glass Pockets is a web site and database created by the Foundation Center that effectively allows everyone – media, researchers, developers, the public – to see the grants foundations have made to nonprofits and global NGOs.

What Glass Pockets has done is opened up grant data for the world to see. The reasons are many: transparency in giving, transparency in communications, transparency in the types of programs funded.

Last week, Glass Pockets released the Reporting Commitment, a robust database of the grants made by the world’s largest foundations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation and others. The foundations have agreed to release this data quarterly in an effort to keep data current and transparency effective.

Based on the data you can see overall grants made by geographic location. You can also see a full daily grants list by foundation.

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