How can citizens around the world hold their governments accountable for high-quality public services like education, health care, and water? There are no perfect answers to that complex question, but we have a hunch: Our hypothesis is that, in combination, more information about how governments raise and spend money, active participation by people in the…
Outcome-focused philanthropy is the Hewlett Foundation’s approach to how we practice strategic philanthropy. It guides how we do our work, from start to finish. We’ve been practicing strategic philanthropy for more than a decade—focusing on what problem or opportunity we’re trying to address, whether we’re achieving our outcomes and why (or why not), and how…
The Hewlett Foundation’s Education Program makes grants to improve education by expanding the reach of openly available educational resources, improving California education policies, and by supporting “deeper learning”—a combination of the fundamental knowledge and practical basic skills all students will need to succeed.
The Hewlett Foundation’s Global Development and Population Program works along two dimensions, each with broad benefits for individuals and the societies in which they live. The first of these emphasizes the role of women—a straightforward acknowledgment that addressing gender disparities and reproductive health problems plays a central role in combating poverty around the world. The …
Back in December, Global Development and Population Program Director Ruth Levine published our refreshed strategy to “make transparency matter.” At its heart is the assumption that we need to do more than just make information about government budgets and public services available — such information needs to be relevant, actionable and context-specific if civil society …
This week, I’m at the Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen where global leaders, researchers and advocates are pushing for practical ways to boost the health, rights and well-being of women and girls. My colleagues Ruth Levine and Margot Fahnestock are here too, and attendees are talking about everything from gender data to gender norms. There …
For the past few months, Apple and the U.S. government have been in embroiled in an increasingly antagonistic spat about the iPhone that belonged to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the suspects in the shooting in San Bernardino, California. The U.S. Department of Justice has sought to legally compel Apple to disable several of the …
Launched in March 2014, the Hewlett Foundation’s Cyber Initiative seeks to build a more capable field to strategically address a broad range of topics that impact the security, stability and resilience of a free and open Internet and connected devices. This includes not only traditional notions of computer and information security, but related policy issues …
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Performing Arts Program invests in arts leadership because we believe the vitality of the sector is fundamentally dependent on the quality of its leadership. As part of our commitment to strengthening leadership, we recently commissioned Open Mind Consulting to conduct research—including in-depth interviews with Bay Area, California, and national arts leaders—to …
Steve spoke at the Hewlett Foundation last month about his new book as part of our ongoing “shop talk” series in which we invite outside speakers to share their knowledge and expertise with our staff. In The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World, Steve argues that, contrary to the popular view of the …