By Shannon Prather

Star Tribune

Minnesota’s nearly 120 philanthropic foundations typically work behind closed doors in giving away nearly $1 billion each year.

Now the nonprofits that apply for and receive much of that money are offering some anonymous feedback on those foundations through a new online rating tool called GrantAdvisor.org.

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits this summer set up the new venture in partnership with the California Association of Nonprofits. The two groups have collectively spent $75,000 on it.

“This is a pioneering effort to really elevate the customer voice,” said Jon Pratt, executive director of the Minnesota nonprofits council, which has about 2,000 member organizations. “It’s a new tool to have a healthy conversation between two groups that need each other.”

The twofold goal is to give foundations feedback and create a forum, similar to the popular business review website Yelp, to help fellow nonprofits more deftly navigate the grant application process.

When nonprofits apply and compete for foundation grants, there’s scant opportunity for honest feedback for fear of losing funding to someone else, Pratt said.

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