Philanthropists would benefit from the development of an online “marketplace” of information to help them make more informed decisions about which organizations to support, the president of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation said in an essay accompanying the Foundation’s 2006 annual report, which was released this week.

Likening such a marketplace to the robust financial information available to private investors, Hewlett President Paul Brest said the creation of such online sites to provide accurate information about nonprofit organizations’ finances, strategies and accomplishments ultimately would help the best of them get the most support, increasing the effectiveness of philanthropy in solving problems.

“Regardless of whether you are attracted to the metaphor of social returns on investments,” Brest said in his essay, “it is disquieting that philanthropists have access to so little of the kinds of information that private investors rely on.”

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