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The Kresge Foundation has unveiled a new grants database that enables Web-site visitors to utilize interactive United States and world maps to view comprehensive information on all grants made by the foundation since 2003. The database is located in the Our Grants section of the Web site.

Grant information can be accessed according to geographical distribution, single or multiple years, recipient type, and subject, or field of interest. Drilling down into the database map provides a more detailed breakdown on grant recipients by county, city, ZIP code, and congressional district. Each grantee is listed on a separate line showing the organization’s location, the total dollar amount of its Kresge funding, and the number of Kresge grants it has received.

The new grants-database map was created for Kresge by the New York-based Foundation Center, a nonprofit service organization that maintains information on more than 96,000 private and corporate foundations and public charities.

“The real power of data mapping is that it allows users to see the full breadth of the foundation’s grantmaking visually instead of going through pages of grant lists,” says Brad Smith, president of the Foundation Center. “We find that maps are the best tool for displaying data because people like them and are familiar with them. Maps also offer a faster and easier way to view data in several different parameters.”

Using Kresge’s new grants-database, a grantee from Houston, for instance, could find information on the grants Kresge has made to nonprofits in his or her part of the city, the surrounding county, or the entire state. Similarly, an environmental-advocacy organization in Massachusetts could search for the grants Kresge has awarded to other environmental groups in that state, or elsewhere in the nation.

“Kresge is being a pioneer,” Smith says. “This free mapping service is available to other foundations, and my guess is that when more organizations begin to see maps on Web sites such as Kresge’s, they’ll consider using them.” Right now, Kresge is one of only two foundations that have incorporated grantee-database maps into their Web sites. (The other is the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.)

The Foundation Center adds new grant information as it is received and continually updates the interactive maps, which it maintains on its server.

If you have questions, e-mail the Grants Inquiry Coordinator or call 248-643-9630.