Some of the nation’s biggest foundations have begun to openly discuss failed grants and programs, reports The New York Times.

For instance, the James Irvine Foundation released a report on a $60-million program that did not achieve its goal of improving after-school programs in five California cities, while the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation issued an 81-page report analyzing how a program created to reduce poverty in three Bay Area neighborhoods fell apart.

Paul Brest, chief executive of the Hewlett Foundation, told the newspaper: “Foundations are supposed to take risks. Sure, it’s better to tell your success stories, but there’s no harm in sharing our failures, too. The only thing at stake is our egos.”

For more about foundation efforts to admit their mistakes — and other trends in grant making — see the results of The Chronicle’s annual survey of the nation’s biggest grant makers.

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