The Corporation for National and Community Service has released new details concerning how the agency chose the nonprofit fundraising organizations that won its 2010 Social Innovation Fund grants.

The agency recently drew criticism from Nonprofit Quarterly for withholding certain program records from the public and the press, as well as for a connection between the director of the SIF, Paul Carttar, and one of the funded intermediaries.

To help dispel rumors, the agency plans to post the 11 winning applications online within the next three to four weeks. Yet it has no plans to release the applications of those organizations that were not awarded grants.

The corporation is currently exploring alternative approaches to increase transparency in the grant-giving process, such as the Educations Department’s pilot project - “Open Grantmaking” - which it plans to keep in mind while selecting its 2011 AmeriCorps grantees.

In an interview with Nonprofit Quarterly, Carttar said that the agency’s reason for keeping proposals and applicant names confidential was to encourage participation for a wide spectrum. “For us to achieve our mission we wanted to get the strongest intermediary applicants with the best track records and providing them with some confidentiality was part of that plan,” he added.