The San Francisco-based Tides Center has been awarded grants totaling $4.5 million to expand its services to social innovators and nonprofit organizations.

The funds, which include a three-year, $4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan, will be used to support a scalable technology platform that is expected to increase the availability of affordable, quality administrative infrastructure and reduce duplication in the nonprofit sector. In addition, the center, which provides grants management, administrative, financial, and human resources services to charitable initiatives not incorporated as 501(c)(3)s, will use the grants to collaborate with other organizations to improve standards of practice and accountability in the sector.

"Tides Center's history of enabling nonprofit leaders to focus on their missions and programs by sharing a common legal home and administrative infrastructure uniquely qualifies the organization to lead this important sector-wide initiative," said Kellogg Foundation program director Tom Reis. "We believe this initiative will transform many organizations in the nonprofit sector by increasing their financial sustainability, enhancing the effectiveness of their programs, and, ultimately, increasing their impact in the communities they serve."

Other funders of the initiative include the Skoll Foundation, which has contributed $225,000 to the project, and the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and David and Lucile Packard Foundation, which have each contributed $100,000.