Author Archives: carolinefiennes

Getting Better: Improving Education By Learning from Evidence-Based Medicine

Posted on May 10, 2013

‘It’s chilling that when we think we are doing good, we may actually be doing harm’        – Dr Ben Goldacre Giving Evidence is launching a new project to improve the effectiveness of education in less developed countries, … Continue reading →

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Good charities spend more on administration than less good charities spend

Posted on May 2, 2013

Ground-breaking analysis by Giving Evidence disproves the popular idea that charities should spend less on administration. This is the first analysis which shows (doesn’t just argue) that high-performing charities spend more on administration costs than weaker ones do. So it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Admin costs, Fundraising, Great charities, Impact & evaluation, Uncategorized | 19 Comments

What the First Social Impact Bond Won’t Tell Us

Posted on April 4, 2013

This article first published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Social impact bonds (SIBs) are a high-profile innovation in funding public services. The pilot SIB in Peterborough, UK, which aims to reduce recidivism, has been widely watched and—despite not yet … Continue reading →

Posted in Impact & evaluation | 1 Comment

Happy birthday, book!

Posted on March 27, 2013

It’s a year since the publication of It Ain’t What You Give, It’s the Way That You Give It. This, Caroline Fiennes’ book about how any donor can do a great job, has met a great response: “A terrific read” … Continue reading →

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Free for you: Insight on what works

Posted on March 18, 2013

The government’s new What Works Centres should be awesome. And they should be a fantastic and free resource for charities and donors and others, which we can use to dramatically improve effectiveness.  What are you on about? Wouldn’t it be … Continue reading →

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Bad Book: Why Philanthropy Matters

Posted on March 11, 2013

If Princeton University Press hadn’t provided a free chapter of Why Philanthropy Matters: How the Wealthy Give, and What It Means for Our Economic Well-Being by Zoltan J. Acs, I might have bought it. But I could barely stomach that first chapter, so my thoughts are … Continue reading →

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Interesting snippets

Posted on March 8, 2013

Some bits & bobs about evidence & effectiveness in giving. Updated as & when. “Ask an important question, answer it reliably, and publish the results promptly, irrespective of the findings”: good advice for any experiment, from an article in The Lancet … Continue reading →

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What is decent evidence?

Posted on March 5, 2013

‘Evidence is not the plural of anecdote’, wags often say. Sure, but what is it? Evidence comes in many forms, some distinctly better than others. Below is a hierarchy produced by NESTA. Is it any good? Level 1 is essentially having … Continue reading →

Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What was it about 2003?

Posted on February 28, 2013

This seems to be the Year of Tenth Anniversaries of Good Things: evidently 2003 was a bumper year for setting up entities focused on improving philanthropy, charities and social enterprises.  Happy tenth birthday to: Innovations for Poverty Action: a global … Continue reading →

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Don’t ask “what’s the impact of this charity?”

Posted on January 31, 2013

Longer article on this topic here—>

Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments