Author Archives: carolinefiennes

We need to be scientific and fearless about assessing whether proposed solutions work This article first published in the Financial Times in July 2018.  The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seems to have wasted six years and $1bn, having initiated … Continue reading →

This article first published in the Financial Times In August 2018 Anne Heller has done something that I had never previously seen in my 18 years in the non-profit sector. She identified a social problem, scoured academic literature to find … Continue reading →

Below: A map of the existing rigorous ‘what works’ evidence about institutional responses to child abuse, and summary of what that evidence says Giving Evidence and partners have produced a map of the existing evidence (and gaps in it) about … Continue reading →

Wide-ranging chat about charitable giving, with the Daily Mail. What to give to, what to avoid, one of Caroline’s favourite charities, how to choose a charity… (~20 minutes) Please click on the picture below to watch the full video.

New report! Giving Evidence has been consulting with UK charities and donors to identify the topics in which they would like further research (/ evidence / data) into charities and philanthropy. This was a large-scale and ground-breaking exercise, using a … Continue reading →

How can you tell if a charity is effective, when there is little independent analysis? This article first published in the Financial Times in March 2018. Judging by my inbox, there seems to be huge demand for advice about which … Continue reading →

VIDEO: Watch Caroline’s new lesson with the Fitzroy Academy! Full lesson here.

Making a big gift to draw other donors is only useful if the charity is highly effective This article first published in the Financial Times in December 2017. The practice of donors offering to “match” gifts made to charities they … Continue reading →

This article first published in Alliance Magazine. The first president of eBay, Jeff Skoll, set up his Global Threats Fund in 2010 to ‘make  progress against five of the gravest threats to humanity’: climate change, pandemics, water security, nuclear proliferation, … Continue reading →

If you, like millions of people, want to give this Christmas / holiday season, the following are all good bets, in our view: Medicins Sans Frontieres: They always seem to be to be where the sh*t is worst, e.g., Yemen, … Continue reading →