Buy the book! www.giving-evidence.com/book
-
Recent Posts
- What evidence to use at each stage of a programme
- Prince Andrew’s patronage of charities didn’t help
- Was Prince Andrew any good as a charity patron? We’re finding out
- What evidence exists about women & remand in the UK, and what does it say?
- Shifting the power in philanthropy: Types of initiative
- Most grant-makers don’t seem to know if they are effective
- More UK foundations are reporting the diversity of their staff and trustees
- Measuring children’s safety in organisations: Evaluating the strengths and limitations of currently-used measures
- Why the Fdn Practice Rating doesn’t assess the same foundations each year, and why that’s fine
- How diverse are UK foundations’ staff and boards?
- Surprising churn in the top UK foundations
- Why the system for charities applying to foundations is so expensive, and what can be done about it
Categories
- Admin costs (11)
- Analysing giving (8)
- Books (7)
- Corporate philanthropy (6)
- Donor behaviour & giving stats (27)
- Effective giving (58)
- Fundraising (18)
- Great charities (20)
- Impact & evaluation (63)
- Mergers (2)
- meta-research (6)
- Promoting giving (5)
- Tax and governance (7)
- transparency (2)
- Uncategorized (133)
Author Archives: carolinefiennes
Why are there so many charities?
This article first published in the Financial Times in January 2017. Donors encourage smaller organisations — but does that help beneficiaries? There are 165,000 registered charities in England and Wales alone, which people often say is a lot. But is … Continue reading
Don’t spread the love with your Christmas charity giving
This article first published in the Financial Times in December 2016. One big donation will be more effective than several smaller ones Would you prefer to receive one big present this Christmas, or lots of little ones? Your inner child … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving
Leave a comment
How impact measurement can be more useful
This article first published in Civil Society Magazine. Most of the impact data charities gather does not help raise funds or improve performance This opinion piece is a response to an article titled How do you measure the value of … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
Leave a comment
What makes philanthropy succeed? – potentially revealing analysis
Remarkably little is known reliably about how to do philanthropy well – how to use it to achieve particular aims – despite philanthropy’s long and varied history. Giving Evidence (and others) is trying to fix this – to create reliable … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving
1 Comment
When charitable donations cost more than they give
Popularity contests for funding waste time and resources This article first published in the Financial Times in November 2016. Some charitable donors are a net drain: they cost organisations they seek to help more than they contribute. Others come pretty … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
1 Comment
Creating a sector-wide research agenda: Industrial Farm Animal Production
‘Ask an important question an answer it reliably’ is a central tenet of medical research. Yet much ‘impact research’ in the charity and social sectors (including monitoring and evaluation’) isn’t like that. Instead, we ask lots of questions, and answer … Continue reading
Posted in Impact & evaluation
1 Comment
What is evidence-based giving and why does it matter?
Interview with Caroline Fiennes, Director of Giving Evidence (16 mins): This interview was made possible by the Skoll Foundation. It was recorded in Oxford in April 2015, in a single take and with no notice of the questions. More … Continue reading
Posted in Impact & evaluation, Promoting giving
Leave a comment
Avoiding waste in medical research
This article first published in the Financial Times in September 2016. The news that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla are putting $3bn towards “ending all disease” has renewed the spotlight on the giving of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest. They are not … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
What would have happened otherwise?
First published in the Financial Times in August 2016. Did the charity make it happen, or would it have happened anyway? The purpose of a charity’s work — and your support for it — is to create a benefit beyond what … Continue reading
Posted in Impact & evaluation
Leave a comment
The evidence system in the mental health charity sector
UK non-profits delivering mental health services are not great at producing or using scientific evidence. This is the main finding of a new study by Giving Evidence. We interviewed 12 such organisations to understand their ‘evidence system’, i.e., how evidence is: Produced … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
giving-evidence.com 