Category Archives: Effective giving

We tried to update our analysis of charities’ performance and their admin costs, and you won’t BELIEVE what happened next!

Many people believe that charities waste money on ‘administration’, and hence that the best charities spend little on administration. A strong form of this view is that the best charities are by definition those which spend little on administration, i.e., you … Continue reading

Posted in Admin costs, Effective giving, Impact & evaluation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Do Royals help charities? We’re finding out

Apparently ~3000 organisations have Royal patrons. About 200 have this week lost their relationship with Prince Andrew. Securing and maintaining a relationship with a Royal is work, and is it worth it? It seems that nobody knows. Giving Evidence is … Continue reading

Posted in Donor behaviour & giving stats, Effective giving, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

How to give well to charity?

This article first published in MoneyWise magazine. MacKenzie Bezos, who recently divorced the world’s richest person, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has pledged to give away at least half of her $37billion fortune. To whom should she give it? I’ve advised … Continue reading

Posted in Effective giving | Leave a comment

Evidence-based philanthropy made easy

This talk explains what evidence-based giving is, why it matters, and how it needn’t be soooo complicated. Even the first 30 seconds here show why minimising administrative costs to keep an aid programme ‘cheap’ is a bad idea. This talk … Continue reading

Posted in Donor behaviour & giving stats, Effective giving, Impact & evaluation | Leave a comment

Try not to judge a charity by its admin costs alone

Producing the kind of data donors would like is hard and expensive, but not impossible This article first published in the Financial Times in October 2017. We kept overheads low, boasts Camila Batmanghelidjh in her book published last week  about … Continue reading

Posted in Admin costs, Effective giving | Leave a comment

Breaking the hunger cycle for the price of a bus ticket

Modern philanthropists adopt an evidence-based approach This article first published in the Financial Times in March 2017. The Christian tradition of giving things up for Lent comes, it is said, from making a virtue out of necessity. Last year’s harvest, … Continue reading

Posted in Effective giving, Great charities, Impact & evaluation | 1 Comment

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

Posted in Donor behaviour & giving stats, Effective giving | 1 Comment

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