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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
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- 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
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Category Archives: Effective giving
Most Charities Shouldn’t Evaluate Their Work: Part Two: Who should measure what?
This two-part series first appeared in Stanford Social Innovation Review. So what should happen if no one has properly evaluated an idea yet? If it’s important, an independent and suitably skilled researcher should evaluate it in enough detail and in … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
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Most Charities Shouldn’t Evaluate Their Work: Part One Why not?
This two-part series first appeared in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Most “evaluations” of charities’ work are done by the charities themselves and are a waste of time. Perhaps this is a surprising view for an advocate who thinks that charitable … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
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Free for you: Insight on what works
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
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
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What is decent evidence?
‘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 cochrane, evidence, hierarchy, systematic
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Don’t ask “what’s the impact of this charity?”
Longer article on this topic here—>
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation, Uncategorized
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What’s the point of corporate philanthropy?
This essay was first published by Ethical Corporation magazine. Climbing Borneo’s Mount Kinabalu is hard work. Climbers are legally required to hire a guide. Not that it always helps: guides sometimes just abandon the tourists and climb with each other. … Continue reading
Why ‘What’s Our Impact?’ is the Wrong Question
This article was first published by the Skoll World Forum and the Society of Impact Assessment Analysts Since there are so many ways that charities and funders can use their finite resources, they must make choices: choices between competing goals (reduce … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
Tagged charity, comparison, effective, effective giving, effectiveness, impact, impact assessment, philanthropy
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Influential charities you’ve never heard of: Beth Johnson Foundation
This Advent Calendar first appeared in Spears Magazine. Just like investment opportunities, the best charities aren’t necessarily the ones which make most noise or which come to find you. So in the tradition of Advent calendars, each week this Advent … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Great charities, Uncategorized
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Why Fewer Is More in Charitable Giving
This article was first published by Freakonomics and is co-authored with Phil Buchanan As any 10-year-old can tell you, multiplication is commutative: 2 x $70 is the same as 70 x $2. But not in charitable giving, it turns out. Making … Continue reading
What philanthropy can learn from Alan Turing
This article was first published in Spears Wealth Management Philanthropists can learn a lot from the quiet mathematician who helped win World War II and whose centenary is celebrated this year. Alan Turing and the geniuses at Bletchley Park weren’t … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Uncategorized
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