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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
- 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
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Category Archives: Impact & evaluation
How can innovative organisations produce evidence of their impact?
This article was first published by the Society of Impact Assessment Analysts ‘If something isn’t working, do something else’, goes the saying. Though it sounds obvious, we often don’t follow this advice. Many of the social and environmental issues we’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Impact & evaluation, Uncategorized
Tagged charity, donor, evidence, Fund-raising, Fundraising, giving, impact, impact assessment, innovation, innovative, new, philanthropy, untested
2 Comments
Understanding impact. What would have happened anyway?
Article first published by the Society of Impact Assessment Analysts In understanding a charity’s impact, we seek to identify the difference which the charity has made in the world. That is, what has happened which would not otherwise have happened. … Continue reading
Goldman Sachs doesn’t (appear to) understand stats. Who are the muppets now?
This article first appeared in Third Sector magazine. The legendary investment bank Goldman Sachs was described by Rolling Stone magazine two years ago as being “like a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity”; and a former executive who resigned … Continue reading
Application and reporting processes keep 3m children out of school
Avoidable waste from foundations’ reporting processes is ~£100m every year, enough to fund the whole of Barnardo’s or the British Red Cross. Another ~£150-250m is wasted in reporting to public sector funders, plus there’s plenty of avoidable waste in application … Continue reading
Posted in Admin costs, Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
Tagged admin, administration, application, apply, audit, book, charity, donation, effectiveness, efficiency, Fund-raising, Fundraising, giving circles, grant-makers, grant-making, grantmakers, group philanthropy, impact, inefficiency, inefficient, reporting, shared, wastage, waste
4 Comments
The popular fetish of the small
The Economist this week has an article and data showing the folly of the popular affection for small companies. It shows that productivity* per employee is markedly higher in large companies than small ones for two reasons: employees in large … Continue reading
What if etiquette and impact collide?
Perhaps it’s an occupational hazard. A friend or acquaintance asks for some advice or help with their charity. I’d like to help that friend… but the work or structure of the charity raises the alarm in my head. On one … Continue reading
Forget business: philanthropy needs to learn from tons of other disciplines
Philanthrocapitalism, social return, social investment, Absolute Return for Kids… Business is the analogy most commonly used for philanthropic activity. Though that’s not wrong, it’s dangerously narrow for solving what Warren Buffett calls ‘problems which have already resisted great intellects and great … Continue reading
Posted in Effective giving, Impact & evaluation
Tagged Business, charity, donation, giving, impact, language, medicine, military, philanthrocapitalism, philanthropy, physics
6 Comments
How do you know if your charity is making any difference? Take control
Charities need to understand which parts of their activities are working and which aren’t. But to really understand the charity’s impact, we need to know not only what did happen, but what would have happened without the charity’s work. Imagine a city with … Continue reading
The good, and the weird, features of Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save
‘How much should each of us give to help the world’s poor?’, asks the moral philosopher Peter Singer in his book The Life You Can Save. It’s a cracking book, with some great insights about poverty, effective solutions and the weirdness inside … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Impact & evaluation
Tagged amount, book, book review, charity, donation, donor, gift, giving, How much, Life you can save, Peter Singer, philanthropy, philosophy
1 Comment
Buy one, get 24 free!
I just have to share this because it’s so stunning. You want to improve education in rural India. A good start is to improve attendance. So you look at the causes of non-attendance: poor transport to/from school; children having no … Continue reading
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