Tag Archives: giving

How should advice on charitable giving be priced?

Answer: In a way that aligns the advisor’s incentives with those of the beneficiary. But which way does that? Along with many others, I’m often asked to advise donors about finding good charities to support and/or strategies to make their … Continue reading

Posted in Admin costs, Analysing giving, Donor behaviour & giving stats, Promoting giving | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in Analysing giving, Impact & evaluation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Who’s the most generous nation on Earth?

It’s not the US! According to The Economist, the rankings contain a few surprises: Australia               57%   New Zealand        57% Canada                  56% … Continue reading

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NatWest’s Community Force programme is crushingly awful

NatWest’s Community Force programme creates huge amounts of waste for charities and doesn’t even reward merit. It’s the worst programme for giving money to charity I’ve ever seen. Here are the larger of my concerns about it: It’s massively wasteful  NatWest has … Continue reading

Posted in Corporate philanthropy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

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

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Why Eurostar’s charity partnership with the Ashden Awards is a very good idea*

Partnering to create value  Interested in fostering innovation, Eurostar has teamed up with the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy to create a new prize for local sustainable transport initiatives. In principle, Eurostar could have created an infrastructure of its own – … Continue reading

Posted in Corporate philanthropy, Effective giving, Mergers | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Cheryl Cole Foundation: The most important 3 words

It’s off to a great start. But trouble ahead? Here’s what it should do. In its first year, Cheryl Cole’s Foundation is teaming up with the Prince’s Trust. Good. New donors almost always do well to partner with existing donors and existing charities. … Continue reading

Posted in Donor behaviour & giving stats | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Promoting giving to charity is like marketing discretionary purchases

Getting more people to give to charity = getting people to change their behaviour. That is, it’s a marketing job. The same as getting you to buy Coke rather than Pepsi, or to buy stilton outside Christmas, to buy a … Continue reading

Posted in Donor behaviour & giving stats, Fundraising | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Raising funds? Just dress well!

Wearing designer logos virtually doubles donations According to a study reported by The Economist, all you have to do to increase donations is to dress well! A team of volunteers knocking on doors solicited donations raised nearly twice as much when wearing … Continue reading

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Let’s inspire better giving, by… celebrating failure!

When did you last hear of a charity that was rubbish? By some estimates, fully 60% of donations are made with no research into the charity’s performance. Whereas about 0% of commercial investments are made with no research into the … Continue reading

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