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Recent Posts
- 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
- Getting evidence to influence public policy
- The curious relationship between the number of staff and number of trustees in foundations
- Having Too Few Personnel Compromises Foundations’ Performance on Key Issues
- One donor’s fantastic work to encourage use of evidence, and production of more, to fight factory farming
- Reducing the Administrative Burden Placed on UK Charities by UK Donors and Funders
- Letter in The Economist about anti-malarial bednets
- Rating UK foundations on their transparency, accountability and diversity
- Why most ratings of charities are useless: the available information isn’t important and the important information isn’t available
- Webinar: intro to evidence, and the evidence about child abuse
- Many (many!) charities are too small to measure their own impact
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Tag Archives: impact assessment
Are we relying on unreliable research?
“Ask an important question and answer it reliably” is a fundamental tenet of clinical research. And you’d hope so: you’d hope that medics don’t waste time on questions that don’t matter or which have been answered already, and you’d hope … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged charity, corporate philanthropy, effectiveness, evaluation, impact, impact assessment, monitoring, philanthropy, research quality
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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
4 Comments
Why I’m delighted to join the advisory panel of Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is the world’s largest charity ‘ratings agency’, providing online ratings of 6,000 US-based charities which are used by over 3million donors each year. It’s also the sole organisation slagged off in my book about how donors can best … Continue reading
Posted in Admin costs, Great charities, Impact & evaluation
Tagged analysis, beneficiary, charity, Charity Navigator, effectiveness, feedback, impact, impact assessment
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Development Controversies Are A Sign of Sophistication
This article, written with Professor Dean Karlan of Yale University, appeared in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Public debate about two prominent poverty-alleviation programs shows that over the past 15 years international development has become much more scientific. The international development … Continue reading
Posted in Impact & evaluation
Tagged aid, charity, cochrane, development, deworming, effectiveness, giving, impact, impact assessment, international development, philanthropy, science, worms
2 Comments
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
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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
A grand unified theory of effective giving starts with beneficiaries
This article first appeared in Alliance Magazine. ‘What do you think of our team?’ asked the chairman of a new foundation. I hesitated, fearing he would dislike my answer. The trustees were experts in only two of their three focus … Continue reading
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
It Ain’t What You Give, It’s The Way That You Give It
It Ain’t What You Give, It’s The Way That You Give It: launches March 27th 2012 ‘The Freakonomics of the charity world – but with better cartoons’ – Martin Houghton-Brown, Chief Executive, Missing People ‘Great advice: inspiring, entertaining and much-needed’ – James … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Effective giving, Uncategorized
Tagged advice, book, charity, donation, donor, donor education, evaluation, Fundraising, giving, group philanthropy, impact, impact assessment, volunteer
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