Philanthropy Action

Category: Philanthropy

There are 148 entries in this category.

Jan 22, 2010

Will Donor Advice Do Any Good?

As I see more and more advice on giving to Haiti appear, I’ve begun to wonder: how will we know if this proliferation of good advice has had an impact on the Haitian relief and recovery effort? What metrics will tell us that donors to Haiti and the nonprofits working there learned the lessons of the tsunami, Katrina, and Nargis?

Dec 21, 2009

The Neocolonialists?

Recently I was listening to Rory Stewart’s The Places In Between, the story of his walk across Afghanistan. Near the end of the book Stewart turns his attention to the aid agencies, public and private, that had come rushing into Afghanistan. His observations are worthwhile reading for anyone interested in making international aid more effective, so I’m excerpting them here.

Dec 04, 2009

The Best Way to Pick A Charity This Year

None of the efforts to evaluate charities’ effectiveness are perfect and none of them provide a quick answer—but givers also have to understand that if they want their dollars to do the most good, they are going to have to devote some time to investigating and learning. You can make a quick donation or an effective donation. If your emphasis is on quick, you’re likely to get a commensurate return on the dollars you’ve invested.

Dec 01, 2009

The Worst (and Best) Way to Pick A Charity This Year

Picking a charity based on the lowest overhead ratio is like buying the cheapest car that money can buy. You might spend less in the short run but it’s inevitably going to let you down.The question donors should be asking is, “How much of your budget are you spending on making sure your programs are effective?“

Nov 16, 2009

Saving the World By Lowering Your Expectations

Impatient optimists are like investors in subprime mortgages in 2007. They can be so blinded by the upside that they fail to do their due diligence. In the end, their impatience and pursuit of outsize returns fuels waste and disappointment. Patient optimists, by contrast, have lowered their expectations of any particular program or intervention, but not their belief in a better world over the long term. If we’re going to succeed in making the world a better place, we need to convince more people to lower their expectations, too.

Nov 13, 2009

The Source of Donor Illusions

If you would only give to an intermediary in order to help someone on the street outside your home, why do you want to do away with intermediaries between you and a person on the other side of the world whose circumstances you don’t understand at all?

Nov 11, 2009

Big Climate Impact for Little Climate Dollars

For substantially less than $10 million you can have a big impact on climate change by using the tools of behavioral economics to help individuals conserve energy. Specifically the widespread deployment of real-time use meters and commitment contracts can help people who want to save energy meet their goals—and it requires very little external funding.

Nov 09, 2009

New Survey and Report on the Use and Effectiveness of Social Networking by Non-profits

Today we published the results of a survey that Philanthropy Action conducted on social networking and non-profits. Unsurprisingly non-profits reported that their primary reasons for using social networking were marketing, fundraising and attracting volunteers. But very few of them have seen results.

Nov 09, 2009

Social Networking and Mid-Size Nonprofits: What’s the Use?

A survey on the use of social networking by mid-sized nonprofits conducted by Philanthropy Action between June 2008 and March 2009 shows that more than 70 percent of respondents had raised less than $100 or did not know whether they had raised any money. The figures for attracting volunteers were not much better.

Nov 05, 2009

Scams, FarmVille and Embedded Giving

It’s “giving season” again and so we’re about to see a huge ramp-up in embedded giving. As FarmVille’s case shows, there are plenty of reasons to avoid embedded giving.

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