Apr 23, 2010

Esther Duflo wins John Bates Clark Medal

Today Esther Duflo was announced as the winner of the John Bates Clark Medal. The award is granted to the economist under age 40 who has “contributed the most to the profession.“ The increasing recognition of Duflo’s groundbreaking work to bring experimental economics to bear on real world questions is a ray of hope that philanthropy and public policy can learn from what works.

You can read an extensive interview with Esther Duflo here.

Apr 22, 2010

Global Philanthropy Forum: Day 3

Some thoughts on Day 3 of the Global Philanthropy Forum including sessions on “flexible funding” and on measurement and metrics. I came away from the latter more discouraged than encouraged because it seemed that everyone needed to genuflect to the idea that randomized control trials, the gold standard of measurement, were too expensive, too narrow, too hard or just useless. If the sector continues to cast aspersions on the best tool we have for measurement, I despair that metrics will ever be used to make wise decisions rather than to justify what we already want to do.

Apr 21, 2010

Thoughts from Day Two of GPF: Cognitive Dissonance

The morning plenary of Day Two of the Global Philanthropy Forum focused on Global Health with presenters from the Gates Foundation, the Global Health Council and the White Ribbon Alliance. For me, it illuminated a lot of the core tensions in philanthropy, what you might call philanthropy’s cognitive dissonance. Actually it would probably be better termed philanthropy’s lack of cognitive dissonance. The presenters were saying quite different things, often contradictory, yet no one seemed to notice.

Apr 20, 2010

Global Philanthropy Forum: Nutrition

The most important thing about Singer’s steps is that they are all modeled on successful, cheap initiatives in other industries that didn’t require everyone to come to the table and agree in the first place. They are examples of individuals and organizations just starting their work and then getting others to join them. If we can replicate those successes in the nutrition space, we can fix this problem. We don’t need new innovations in nutrition, we just need to use the ones that are already there.

Apr 20, 2010

Thoughts from Day One of the Global Philanthropy Forum

Apr 15, 2010

How Not to React to Rigorous Evaluation

The past few weeks have provided some insight into the impact of rigorous evaluation of philanthropic programs on charities, donors and policymakers. Unfortunately those insights show that we’ve still got a long ways to go if the goal is evidence-based philanthropy and policy.

Mar 24, 2010

Obama’s Missed Opportunity and the P2P Revolution in Philanthropy

Recent posts at Stanford Social Innovation Review and Harvard Business Review cover Obama’s missed opportunity with his donation of the Nobel prize money and the coming P2P revolution in philanthropy.

Mar 22, 2010

Philanthropy Action is Co-Winner of 2010 Best in Aid Award

Last Week, the Aid Watchers blog named it’s winners of the best and worst in aid for the last year. We’re proud to be named among the winners—all of whom are groups aiming to help people give better.

Mar 02, 2010

Measuring the Unmeasureable

Some new materials on measuring the unmeasureable in philanthropy.

Feb 27, 2010

Toward Better Qualitative Metrics

Earlier this week we hosted a conference call with David Roberts of New Dominion Philanthropy Metrics and Sean Stannard-Stockton of Tactical Philanthropy looking at the role of qualitative metrics in good philanthropic decision-making, and especially how non-profits and foundations could capture qualitative data in reliable and useful ways. We recorded the call for those who were unable to attend, or for those who’d like to share it with friends and peers.