Establishing the Value of Your Cause in the Market Place
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had something to sell that the market wanted instead of dreams of a utopia where everyone is healthy, wealthy, educated and happy? What if our causes spoke to the foundations in such a way that they were compelled to give support? Indeed, what if there were some way to make them come to us , seeking our assistance and advice on dispensing their money? A fantasy, I know, but a recent story in the New York Times gave me hope.
Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, former hedge-fund analysts, have formed a non-profit called GiveWell that provides funders with hard data on the performance of non-profits they may be considering for support. GiveWell chooses a category of organization, such as African Relief, then solicits information from all of the organizations in that category. A percentage of non-profits will respond with data on their work, its cost and its outcomes. Although many organizations find GiveWell’s questions intrusive, and even beside the point, and even though some resent the implication that their mission can be summarized in how many people were served, a high percentage see the value of transparency, and cooperate with GiveWell’s in-depth analysis.
The result, displayed on GiveWell’s website, is a look at many organizations and a rating of their performance. This is a return on investment model, something few organizations study themselves, although many foundations now require metrics on outcome as a necessary part of reporting and a prerequisite for funding.
I’m interested in GiveWell mostly because they may help some of us establish our value in the marketplace. If you can prove that your return on the dollar is significantly better than mine, then you will probably get the funding we're competing for. And if GiveWell works the way the founders wish it to, foundations will come to this new resource to get the information they need to make their decisions more rational and thus more palatable to their boards of directors, who more and more frequently require numbers to demonstrate success.
Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld, former hedge-fund analysts, have formed a non-profit called GiveWell that provides funders with hard data on the performance of non-profits they may be considering for support. GiveWell chooses a category of organization, such as African Relief, then solicits information from all of the organizations in that category. A percentage of non-profits will respond with data on their work, its cost and its outcomes. Although many organizations find GiveWell’s questions intrusive, and even beside the point, and even though some resent the implication that their mission can be summarized in how many people were served, a high percentage see the value of transparency, and cooperate with GiveWell’s in-depth analysis.
The result, displayed on GiveWell’s website, is a look at many organizations and a rating of their performance. This is a return on investment model, something few organizations study themselves, although many foundations now require metrics on outcome as a necessary part of reporting and a prerequisite for funding.
I’m interested in GiveWell mostly because they may help some of us establish our value in the marketplace. If you can prove that your return on the dollar is significantly better than mine, then you will probably get the funding we're competing for. And if GiveWell works the way the founders wish it to, foundations will come to this new resource to get the information they need to make their decisions more rational and thus more palatable to their boards of directors, who more and more frequently require numbers to demonstrate success.
posted by Schultz and Company | 3:13 PM
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