Evidence-Based Philanthropy: What would you do next? Caroline Fiennes www.giving-evidence.com caroline.fiennes@giving-evidence.com Twitter: @carolinefiennes

Current and former clients ... and many anonymous donors

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Delivering chlorine to households Cleaning the water source (e.g., the well) Adding chlorine at the water source

From J-PAL (www.povertyactionlab.org) This is fundamentally a comparative exercise From J-PAL (www.povertyactionlab.org)

Opportunity cost! From J-PAL (www.povertyactionlab.org) This is fundamentally a comparative exercise From J-PAL (www.povertyactionlab.org)

“The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.” - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

i.e., how to do philanthropy Interventions Charities i.e., organisations Ways of giving i.e., how to do philanthropy

i.e., how to do philanthropy Interventions Charities i.e., organisations Ways of giving i.e., how to do philanthropy “The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure nature hasn’t misled you into thinking you know something you actually don’t know.” Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance “Two mantras: If you want to have evidence-based policy, get some evidence, and Whatever behaviour you want to encourage, make it easy.” Richard Thaler, co-author, Nudge; President American Economic Association

i.e., how to do philanthropy Interventions Charities i.e., organisations Ways of giving i.e., how to do philanthropy

Outline evidence system

7% ! Source: Making an Impact: Impact Measurement Across Charities and Social Enterprises in the UK, NPC, October 2012

with little or no evidence to back this up” PHF’s designation of quality of charities’ data in their reports to PHF In reports from charities, we found “some, though relatively few, instances of outcomes being reported with little or no evidence to back this up” Good OK The R4D work is rather like this: having to invent a scale because nothing gets on the Maryland scale. London children & young people – same thing. The SSIR example – endemic. We should sort this out. Why are we spending money to produce crap? Poor

“When I first started in this, I kept talking about evaluation and he [senior person in the charity sector] said to me: ‘don’t worry about that. You can just make it up. Everybody else does. At the very least you should exaggerate a lot. You’ll have to, to get funded’” – operating organisation Source: www.giving-evidence.com/info-infrastructure

Estimates of impact of a reading programme in India Source: IPA Source: Innovations for Poverty Action

Research quality: Weak research allows for strong claims that programmes work

It’s unreliable.

It’s unreliable. It isn’t published.

It’s unreliable. It isn’t published. You can’t find it. It’s unclear It’s unreliable. It isn’t published. You can’t find it. It’s unclear. It’s not comparable. It duplicates.

Don’t PRODUCE research… but USE research

Ask an important question and answer it reliably a central tenet of good clinical research, much taught by Professor Sir Richard Peto FRS

EBP External context: Public priorities Relevant activities of other donors and gov’t (where the gaps are) Needs values and priorities of grantee organisation and intended beneficiaries Donors’ interests, values, passions and expertise Best available evidence about ‘what works’ EBP How to fund: best available evidence about how to fund in those circumstances

i.e., how to do philanthropy Interventions Get some evidence: preferably which isn’t crap Make it easy: for people to find (indexing), read (paywalls), understand (academic-ese), pre- synthesized Kill production of crap Better evidence of what ‘beneficiaries’ want Charities i.e., organisations Get some way of doing analysis of organisations, esp. multi-intervention orgs Kill off the admin cost myth Some TripAdvisor thing? Get some data – e.g., on grant hit-rate, like Shell Fdn: this seems to be really hard Do some case controls / expts of what makes successful grants Ways of giving i.e., how to do philanthropy

Given all that, what would you do next? Caroline Fiennes Twitter: @carolinefiennes www.giving-evidence.com caroline.fiennes@giving-evidence.com

Evidence-Based Philanthropy: What would you do next? Caroline Fiennes www.giving-evidence.com caroline.fiennes@giving-evidence.com Twitter: @carolinefiennes