A favorite saying of foundation people is, “You can’t be afraid to fail. You have to be ready to take bold risks.” I’ve thought about it, and I think they’re going too easy on themselves. I put it to you: we need both funders of innovative projects and funders who focus on what already works….
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Our harshest critic so far: Uncle Bob
There’s a saying that I think about a lot: “If you can’t explain it to your Uncle Bob, you don’t understand it.” (Note: may be a rewording of a real saying, or not a real saying at all; I’m not sure. If it’s unclaimed, mark it down as mine, thanks.) How many times have you…
Where should you give?
When you’re donating, do you want a “safe and reputable” charity – or the best? From fighting disease in Africa to improving inner-city education, helping people isn’t simple – for charities OR for donors. That’s why it isn’t enough to know that “99% of your money goes to programs.” (In fact, we think it’s often…
How to get your values violated
Look, another story where a foundation is accused of violating its original funders’ values.
It’s ridiculous to accuse the foundation. The funders violated their own values, the second they handed over their money to an organization set up to exist forever.
“Dollars per life changed” metric: What is it good for?
Many moons ago, I listed the metrics we planned to use in evaluations. Well, here’s a shocker for you: when looking at actual charities’ activities, the reality is 10,000x as complicated as anything that can fit into these metrics. We always knew we would run into the following problem: if Charity A saves 100 people…
Another frustrating article about fixing education
Eduwonkette (if you’re interested in the cause of education, stop reading so many philanthropy blogs and subscribe to Eduwonkette) links to an exciting-sounding article about a series of innovative charter schools. Imagine how excited I get by a passage like this: “On graduation rates, on test scores, on teacher pay — on just about anything…