Jeanne Panossian left two very interesting comments on our blog discussing donor irrationality, from the point of view of someone running a small charity. On donor illusions: ” … It takes extraordinary ethical fortitude to openly tell people how complicated your organization is, normally a donor has made their basic decision in the first 15…
The GiveWell Blog
Month: November 2009
My greatest fear about microfinance
How much of microfinance’s popularity in the world of philanthropy comes straight from this story? I was shocked to discover a woman in the village, borrowing less than a dollar from the money-lender, on the condition that he would have the exclusive right to buy all she produces at the price he decides. This, to…
The Carter Center
Early in 2009, we were extremely excited about The Carter Center. It seemed so strong that we devoted weeks to understanding it in depth. As discussed in a blog post we made at the time, several of its programs work on extremely promising “neglected tropical disease control” activities, and there’s a truly unusual amount of…
Medicine and philanthropy
David Leonhardt’s excellent piece on health care reminded me of the debates within philanthropy. For most of human history … [doctors’] treatments consisted of inducing vomiting or diarrhea and, most common of all, bleeding their patients … Yet patients continued to go to doctors, and many continued to put great in faith in medicine ……
Evaluating microsavings
We’re excited about the idea of microsavings as opposed to microlending. But it isn’t enough to see that an organization offers microsavings. We need to know: Are savings services being provided relatively efficiently? How many clients are served per dollar of operating expenses? Are clients able to access their funds when they need them? We…
If microsavings is more needed, why does microcredit get more attention?
Portfolios of the Poor tells a story you won’t hear from a typical microfinance charity: Sankar was a landless, illiterate rickshaw driver, whose wife had Grameen membership. They had borrowed from Grameen Bank a few times – in fact one loan had helped him buy his rickshaw. Suddenly his wife told him they would have…