We often hear calls to “standardize metrics” so that nonprofits’ outcomes can be compared directly to each other. As an example of why we find this idea unpromising, I’d like to review some of our work on the first cause we ever investigated: employment assistance in NYC. We received 19 applications from employment assistance programs…
The GiveWell Blog
Year: 2010
Kiva suspends partnership with large, criticized partner LAPO
Back in December, we expressed concerns about LAPO, one of Kiva‘s largest microfinance partners. Last month, the New York Times ran an article implying criticism of LAPO. Now, Kiva has suspended its partnership with LAPO. A couple of questions this raises: Which of the several objections to LAPO have led to the suspension? Several concerns…
Economic empowerment grant: Mistakes, lessons learned, and steps taken
We’ve just published reviews of all of the organizations that applied for our economic empowerment grant. (Note that we previously announced the grant winners here.) Whenever we publish new charity reviews, we get some push back from charities who aren’t happy that they’ve received a 0-star review. Before we published our economic empowerment reviews, we…
Who needs in-kind donations more: The recipients or the givers?
First it was shoes, then shirts. I don’t have much to add on questions like “Are supplies in fact clogging the roads?” and “Are there in fact people in Africa who don’t wear shirts because they can’t find/afford them?” But to me, the argument against in-kind donations is both simple and general (i.e., it doesn’t…
If you’re worried about high interest rates, you should be worried about any microfinance institution
I’m very interested in the recent debate over microfinance interest rates (see our response to the NYT article, as well as Te-Ping Chen’s comments at Change.org). It seems that realizing how high interest rates can be has been a wake-up call to many that microfinance can easily be doing damage as well as good. If…
Room for more funding and fungibility: From the horse’s mouth
We’ve previously argued that the “headline program” a charity uses to raise money may not be the one you’re effectively funding with donations – even if your donations are formally restricted to that program. (See our full series on the topic). Now the Chronicle of Philanthropy quotes a fundraiser saying exactly the same thing, as…