Daily Archives: December 20, 2011

Philanthropic Laziness – Why nobody cares about evaluating nonprofits

Reference:

“Nonprofit Watchdogs: Do They Serve the Average Donor?” (Ram A. Cnaan and Kathleen Jones, Allison Dickin, and Michele Salomon) - published in Nonprofit Management & Leadership #21, 2011, summarized in Stanford Social Innovation Review Volume 10, Number 1, Winter 2012

Key Ideas:

  • So-called nonprofit “watchdog” organizations like GuideStar, Network for Good, Charity Navigator, the Better Business Bureau and the American Institute of Philanthropy exist essentially to provide objective evaluations of nonprofit organizations so donors can make better informed giving decisions. They attempt to create more transparency and attention paid to actual performance and hope that donors will use their ratings of nonprofits to give to the “most deserving”, thus creating a more efficient philanthropic market

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Giving Ego – Should HIV receive so much attention?

Reference:

“Does Global Health Funding Respond to Recipients’ Needs? Comparing Public and Private Donors’ Allocations in 2005-2007″ (Daniel Esser and Kara Keating Bench) - published in World Development #39, 2011, summarized in Stanford Social Innovation Review Volume 10, Number 1, Winter 2012

Key Ideas:

  • There is no question that private foundations, especially large ones like Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are contributing huge sums to fight good causes
  • But, Esser and Bench ask, why do diseases like HIV command so much interest and money by these foundations, although such diseases rarely register as a top national health priority for the affected countries? As an example, HIV/AIDS only contributes to 3% of total disease burden in Asia but was second most highly funded category

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