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Tuesday Sep 12, 2006
Intelligent Giving
If you've ever thought that there isn't enough information available about what charities actually do, then Intelligent Giving might prove to be the answer. Their researchers (see their blog, The Charity Sleuths) are looking through charity annual reports in order to compile a comprehensive website providing everything that a potential donor needs to know.
I asked David Pitchford from Intelligent Giving about the project.
How did the Intelligent Giving project come about?
Like most things, a combination of factors, including:
- An obsessive donor (Dave Pitchford) who thinks people should give more and who wants to know how to choose between charities.
- An appetite for researching and comparing charities - inside and outside the sector - that wasn't there even five years ago.
- A sufficiently populated online environment making a collaborative web site possible.
- Support from several wealthy and influential people who also want to see the work done
What's the idea behind it and how will the website work?
The primary function of the site is to make people more interested in, and inclined towards, giving. We hope to do this by hauling charities off their pedestals and into the same environment as all other services in society - subject to the same analysis, comparison and comment.
We'll do this by extracting a variety of criteria from the charities' annual reports and
highlighting and discussing them in reviews.
We will also provide a very wide range of guidance on giving, from how to
donate your mobile phone to how make the most of community foundations. There will be features and opinionated articles from experts too. And questionnaires. The style is that of a fairly lightweight consumer magazine.
How is it funded?
Peter Heywood, an ebusiness entrepreneur who co-founded lightreading.com is paying for most of it. Volunteers' contributions represent probably 20% of the work. And the Bromley by Bow Community Centre's Beyond the Barn organisation has helped out with a range of equipment and training. We're very cheap. We'll probably spend £140,000 this year.
How many people are working on it?
It varies from month to month. Normally the office has seven people in it, two full-time. Most are interns fresh from Oxford or Cambridge.
What interesting findings have you made so far?
There's a long list, ranging from the generally dismal reporting by religious charities, the generally good reporting by international aid charities, the sensitivity of the sector to the publication of salaries, to our conclusion that very few charities duplicate each others' work. The Advertising Standards Authority might be interested in some of the claims we've found.
When will the site launch?
1 November 2006, unless the office goes down with a cold.
Posted by Tom Green ( 11:57 AM ) Link to this post Comments[2]
I can see this whole idea frightening the more conservative, older charities who are used to being unchallenged and who may see this as the undignified riff-raff sticking their beaks in. If so, great!
Posted by Dom on September 12, 2006 at 03:30 PM GMT+00:00 #
I'm all for being challenged by donors and potential donors but these kind of sites need to make sure they do their research well, that they have the most up-to-date information, and don't simply make assumptions based on topline information provided in annual reviews.
Posted by Sarah on September 19, 2006 at 04:09 PM GMT+00:00 #