Is My Money Making a Difference?

One of the biggest advantages of shopping online is instant access to information needed for an informed purchase. Price comparisons and user reviews give online shoppers added confidence that they are getting the best product at the lowest price.

Increasingly, donors desire access to information that allows them to give confidently. About 58% of high-net-worth households said they would make bigger donations to charity if they were able to determine the impact of their gifts, according to research conducted last year by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

In Mary Ellen Podmolik's recent Chicago Tribune article, "Online guide to giving well,” she introduces a new web site that is attempting to make it easier for donors to know if their money is making a difference. Three years ago while looking for a good charity to make a donation to by year's end, Holden Karnofsky wanted to write a check to someone for $5,000, but he didn't know to whom. "The first time I did it, I had no idea where to start," he said. "I went to Google and typed in 'charity.'" Karnofsky thought choosing the best charity should be like selecting any consumer product, using the Internet to comparison shop and find the best use of his $5,000. However, he frequently found himself stonewalled in trying to extract more information from charities.

As a result, Karnofsky and two former colleagues formed GiveWell, a non-profit group that hopes to make the inner workings of charities public by offering them grants and then putting an abundance of information about the charities online. Karnosfky's idea has charities apply for GiveWell's grants, examine the impact of the various groups and then put all that information, along with GiveWell's yeas or nays, online. For its first round of grant-making, 150 charities submitted applications.

Comments

[Holden]

Thanks, Sara.

Looks like I've been discovered committing fraud ...

http://metatalk.metafilter.com/15547/GiveWell-or-Give-em-Hell

Holden