{"items": [{"author": "Hollis", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/298740083553630?comment_id=298758520218453", "anchor": "fb-298758520218453", "service": "fb", "text": "(caveat lector: I work for a small local non-profit organization)
Nobody pays small non-profits to create evidence of impact. In fact, most grant-funded organizations are funded by grants that have very specific limitations on what the funds can be used for--and meaningful evaluation of results and impact is usually not on the approved list (at least in NY). That leaves private donations--but many smaller organizations have very few private donations and no money with which to pay staff to go find private donors. We aren't even allowed to spend money advertising our (free) services here at the suicide hotline because all of our money has to be used on direct services for clients. We can't have any purely executive/administrative staff because none of our grants permit it.
My point is that there are lots of worthy smaller organizations that meet your standards but can't *prove* that they meet your standards, just as there are lots of small farms that are \"organic-style\" but not USDA Organic because of the regulatory hurdles and expense of certification.
Would I love to have the funding to do impact studies? Absolutely. Does it drive me nuts that I have to rely on client and provider anecdotes for data about how we're doing, and that I can't meaningfully assess our clout in the more rural communities in our county? For sure. Do I desperately wish I had $2000 to take out an ad in one of the local papers saying that we have this free service that can help people past thoughts of suicide, find them free housing, get them services they need, and do a bunch of other stuff for free? Yep. But in a rural area without large foundations or wealthy private donors, we're dependent on grant funding--and grant funding doesn't cover those.", "timestamp": "1338348518"}, {"author": "David Chudzicki", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/298740083553630?comment_id=298770606883911", "anchor": "fb-298770606883911", "service": "fb", "text": "I guess we should be trying to convince grant-givers not only to allow money to help with transparency/evaluation, but to insist on it.", "timestamp": "1338350178"}, {"author": "Erica", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/298740083553630?comment_id=298927426868229", "anchor": "fb-298927426868229", "service": "fb", "text": "I suspect that Hollis finds that $100 donated to his suicide prevention organization goes farther than $100 to some of the larger flashier non-profits that advertise after a tragedy about how you should donate to them.", "timestamp": "1338377630"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/298740083553630?comment_id=298966026864369", "anchor": "fb-298966026864369", "service": "fb", "text": "@Hollis: I don't understand why your grant givers are so restrictive. Do they think that there money goes further if you don't know which things you're doing are the most effective? And why restrict advertising, assuming your service is currently under capacity. Are you funded by the government, foundations, or what?
Instead of being frustrated by the difficulty of securing private donations, have you considered becoming a private donor? Working for whatever company will make you the most money and then donating the difference between your current and previous salaries to whatever charity you think is doing the most good? This lets you give unrestricted funding to organizations you trust to do the best they can with it, and can do a lot to help them get around overly restrictive funding.
Separately, while there may be many worthy smaller organizations that might meet my standards, how would I find them? You may tell me that your suicide prevention organization is doing a good job, but so will people working for most charities across the country. If you could show that the amount you were making lives better, per dollar, beats deworming [1] or anti-malarial-net distribution [2] I would find that convincing. That's a very high standard, but I think it's the right one from my perspective. (If you did a study, do you think that's what you would find?)
[1] http://givewell.org/international/top-charities/SCI
[2] http://givewell.org/international/top-charities/AMF", "timestamp": "1338382878"}]}