Digital Archive....

End poverty by giving the poor cash? Chris Blattman If you've been following my recent posts and papers on giving cash to the poor, three things that may interest you: First, we've put out a 3-page policy note with the World Bank on one Uganda cash transfer program. Here is an IPA policy note on a second study, of cash transfers to poor women in Uganda. Second, today  the New York Times Economix blog posted excerpts of an interview with me about both experiments on giving cash to the poor. Last, in a strange coincidence of timing, yesterday the FAI blog posted excepts of a similar interview from last year . The post End poverty by giving the poor cash? appeared first on Chris Blattman . Sent with Reeder Met vriendelijke groet, Best regards, Henk J.Th. Van Stokkom

Putting the 'fun' back into fundraising Global development news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk Chugging – street fundraising – turns members of the public into prey, releasing adrenalin that triggers fight or flight instincts. It'll take a little more imagination to create behaviour change It's a beautiful day and as I walk down a busy street, I'm feeling good. I'm in control. But then I get the feeling that I'm being watched, that I've been caught in a predator's gaze. Looking around, I see her – a chugger. I begin to weigh up my options (walk faster; pretend to be on the phone; find another way across) when the worst thing possible happens. We make eye contact. Now confrontation is inevitable, as are the lies I must invariably tell to get out of this situation: "Sorry, do you have two minutes?" "No", I answer. Her senses are sharp and she can tell I am uncertain, so presses on: "Have you hear...

The Best and Worst Way to Pick a Charity Ken's Commentary Experts have noted that a one dimensional focus on nonprofit finances, if not supplemented by other information, can lead a donor/social investor to make the wrong decision as to which nonprofit they support. Except in extreme cases, we think that is correct. In addition, experts have noted that an overemphasis on overhead is misleading. We agree and always have. We further believe that the most critical dimension in evaluating a nonprofit has to do with achieving meaningful results. It is in that spirit that we jointly signed on to today's press release about overhead, with the BBB Wise Giving Alliance and Guidestar. On the other hand, we do not agree with those that say there is no place for overhead in evaluating charities. That is why we think that many of Dan Pallotta's arguments are extreme and "dead wrong." I have more detailed explanations of my many disagreement...

Development Impact Bonds – a new business model for development? Owen abroad On June 5th we published for consultation a draft of our report on Development Impact Bonds , a new way of bringing together the public and private sector to invest in development.  The New York Times has an excellent explainer about the idea: You are a health official in Uganda, and you're watching a crisis unfold. Your people have long suffered from epidemics of sleeping sickness, one of Africa's biggest killers. There is no vaccine and the only treatment is protracted and painful. Sleeping sickness, transmitted by the tsetse fly, is carried by cattle and also kills cattle, destroying the livelihoods of families who keep them. … Governments and international aid donors sometimes like to call the work they do to improve people's lives "investing." Uganda's problem is an example. In a figurative sense, treating those cattle is an investment — a very good o...

Aligning Interests in Impact Investing SSIR Opinion & Analysis By Daniel Izzo The structure of a traditional venture capital fund provides two sources of revenues to fund managers. The first is the management fee, which covers the costs of the team, the investment processes, and the monitoring of portfolio companies. It is calculated as a fraction of the total amount invested in the fund and is paid monthly to the management company. The second form of compensation is the carry cost. Early in the life of the fund, the manager and the investors agree on a minimum expected annual financial return. If the return is exceeded, a portion (usually about 20 percent) of the excess amount is due to fund managers as success fee. This is a structure that has worked relatively well when the objective of the fund is solely financial return. There is a clear alignment of interests between investors and managers: Both sides want to maximize the financial return on ...

World's Shortest Analyst Report The Big Picture       Hat tip Mike P   Sent with Reeder Met vriendelijke groet, Best regards, Henk J.Th. Van Stokkom