The Charitable Measurement Initiative: 11/19/07

Welcome to the Charitable Measurement Initiative!

The Charitable Measurement Initiative is a collaboration of people and organizations that are deeply committed to the belief that social change organizations can mobilize significant new and better investment if they are able to implement a measurement reporting framework that credibly communicates their real impact to donors. The Initiative is directed by GiveIndia and calls on the resources of pilot program partners Keystone Accountability, Global Giving, and New Philanthropy Capital, as well as many other organizations committed to social welfare.

The process began when we decided to combine our previous experiences in humanitarian and charitable work with our current work as corporate lawyers. We sought to find a group in India that was looking to incorporate capital markets/securities concepts in reporting and analysis to create more valuable and transparent information.

Thankfully, we were put in touch with GiveIndia. Give discussed the idea of running a pilot program implementing the Keystone framework developed by Keystone Accountability to see if we could help organizations more clearly articulate the outcomes they wanted and better communicate their actual results to donors. This was exactly what we were hoping to do and gladly agreed to donate a year of time to making this work.

While we were in London, Give put us in touch with Keystone Accountability and New Philanthropy Capital. After many meetings throughout the spring and summer, we arrived at our joint creation – the Charitable Measurement Initiative – and a plan as to how we would seek to help NGOs in India become more transparent, responsive, and efficient, as well as help donors become more engaged and involved.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Social Exchanges

I’ve read a couple recent articles from Mohammed Yunnis, in which he is calling on the development of social stock exchanges. He supports both the creation of platforms for companies that are spending resources on charitable pursuits, as well as listing civil society organizations that do “good.”

Thankfully, people have created many such social investment exchanges. In addition to GiveIndia, there are several online social investment exchanges. These groups do a phenomenal job and work longer hours than many bankers and lawyers I know to help civil society organizations. So if you are inclined to give, these are all reliable.

1. Bring Light www.bringlight.com

2. CanadaHelps: www.canadahelps.org

3. Changing the Present : www.changingthepresent.org

4. Charity Aid Foundation: www.cafonline.org

5. Conexion Colombia: www.conexioncolombia.com

6. DonorEdge www.donoredge.org

7. DonorsChoose: www.donorschoose.org

8. Give2Asia: www.give2asia.org

9. Give India: www.giveindia.org

10. GlobalGiving: www.globalgiving.com

11. Greater Good South Africa: www.greatergoodsa.co.za

12. Help Argentina: www.helpargentina.org