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Giving Games. February 11, 2014. Presented by Jon Behar Director of Philanthropy Education at The Life You Can Save. My life in finance. Assets under management. My job satisfaction. 2001. 2010. Living the dream….
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Giving Games February 11, 2014 Presented by Jon Behar Director of Philanthropy Education at The Life You Can Save
My life in finance Assets under management My job satisfaction 2001 2010
How and where should we direct our resources? What should we try to achieve? Time Money Experience Skills Networks ?
Styles of Giving • Reactive giving • Often in response to a direct request or to a familiar and/ or highly publicized need • Few concerns about accountability or outcomes • Proactive giving • Uses strategic trade-offs to allocate scarce resources • Requires reflection as to what you want to achieve • Informed by information about causes and individual charities
How to make good giving easier • Push information about great charities and giving resources • Provide relevant, high quality information to use in decision making • Make giving a fun, social experience • …and let people give for FREE!
Who is a philanthropist? “A philanthropist is anyone who gives anything—time, money, experience, skills, and networks—in any amount, to create a better world.” Laura Arrillaga-Andreesen Author of Giving 2.0 Founder and Board Chairman of Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
Psychological biases • Scope Insensitivity: Donors don’t respond to the scale of the problem • Identifiable victim effect: • Tangible victims are more evocative • than statistical victims. • Psychic numbing: Thinking about • suffering, particularly large scale suffering, desensitizes people. • Parochialism: Donors are more willing to help victims they’re similar to (e.g. shared race or nationality) regardless of need
Room for improvement We know that individual donors… • Give huge amounts of money • Do very little research into their giving • Are hard-wired not to give to the most pressing causes But they can achieve more good by increasing… • Number of dollars donated • Historically steady at ~2% of GDP • Average impact per dollar • Huge variation across charities • Re-allocating giving is “free”
The economics of Giving Games • Default option: $500 to Charity A, $500 to charity B • Leveraged option: • 2 Giving Games @ $500 = $1,000 • 10 participants per game = 20 people reached • $1,000 annual giving per person • Result: $1,000 still split between Charities A + B, with an additional potential to influence $20,000 of giving in the first year alone.
“So how do you get paid to do this?” Possible business models: • Non-profit startup • For-profit startup • Grad school
Partnership- my preferred model • Advantages of partnership • Access to funding • Ready-built team • Credibility/reputation • Disadvantages of partnership • It takes two to tango • Crucial to find the right fit
April 2012: The Pilot Giving Game • The audience: Princeton undergrads • The organizers: Giving What We Can: Princeton • The results: Outstanding!
Direct feedback from players In response to the question “Has this experience changed how you think about giving?” “Yes it has made me more aware of the impact of charities and donations.” “I will think about implications a lot more- there’s a lot more to consider than I thought.” “It was interesting to learn about ‘Give Well’- I’ll base my choices more on organizations like it.”
An “organization” designed for leverage • Team: A global network of GG organizers • Giving What We Can • The High Impact NetworK (THINK) • Philanthropy educators • Giving researchers • Anyone else who’d listen to me • Infrastructure • Donor advised fund (for record keeping) • Website: apaththatsclear.com • Online GGs
A Path That’s Clear… but bumpy You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill I will choose a path that's clear I will choose freewill
Taking stock at the end of 2012 • What APTC had accomplished • 13 Giving Games in 3 countries (US, UK, Kenya) • 101 participants in hour long GGs • 965 total GG participants • Network of experienced facilitators • What APTC still needed • A sustainable plan for the future
The Life You Can Save • TLYCS: a movement of people fighting extreme poverty
Personal best- a way to do better • Why it works • Expands our comfort zones • Sets ambitious goals, but realistic ones • How it can be applied to giving • Gathering more information to make our decisions • Challenging ourselves to give more, or give more effectively • Taking more time to enjoy the satisfaction of giving
How APTC and TLYCS fit together Natural pyramid of “asks”
How will this Giving Game work? • Learn about three of The Life You Can Save’s top recommended charities • Group discussion about which is the best giving opportunity • Vote on where to donate $500 in real money • First place: $300 • Second place: $150 • Third place $50 • TLYCS will sponsor the donation
Fistula Foundation believes no woman should endure a life of misery and isolation simply for trying to bring a child into this world.
What is a fistula? Obstetric fistulais a childbirth injury caused by prolonged, unrelieved obstructed labor that renders a woman incontinent – an injury that can only be treated through surgery.
What happens when there’s no doctor? • More than 75% of women with fistula have endured labor lasting three days or more. • Their babies likely die, and they are often left with a fistula which renders them incontinent
The 21st Century’s Lepers “Maternal health is woefully neglected and those suff eringfistulas are completely voiceless – young, female, poor, rural, and ostracized. They are the 21st century’s lepers.” Nicholas Kristof The New York Times
Still a widespread problem • Up to half a million women suffer from fistula • Tens of thousands of new cases each year • Less than half of new cases are treated • Fistula is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
The Fistula Foundation’s role • Started by supporting Ethiopian hospital with 90% successful surgery rate • Surgeries to repair fistula cost only ~$450 • Partners with and funds local health care professionals after rigorous screening • Now working in 19 countries in Asia and Africa
What program for school-age kids could… • Reduce school absenteeism by 25% • Lead to 4% more total years of schooling • Give participants a 6% higher likelihood of reporting being in “very good” health as young adults • Over the long-term, increase adult wage earnings by 23%
The facts about worms • Small parasitic worms live in peoples’ intestines and urinary tracts • Worm infections lead to anemia and malnourishment • 300 million people suffer severe illness, and over half are school aged children.
The solution: de-worming at schools • Thorough coverage reaches entire generations • One treatment addresses many of the most problematic diseases • Well-tested, well-understood intervention
All for spare change. Literally. • The total cost per child is less that 50 cents per year! • Rated as a “best buy” in both education and health
GiveDirectly is focused exclusivelyon giving to the poorest possiblehouseholds at the lowest possiblecost.
How does it work? • You donate through their website. • They locate poor households in Kenya. • Your donation is transferred electronically to a recipient's cell phone. • The recipient uses the transfer to pursue his or her own goals.
Impact • Households can use the money for whatever is most important to them. • Common uses include: • installing a tin roof • buying food • paying education and medical expenses • starting or expanding businesses (e.g. rearing chickens, or vending goods)
Where does the money go? • Total of $1,000 over one to two years per recipient household, or $200 per household member for the average household. • Grants sized to be well-understood, and fair.
Discussion about who to give to Fistula Foundation? Deworm the World? Give Directly?
Q&A The Life You Can Save