We all want the good guys to win -- but who are the good guys?
Susan Restler, Non Executive Director Echo Research Inc. and President of Knowledge in the Public Interest

The February 25 issue of The Economist magazine features an analysis of The Business of Giving: A Survey of Wealth and Philanthropy. Author Matthew Bishop looks at the exponential growth in private or individual wealth -- and what some of these newly-minted superrich are doing with their largesse.

What interests Bishop is how many of these "winners" are turning their substantial wealth towards "philanthrocapitalism." Jeff Skoll, the founding president of eBay, is quoted as saying that the mission of his eponymous foundation is "to advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs." And the founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have also set up a philanthropy funded by the search engine's equity and profits -- one they hope will eventually "eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems."

But the challenge for philanthrocapitalists is to figure out where their resources can make the most difference. Bishop writes,

Many people are wary of rich folk bearing gifts, suspecting some of them of having hidden business or political motives, or feeling guilty about how they have made their pile, or simply enjoying an ego trip fueled by generous tax breaks. But there could also be plenty of innocent and admirable reasons why the rich have become to much more open-handed. Never mind the motives: the important thing is to ensure that this largesse is put to good use.

In the U.K, this is what led to the creation of New Philanthropy Capital in 2001. Founders Gavyn Davies and Peter Wheeler, former Goldman Sachs partners, found that when they "tried to pin down the best place for their money to create maximum impact, there wasn't enough information produced in a hard-headed, independent, high quality way, made available to all."

So who are the good guys -- the social entrepreneurs and organizations who are effectively and efficiently delivering on critical missions? We think that this is the toughest and most important question for us to answer because it holds the key to nothing less than changing the world. Philanthropists and philanthropies have been seeking better evaluative data for some time now. However, at the risk of overstating the problem, we have been measuring the measurable indicators -- but not the most important. We all want to measure outcomes (decreased recidivism, increased graduation rates, etc.) but sometimes this is hard, or unfairly premature. We need to look at process, and disaggregate and distinguish between unique and generic variables.

This is why we at KPI are so interested in seeing practitioners increase the range of work they do in virtual collaborations. The digital paper trail of their interactions created as they interact to solve problems and make decisions constitutes a new form of qualitative research data. It can be mined to not only help us to see and understand who the good guys are, but also to show us how to make more programs and practitioners into good guys. It is only one avenue that needs to be pursued -- but to us it is the most important because it is the most promising one at hand.

Posted by Susan Restler in News & Views on March 23, 2006 11:55 AM