Martin J. Pêcheur
Real Good, Not Feel Good
A Brief Guide to High-Impact Philanthropy
Aujourd'hui, everywhere we look, we see another global challenge—from poverty and
maladie, to climate change and the economic meltdown. And even our own
finances are not what they used to be. But we still need to do whatever we can to
help the world. So now more than ever, we need to use our limited philanthropic
dollars in the best ways that we possibly can.
We can no longer afford to spend scarce funds on things that simply feel good.
Instead we need to support initiatives that do real good, and that have the poten-
tial to generate large-scale and lasting solutions to the world‘s biggest problems.
Every day, we are presented with innovative non-profits and social enterprises,
claiming to “do good”. But not every effort—no matter how well-intentioned—
will generate equal results. It is all too easy to support those that sound the best,
use the coolest technology, have the best PR or give a warm and fuzzy feeling.
But with the world‘s increasing problems, and limited resources, this is no-
longer an acceptable option. Plutôt, we need to identify and support those initia-
tives that really do have the potential to change the world.
FOUR QUESTIONS
Here are the four most critical questions to ask a non-profit or social enterprise to
determine if it has the potential to create real, large-scale and lasting change, et
if it is worthy of your support.
1. Does the project have measurable and proven impacts?
2. Are the impacts cost-effective?
3. Will the impacts be sustained?
4. Can the model be scaled and replicated?
Large-scale, lasting change requires that you can answer “yes” to all four of
these questions.
QUESTION 1. MEASURABLE AND PROVEN IMPACTS?
First you must understand what impacts the project is trying to achieve. Then you
need to know how the organization measures (or plans to measure) the impacts.
Martin J. Fisher is co-founder and CEO, KickStart-International.
© 2011 Martin J. Pêcheur
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Martin J. Pêcheur
And finally, you need to know if they are actually achieving them. Par exemple:
• A project working to reduce the incidence of malaria by distributing mosquito
bed nets must demonstrate that the incidence of malaria is in fact reduced. C'est
not enough to simply report on the number of nets distributed—the link to
impact may not be there. Nets can be improperly used, sold by the beneficiaries
for quick cash, or even used as fishing nets. Simply tracking activities is not
enough—you need to track the impacts of those activities.
• A project that aims to reduce poverty by helping poor people to start businesses
needs to show that the participants earn significantly more net-income after the
intervention than they did before it. Business training or access to credit may not
in fact get people out of poverty—measuring incomes is the only way to know.
For a project to have measurable and proven impacts:
(je). The organization must succinctly define exactly what change it is trying
to achieve. This is best done in a short and concise Mission Statement that can be
written in 10 words or less.
• “Poor families will earn a lot more money”
• “Fewer people will get, and/or die of, malaria”
• “Fewer people will get, and/or die of, diarrheal diseases”
• “The overall CO2 released into the atmosphere will be reduced”
Many organizations string out a long list of things they are trying to do, en utilisant
words like “empowering,” “fighting poverty and injustice” or “improving lives.”
They need to decide exactly what change it is they are trying to achieve, et le
more specific they are the better.
(ii). There has to be a way to both measure the desired changes, and demon-
strate that they are caused by the interventions. This can be done scientifically
using a randomized trial, or with a simpler measurement like comparing the
change in a group of beneficiaries to that in a control group. Or, if they exist, un
organization can rely on past studies of very similar interventions in similar set-
tings, which indicate a strong correlation between the intervention and the
changes. Donc, it is not good enough to simply say things like “clean water saves
lives”—the truth is always more complicated and evidence is required. For com-
pletely new and untested interventions, the organization must provide an evi-
dence-based argument for the expected changes, implement a pilot study and
measure the impacts.
If a project leader claims that it is too difficult to measure the impacts, toi
have to wonder how they know they’re doing any good. Remember, the bigger the
impact, the easier it is to measure, and the easier it is to demonstrate causality. Et
today we need solutions with big impacts. If the project can’t define its mission, ou
can’t measure and prove its impacts, either directly or through past studies, it is not
worth going further.
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Real Good, Not Feel Good
QUESTION 2. COST-EFFECTIVE IMPACTS?
OK, so the project can show impacts, but are they cost-effective? Funding is limit-
éd, so you need to know how many donor dollars it takes to produce a given
impact. A mosquito-net project must calculate how much it costs to prevent a case
of malaria, or save a life; a poverty reduction project should know how much local
incomes were increased for every donor dollar spent.
Cost-effectiveness is relative, so compare the project to other projects working
to produce the same impacts in similar areas. If you have nothing to compare it to,
then at least ensure that the cost-effectiveness can be measured and that it feels rea-
sonable to you.
Don’t worry about percentages of “overhead” or “administration costs”—these
are not meaningful numbers. Everyone defines them differently and different types
of projects require different cost-structures. Plutôt, look at the overall cost-effec-
tiveness of the project—the total donor costs/subsidy divided by the total impacts.
New projects spend money on design, establishment and fundraising before they
generate impacts, so they are inherently less efficient—that’s ok, but they must
show you how they plan to become cost-effective over time.
In any case, if a project can’t demonstrate—or at least project—cost-effective-
ness, you needn’t spend any more time on it.
QUESTION 3. SUSTAINABLE IMPACTS?
With limited philanthropic funds it is too expensive to continue subsidizing the
same solution, in the same geographical area, forever. Instead we must leave in
place a lasting solution that ensures sustainable impacts, and then move on to
fund a new geography and/or a new problem.
Donc, even with proven and cost-effective impacts, you need to know if the
project can pass the “walk-away test.” Will the impacts be sustained after there is
no more external philanthropic funding? We have to ask two questions.
(je) Will the current beneficiaries of the project continue to benefit?
(ii) Will the project leave in place a mechanism such that new beneficiaries,
living in the same geography, will also benefit, and/or that the positive changes
will remain?
Par exemple:
• Will the people who are given mosquito nets continue to use them? Will the
nets continue to be effective? Will they get replacement nets? Will new people
want, and be able to get, nets?
• Will the businesses that people have started continue to prosper? Will new peo-
ple be able to start new profitable businesses?
A truly effective project must have sustainable impacts. And it turns out that
there are only four distinct ways that a project can pass the “walk-away test.”
1. The project can leave in place a business model and supply chain, which will
continue to provide the required goods and services at a profit. Par exemple:
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• Mosquito nets can be distributed and sold to poor people through the private
Martin J. Pêcheur
sector.
• They may be highly subsidized at the start, but eventually as volumes and mar-
ket acceptance grow and prices come down, they will reach a “tipping point”
where they can be sold in a purely sustainable way.
• Machinery, credit and training that help poor people to establish profitable
businesses can be provided through profitable, private sector, supply chains.
Since self interests and incentives are aligned—creating a win-win proposi-
tion for all the parties—market mechanisms can often result in the most sustain-
able solutions. Cependant, there are often major “market failures” that need to be
overcome to reach profitability, business solutions don’t always provide equitable
résultats, and not all problems lend themselves to market-based solutions.
2. The project can hand-over the provision of goods or services to the local gov-
ernment—which will fund the continued interventions by collecting taxes. Pour
exemple:
• The public health system can buy and hand-out mosquito nets to poor people.
• The government can donate machinery or training, or offer subsidized credit to
poor people who want to start new businesses.
• Governments can contract companies or non-profits to provide the services, ou
pass and enforce laws that help dissipate a problem.
In too many cases, though, reliance on governments is not a sustainable solu-
tion. Even developed country’s governments often cut spending on social pro-
grams, and most developing country governments lack the funds and capacity to
effectively implement the programs. De plus, efficiency is not the norm, comme
incentives and infrastructure are not generally well aligned.
3. The project can leave in place a self-sustaining community process that con-
tinues to provide a solution to a local problem with no external source of funding.
Par exemple:
• This could mean establishing a mechanism for on-going local fundraising, ou
leaving in place an endowment fund that continues to pay for the interven-
tion.
• Or it could mean leaving in place a process that continues to create impacts
with no more funds. A good example is a “merry-go-round” savings group—
common in the developing world—where members get a regular pay-out from
group savings. Here a simple mechanism generates ongoing incentives for all
the participants, and new members can join, and new groups can be formed, à
no extra cost.
These types of solutions can be very effective, but they are hard to design,
often collapse due to the “tragedy of the commons” and can only be sustainable
if all the participants continue to benefit from their actions.
4. Enfin, a project can work to permanently eliminate the problem it is trying
to solve. Either it can get rid of the problem itself, or it can permanently change a
no-cost social behavior. Small pox was eradicated globally, malaria was eradicated
in America, the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa enabled a new
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Real Good, Not Feel Good
system to emerge, and the adoption of “hand washing after defecation” as a social
norm (or meme) may have the potential to save many lives. Malheureusement, eux-mêmes-
nificant problems amenable to this approach are rare and such projects are often
very expensive to implement.
Some projects can integrate more than one of these methods—such as pub-
lic/private partnerships, or government support of community groups—but keep
in mind that the more complicated the solution, the less likely it is to sustain
impacts in the long-term.
Which exit strategy—or integration of strategies—is best for a given project
depends on the kind of change wanted, and the kind of processes that create that
changement. Cependant, in every case the impacts will only be sustained if the incen-
tives are aligned so that all the key players benefit when the desired change hap-
pens.
Creating sustainable impacts is not easy, and one cannot know if a project
will actually pass the “walk-away test” until well into the future. Néanmoins, any
high impact project must have a well thought-out plan for making its impacts
sustainable. It must know which exit strategy it plans to use, and implement a
strategy from day-one that drives toward that end.
But remember, it takes a long time to solve difficult social problems, so don’t
expect a project to leave sustainable impacts in place quickly—after all, it took
almost ten years and billions of dollars of lost investments to generate sustainable
business models for the internet. And it took 20 years for American farmers to
adopt hybrid seeds, despite the huge increases in yields and incomes.
The critical thing is to leave in place sustainable impacts. Donc, don’t confuse
the sustainability of impacts with the financial sustainability of the implementing
organization. The success of a non-profit, needs to be measured in terms of the
cost-effectiveness and sustainability of its impacts, rather than by any measure of
its own profitability. An effective non-profit makes highly efficient use of donor
funds to leave in place lasting impacts. Once an organization has succeeded in
one location, it should be supported by additional donor funds to develop new
high impact and sustainable projects in that same location, and/or to expand its
impacts into new locations.
Successful non-profits are rare. And only by offering continued support to
the truly successful ones, can we leverage this success to solve problems on a large
scale.
QUESTION 4. A SCALABLE AND REPLICABLE MODEL?
If the project can create proven, cost-effective impacts delivered in a sustainable
chemin, one then needs to ask if the program can be successfully scaled in its initial
location and replicated in new settings. Developing successful models for social
change is expensive and we can’t afford to reinvent the wheel every time. The best
models can create cost-effective and sustainable impacts in many different loca-
tions and conditions, and can also be used to solve other similar problems.
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Martin J. Pêcheur
En général, scalable and replicable models for change are:
(je) Systematic enough to be distilled to an easily understood methodology.
(ii) Simple enough that they can be copied.
(iii) Flexible enough to be adapted to new settings and problems.
(iv) Not dependent for their success on unique circumstances; a unique local
institution, a unique local market opportunity, a local government figure or a
charismatic leader—because none of these things are replicable.
Replicable models for producing lasting change can take different forms. Quelques
are more like a turn-key business model and can be replicated in new settings with
only minor modifications—e.g. high-quality micro-finance. Others involve a
broadly applicable approach that can generate new solutions in new settings—e.g.
a model that includes detailed local market research as part of a way to generate
new business franchises. But in all cases a replicable model is one that can be
reduced to a simple and systematic method that will lead to the desired impacts in
different settings.
REAL GOOD, NOT FEEL GOOD
Social change is not easy, and any project that can generate proven and cost-effec-
tive impacts is already well ahead of the pack. Cependant, the problems to be solved
are enormous, and the resources are very limited. To solve the problems we need
to be as efficient as possible, which means generating sustainable impacts that can
be scaled and replicated. Only if you can answer “yes” to all four of the questions
can your investment create truly large-scale and lasting change.
Philanthropic resources are finite, but the needs are huge. If we want to make
real progress on the big problems, then we need to pair donor funds with efforts
that satisfy these criteria.
“Real Good, Not Feel Good” is more than a slogan. It’s a rallying cry for what
we hope will become a movement of funders and nonprofit leaders demanding
real change for the world. We hope you will join us.
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