As a child in the 70s I used to visit the Westgate Library
in Oxford. I have vivid memories of the time I made the transition from the
children’s library (think bright coloured cushions and picture books) to the
main adult library. There were no pictures any more nor different sizes and
thicknesses and certainly no age categories. Instead, endless shelves of book
spines arranged alphabetically by author. How on earth was I supposed to choose
which book to take out?
I can’t remember exactly how I responded the first time.
I do remember the time I adopted a strategy of selecting titles on the basis
that they had bright aqua lettering as a way to narrow down my options.
Needless to say I read a lot of dreadful books. I needed to come up with a
better system of choosing.
The same problem of overwhelming choice can face
donors. There are 160,045 charities in the UK (see link below). How on earth do
you select the ones to support?
I was particularly struck by the similarity when
looking at Aviva’s community award pages. Just for Bristol there were profiles
of over 3,000 local charities all asking for votes to get the £1,000 award
available. To choose, you either need to know one already or have an awful lot
of time on your hands.
To stop being overwhelmed you need some criteria – more
logical than my aqua approach. You can select by size, cause, location. Still
some will be ‘better’ than others e.g. well run, making a big difference,
tackling a difficult social issue, working in collaboration, influencing
change. It is hard to just pull these
out a random so you also need external expertise. Just as with books, charities also win prizes
(e.g. GSK Impact awards) and other funders can act like a
recommendation. Even better is having advice from someone who knows the sector
who effectively acts as your own personal book reviewer: helping you navigate
the choices by matching your preferences to the most effective charities out
there. In CAF’s recent report (see link below) wealthy individual donors valued
receiving professional advice. And, good news for charities, those who took advice
tended to give much more.
Emma
Beeston Consultancy advises philanthropists on giving strategies; selecting
causes and charities; and impact monitoring.
Thanks for the informative article about crowdfunding campaign
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