Yeah have thought for some time extremely promising. One of the biggest issue here I think is cheap distribution—NGOs know how to waste money on this front… Even a CE charity which had the aim of demonstrating how to do it on the cheap, and driving down costs could a good shout?
I think you’re right re: cheap distribution. My guess is it would be hard for a new charity to beat VisionSpring, who have been executing on this strategy for a while and have the resources (~300 staff, $15M grant from MacKenzie Scott, etc), the results to show for it (e.g. 1.9 million eyeglasses distributed last year with 535 partners, etc), and “expansion plans” secured (e.g. their new $70M flagship project to screen 8M workers over the next 5-7 years based on the PROSPER RCT). Their 2022 financial summary (page 17) claims to have distributed 1.52 million eyeglasses for $11.9M in total expenses i.e. ~$7.80 per eyeglasses, nearly half opex (mgmt ops, fundraising, program & sales ops) and ~2/3rds of the remainder program delivery costs, although the expenses were inflated by the delivery of ~1.3 mil “covid safety materials” (PPEs etc) so I’d guess the true figure is closer to $5-6 per eyeglasses all-inclusive.
Yeah have thought for some time extremely promising. One of the biggest issue here I think is cheap distribution—NGOs know how to waste money on this front… Even a CE charity which had the aim of demonstrating how to do it on the cheap, and driving down costs could a good shout?
I think you’re right re: cheap distribution. My guess is it would be hard for a new charity to beat VisionSpring, who have been executing on this strategy for a while and have the resources (~300 staff, $15M grant from MacKenzie Scott, etc), the results to show for it (e.g. 1.9 million eyeglasses distributed last year with 535 partners, etc), and “expansion plans” secured (e.g. their new $70M flagship project to screen 8M workers over the next 5-7 years based on the PROSPER RCT). Their 2022 financial summary (page 17) claims to have distributed 1.52 million eyeglasses for $11.9M in total expenses i.e. ~$7.80 per eyeglasses, nearly half opex (mgmt ops, fundraising, program & sales ops) and ~2/3rds of the remainder program delivery costs, although the expenses were inflated by the delivery of ~1.3 mil “covid safety materials” (PPEs etc) so I’d guess the true figure is closer to $5-6 per eyeglasses all-inclusive.