Thanks for this—I donated. Although I support better measures to minimize leakage, it seems plausible to me that OFTW’s theory of impact just can’t be measured as confidently as that of many other organizations in this space. Effective-giving outreach to university students, who generally have no/little income in the short run, strikes me as prone to measurement difficulties. In contrast, I’d expect that most impact for a small-country effective giving organization flows through the organization (so the donors secure the relevant tax advantages).
We should probably allow some impact credit for raising awareness of a problem + an effective action in response, even if there is no discernable effect in the measurement period. For example, I think attending something like an Oxfam Hunger Banquet during the first semester of college deserves some non-trivial amount of credit for my own giving, but the organizers will never account for that in a cost-effectiveness analysis. But I find it difficult to decide how much credit to assign for generating awareness / change in attitudes that has not (and may never) blossom into effective action.
Thanks for this—I donated. Although I support better measures to minimize leakage, it seems plausible to me that OFTW’s theory of impact just can’t be measured as confidently as that of many other organizations in this space. Effective-giving outreach to university students, who generally have no/little income in the short run, strikes me as prone to measurement difficulties. In contrast, I’d expect that most impact for a small-country effective giving organization flows through the organization (so the donors secure the relevant tax advantages).
We should probably allow some impact credit for raising awareness of a problem + an effective action in response, even if there is no discernable effect in the measurement period. For example, I think attending something like an Oxfam Hunger Banquet during the first semester of college deserves some non-trivial amount of credit for my own giving, but the organizers will never account for that in a cost-effectiveness analysis. But I find it difficult to decide how much credit to assign for generating awareness / change in attitudes that has not (and may never) blossom into effective action.