Hi Ben! I found your account of the MHI shut down in Asterisk Magazine very inspiring.
I’m curious how, in your opinion, a charity culture could be foster in which this kind of courageous decision (shuting down projects that fail to meet the bar) is made more often and more easily, despite all the powerful incentives not to follow the evidence that you mention in the article.
I find that publicly sharing the shut down process plays a role in setting an example and fostering accountability on this matter (I also really liked the post about the Center for Effective Aid Policy shut down). Can you think of other ideas?
Thank you! This is something we’re thinking about at AIM in terms of fostering an openness to shutting down amongst our charities where this makes sense. Strong public examples certainly helps. I think providing evaluation and research support to charities so that they can draw conclusions on impact they’re confident enough in to make shut down decisions makes a differnce.
I also think fostering a culture that places less emphasis on founders as the ultimate driver of success or failure would help. Organisations succeed for a combination of several key reasons—one of which is the talent and skill of the founders—and highlighting some of these other factors more (the idea; the timing; luck!) makes it easier for founders to close an organisation without feeling like it’s a huge personal failure
Hi Ben! I found your account of the MHI shut down in Asterisk Magazine very inspiring.
I’m curious how, in your opinion, a charity culture could be foster in which this kind of courageous decision (shuting down projects that fail to meet the bar) is made more often and more easily, despite all the powerful incentives not to follow the evidence that you mention in the article.
I find that publicly sharing the shut down process plays a role in setting an example and fostering accountability on this matter (I also really liked the post about the Center for Effective Aid Policy shut down). Can you think of other ideas?
Thank you! This is something we’re thinking about at AIM in terms of fostering an openness to shutting down amongst our charities where this makes sense. Strong public examples certainly helps. I think providing evaluation and research support to charities so that they can draw conclusions on impact they’re confident enough in to make shut down decisions makes a differnce.
I also think fostering a culture that places less emphasis on founders as the ultimate driver of success or failure would help. Organisations succeed for a combination of several key reasons—one of which is the talent and skill of the founders—and highlighting some of these other factors more (the idea; the timing; luck!) makes it easier for founders to close an organisation without feeling like it’s a huge personal failure