10 Multiplier Effects that make charitable donations go further in education
This week I've been thinking about how to create multiplier effects around charitable donations. In our partnership work among schools and charities in the North East, we benefit from generous funding from foundations, businesses and philanthropists to achieve the goals of raising attainment, aspiration and opportunities for the young people of the region. However, as with any charitable giving, our challenge as a charity is to make each pound go as far as possible.
At its most fundamental level, the whole point of giving donations to charities is that they can do more with the money towards a particular mission than we could ourselves. So, however donors want to acheive meaningful impact in the world - whether that be to end homelessness, cure cancer or to raise literacy levels for example - they are often best served by giving to those charities who can grow each pound they donate. The very best charities can make £1 + £1 = much more than £2. How is this done?
In the excellent book, 'It ain't what you give, it's the way that you give it', Caroline Fiennes unpacks the idea of multipliers, which she describes as one of the most misunderstood aspects of the charity sector. It is illustrated memorably (below) as 'donation depletion' v 'donation amplification':
Fiennes shows that the best charities to donate to are those that add value to the original donation - they are donation amplifiers. This added value can be done in a range of ways and I have been reflecting on how we do this through our educational work in the North East, and how we might do it better.
10 Multiplier Effects
1. Volunteers
Many charities rely on volunteers. In fact, some can rely on many hundreds and even thousands to provide their time free of charge on a regular basis. Hence, Volunteer Coordinators are worth their weight in gold. When donating to a charity with a strong volunteer base, you are effectively drawing on an army to work towards your chosen cause, to which you would otherwise have no access. In partnership work between schools, we can do this through student volunteering, or Service, as we call it. Service is usually carried out by willing Sixth Formers, and when done well, can make a huge impact. For example, our Voluntary Service Readers reach hundreds of primary age children on a weekly basis, using their training to enhance the reading progress among those who wouldn't normally be read to or listened to read at home. Furthermore, they provide positive role models and a way for young people to see possible future pathways.
'You can't be what you can't see'
We do something similar in our Bright Sparks sessions, were Sixth Form mathematicians act like TAs among the groups of Y9/10s we gather for mornings of stretch and challenge beyond the syllabus. It should be said that the volunteers themselves gain a great deal from these kind of experiences - yet another positive amplification of resource dedicated to this kind of activity: win-win.
2. Local knowledge, relationships and wider networks
One of the main benefits of giving to charities is of course their knowledge of the problem, whether that be through direct relationships with the beneficiaries, or through the cumulative know-how of their organisations and networks. I know that I have benefited greatly from the time and knowledge of my colleagues and peers both locally and nationally in growing partnership work. When donors give towards our funded Partnership Teacher model, they don't only pay for the teacher, they are paying for the accumulated expertise and support of the network and the sector at large. It is up to the charity to leverage this as much as possible and to give back to the network in return. The monthly Breakfast Briefings hosted by Christina Astin are an excellent example of this kind of Sharing of Best Practice and knowledge. We also have a national hub project in STEM in the pipeline - watch this space!
3. Experience and proof of concept
The spiral model of experience feeding into improvements and so refining future delivery can not be underestimated. We must be able to articulate where we are on the journey with each project or mission. It may be that a pioneering donor would like to give to experimental pilots exploring the Art of the Possible, but there will be others who need to see Proof of Concept before getting involved - this depends on the quality of Impact Evaluation that is 'baked in', as explained later in this list. When giving to a charity, we are also drawing on their hard-won experience in the ground.
4. Encouraging other donors
If we can get key donors on board, this can often encourage others to give. We can then initiate a virtuous circle of philanthropy, in which each donor, whether they be giving money, time, or in-kind, feels part of a wider community striving towards the same cause and gaining confidence in their impact through the confidence of the group as a whole. This is the sweet spot - and one we would love to leverage further!
5. Ripple effects and amplification of the mission
One of the key reasons people don't give to charity is that they feel a sense of donation depletion (see Fiennes illustration above). This can manifest as a feeling that all the money and time should go directly on the end beneficiary. However, there are causes that might be better served by system-level impact. This speaks to the famous Tutu quote:
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.” ― Desmond Tutu
in education, policy change at a national level can have deep impact across millions of children, which even the best of projects can't hope to achieve with more focused funds. Any time we can afford to system-level change may well be time well spent, although it won't be as glamorous or as easy to point out in terms of 'bang per buck'. Much of the funding to HE and academia takes this form, effectively paying for the best minds to direct their intellectual energy to a particular area or problem.
6. Bulk discounts and economies of scale
This does was it says on the tin. A good procurement officer can make smart decisions around purchases that just can't be leveraged at a smaller scale. Similarly, the administration of Gift Aid and other direct financial benefits must not be underestimated - this is perhaps the most obvious, but often forgotten, way that charities can multiply donations from the outset.
7. Infrastructure
When donating through a school, or a larger charity, the infrastructure of the organisation can cover many small things, but these small things add up and facilitate ambitious aims and projects. Think: office space, IT support, WiFi, stationary, ...the list goes on, all marginal advantages at scale.
8. Impact Evaluation
For me, this is the big one, and the driving factor behind this blog to begin with - how can we show to donors and stakeholders that our work is having impact? Robust Impact Evaluation is fundamental to getting value for money and to create that virtuous circle of confidence in the whole endeavour: creating momentum by demonstrating and telling the story of past success. As one trustee of a foundation told me recently, when asking for a certain format of Impact Reporting - we want to know what we bought for our money and how you know. Not all donors will be as frank, but they probably should be - charitable funds are like gold dust in the current economic climate, and if charities can't show solid results, the money may well go to another charity that can multiply these valuable funds, and rightly so.
9. Technology
The education sector has undergone something of a communal upskilling revolution due to lockdown teaching and learning. We have expertise across the sector that was achieved, in some cases overnight, as necessity became the mother of invention. Where tech can be harnessed well, efficiencies can often follow. Think of the travel costs to meeting partner schools that I now don't need to do as often, as a zoom call can capture a whole network in one go... Or the Hybrid delivery models we employ in Further Maths GCSE Webinars, Latin Distance Teaching and much more: the game has changed and we need to show donors that we are making the most of these leaps in technological capability.
10. The Admin Paradox
Finally, as Fiennes shows in the book and through the Giving Evidence website, funders should be more wary of charities that have little admin function, rather than those with more.
"Admin includes systems for capturing learning, for improving, for reducing costs. It’s spending on those things which enables good performance. Scrimping on them is often a false economy."
It has been shown that those who spend more in admin, often still a small percentage of income, can harness all of the Multiplier effects in their sector, and more besides.
Well that's my top 10, what have I missed?
References
It ain't what you give, it's the way that you give it. Fiennes (2012)
Giving Evidence website.
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