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Cash or Food? How to make the most impact when donating (Montgomery News)

Read the full article on Montgomery News.

Excerpt:

"...the center took the position that conventional food drives do not adequately match family needs or provide good nutrition, and recommended making monetary donations to food banks, rather than food donations."

Experts list most helpful charities in Mercer area (NJ.com)

Read the full article on the NJ.com website.

Excerpt:

The Center for High Impact Philanthropy’s giving guide is written for people who “seek to optimize the social impact of their philanthropic activities,” the center’s website says.

The other areas on which its recommended charities focus include redesigning schools for better living, helping new teachers succeed, delivering life-saving medical treatments to children, moving the poorest out of poverty, and improving health in the world’s poorest communities.

High-impact holiday giving can make a big difference (Newsworks-WHYY)

Read the full article on Newsworks.org.

Excerpt:

"There's a whole network of food banks across the country that can now take advantage of large surpluses of food that the food sector--grocery stores, farmers, food packagers--will donate. The network of food banks just need to charge a small handling fee in order to distribute that,” Rosqueta said. “So that's 10 to 20 cents for a pound of food and at retail that same pound of food would probably cost us about $2."

A Guide for High Impact Holiday Giving (Positive Impact Magazine)

Read the full article on Positive Impact Magazine.

Excerpt:

”High Impact Holiday Giving” addresses ways to give to provide emergency food for hungry families, give children a strong start in life with nurse home-visitation programs,keep families healthy, redesign schools for better learning, help new teachers succeedand support literacy. Others deliver life-saving interventions, help people move from poverty to self-sufficiency, fund sustainable agriculture and support community-based primary healthcare systems.

“No matter if you have $10 or a million dollars to donate, our guide is designed to help donors get more bang for their charitable bucks by highlighting models that have proven to be highly successful at a reasonable cost,” Katherina Rosqueta, the Center’s executive director, said.

Give cash or canned food for the holiday season? (Deseret News)

Read the full story on the Deseret News website.

Excerpt:

Charity organizations benefit from economies of scale. Organizations can purchase food for pennies on the dollar because they buy in bulk. They also cut down on processing costs of receiving assortments of food by buying their own.

Also, if the food given is packaged in standardized boxes, the Center for High Impact Philanthropy says that as much as half of it will go uneaten. High sodium soups may go to people with high blood pressure and a bag of peanuts might go to those with nut allergies.

Personal checks are easier for charities to process compared to foodstuff and give the charity the resources to do what it knows about best — helping others.

Canning Food Drives? (OPB, Think Out Loud)

Listen to the show on the Oregon Public Broadcasting website.

Excerpt:

Rosqueta says that when consumers buy food at retail prices and then donate it to a food bank, they're actually spending more money than they need to be. That's because food banks can often buy food in bulk at a lower price. But according to Patti Whitney-Wise, executive director of the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force, many food banks rely on both food and monetary donations. And a representative from the Oregon Food Bank says that donations from the public allow them to distribute products that are difficult to get through other channels.

Are food drives a bad idea? (MSN Money)

Read the full story on the MSN Money website.

Excerpt:

Do the math

If you think it through, it makes sense, even before you add up the dollars and cents. Buying in bulk is almost always cheaper than purchasing single cans and boxes. And many, but not all, food banks and pantries can get food at a fraction of the retail cost.

An emergency food provider might pay as little as 10 cents per pound for food that would cost you $2 a pound at the grocery store, Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, told Slate.

As Rosqueta and John Arnold, a former executive director of Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank, wrote in an opinion piece last month for the Los Angeles Times:

"In the true spirit of the season, if you really want to help such vulnerable families, go to your local food bank (or Feeding America to find one near you). Then take the money you would have used to buy cans for food drives and donate it to that local pantry. Fewer families will go hungry."

Can the Cans: Why food drives are a terrible idea. (Slate)

Read the full article on Slate.com.

Excerpt:

All across America, charitable organizations and the food industry have set up mechanisms through which emergency food providers can get their hands on surplus food for a nominal handling charge. Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, explains that food providers can get what they need for “pennies on the dollar.” She estimates that they pay about 10 cents a pound for food that would cost you $2 per pound retail. You’d be doing dramatically more good, in basic dollars and cents terms, by eating that tuna yourself and forking over a check for half the price of a single can of Chicken of the Sea.

Food Drives Are A Bad Idea? (The Daily Beast)

On The Dish, Andrew Sullivan links to the Slate.com article by Matthew Iglesias.

To help the most people, give cash instead of cans (Philly Inquirer)

Read the full op-ed (reposted from the LA Times) on the Philly.com website.

A Case For Cash Donations, Instead Of Cans (NPR: Talk of the Nation)

Listen to the story and read the transcript on NPR's website.

Excerpt:

CONAN: And I wonder, you say half the food that is donated in those donation boxes is wasted, is never used?

ROSQUETA: I mean, some studies show that up to half of that winds up not being used. But actually the bigger bang for buck, is not from the food that's not being used that goes into food drives. I mean, there are places where some of that food is quite helpful. The bigger bang for buck comes from taking advantage of all of the food that would be wasted, but that could actually go to feed families across the country when regional food banks are able to purchase it from this national network.

Let’s can the food drives (LA Times)

Read the op-ed on the LA Times website.

Excerpt:

The bottom line is that for the same amount of money spent on buying cans for a food drive, donors can feed 20 times more families by providing cash, not cans. But wait, some argue: Our community food drive engages church members or schoolchildren in a way that writing a check or giving cash simply doesn't. To which we'd argue: Now is the time to match traditions with impact by demonstrating something that need not be in short supply — creativity!

A New Era for Nonprofits: Seeking Data That Makes a Difference (Knowledge@Wharton)

Read the full article here: http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2011/11/a-new-era-for-nonprofits-seeking-data-that-makes-a-difference/

“People need to make time for it and view it as a priority, not as something that’s extra if they have time for it at the end of the day,” said Carra Cote-Ackah, a consultant for the Center for High Impact Philanthropy and a former program officer for the Robinson Foundation. “We’re seeing nonprofits closing; we’re seeing drops in funding and we’re seeing a whole new world of funding. That is stressful for nonprofits, and it’s stressful for funders. But making time to prioritize that emphasis on quality, and the learning around it, is really important.”

Thanks to technology, the data that can be made available to nonprofits is much greater than it was in the past. It’s a challenge facing a number of industries and creates a “huge job ahead of us in gaining the translational skill to [present the data] in pictures, in images and in graphs, so you don’t have to be a wonk to get it,” noted Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy. “We’re talking about a set of donors who are now used to a lot more information than people were 20 years ago…. If we can solve that, our sector will be closer to the results we want to have.”

Brava! to Penn professor for ‘passion for giving back’ (Daily Pennsylvanian)

Read the full article here: http://thedp.com/article/brava-penn-professor-passion-giving-back

CHIP was formally created in 2006 by Social Policy School Dean Richard Gelles along with Wharton alumni out of a frustration “with the lack of independent analysis and tools available to guide efficient [philanthropic] giving,” Rosqueta wrote.

“We develop methodology for assessing our social impact… [we] find models for philanthropy and [try] to pull together the best information from not only the academic research environment but also non-profits on the ground and experts who have been working in the field for a long time,” CHIP’s Research Director Carol McLaughlin said.

Penn Staff Member Wins Brava! Women Business Achievement Award for Work in Philanthropy

Read the full press release here: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-staff-member-wins-brava-women-business-achievement-award-work-philanthropy

PHILADELPHIA — Katherina Rosqueta, the founding executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, housed at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice, will be one of 25 to receive a 2011 Philadelphia SmartCEO magazine Brava! Women Business Achievement Award on Thursday, July 21, at 6 p.m. at The Merion, 1301 Rt. 130 S., Cinnaminson, N.J.

The Brava! Awards honor the contributions of female CEOs, presidents, business owners and executive directors in the Philadelphia area who have exhibited dedication to overseeing successful businesses and also giving back to the community through philanthropic endeavors.

How to Give Your Fortune Away (Philadelphia Magazine)

Early on, CHIP conducted in-depth interviews with dozens of high-net-worth philanthropists on where and why they give. Most, like Reese, had made their money in finance. They listed peers as their most trusted sources of information on giving; they said they wanted to be involved in causes beyond merely writing checks. “They wanted to give more,” says Rosqueta, “but they weren’t confident it wouldn’t be wasted. They wanted to know more, but they didn’t have time to do the work themselves.” CHIP used their input to develop its methodology.

Take the issue of malaria—a persistent global health challenge, according to physician Carol McLaughlin, CHIP’s research director for global public health. The disease, transmitted by mosquitoes, kills a million people worldwide every year, and causes one in five child deaths in Africa—one every 30 seconds. McLaughlin and her team analyzed all the research they could find on preventing and treating malaria—random-controlled studies, quasi-experimental studies, government reports, NGO reports. They talked to experts around the world who work in malaria treatment and prevention—research scientists, physicians, nurses, clinic staff: “We look for people who know the sickness well and have been in the field for years.” They also got down to the grassroots, researching communities affected by malaria. They were searching for preventive models that were proven to work.

CHIP’s Katherina Rosqueta: ‘India and China Will Leapfrog Past the U.S. in Impact Investing’ (K@W)

India Knowledge@Wharton: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates recently visited India on their philanthropic drive. However, their visit was met with mixed reactions. Some believe it was because, traditionally, most Indian acts of philanthropy are done quietly, without the hype that the Buffett-Gates initiative brings. Do you think their philanthropic philosophy will work in India and different countries?

Rosqueta: As vast new wealth is created in India, China and other non-Western countries, the resulting philanthropy is turning out to be very different from what we know in the United States. That should come as no surprise given important differences in history, cultural traditions and nonprofit roles within each country. If I had to sum it up in one word, I would say that right now, Indian philanthropy is more intimate than American philanthropy. There are two reasons for this.

How India’s New Philanthropists Are Working to Bring About Systemic Change (Knowledge@Wharton)

Katherina M. Rosqueta, executive director at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, points out that given the differences in history and culture, philanthropy in India is very different from that in the U.S. Philanthropists in India, she notes, typically have some personal relationships with the beneficiaries of their generosity. "If I had to sum it up in one word, I would say that right now, Indian philanthropy is more 'intimate' than American philanthropy," says Rosqueta. (See interview with Rosqueta.)

Gates Says Self-Made Wealthy Are More Generous Than Heirs (Bloomberg)

“Those who made their wealth entrepreneurially, there’s a sense in which they feel their wealth is theirs,” said Kat Rosqueta, executive director at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. “As opposed to those whose wealth has been inherited, where they feel much more of a responsibility as stewards of somebody else’s wealth.”

Alternate Spring Break fosters big changes in small ways (Daily Pennsylvanian)

Additionally, educational objectives are often more important than immediate philanthropic results in the long term, according to Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy.

“If you go on a trip and you have a life-changing experience that makes you want to go into a career in social policy, it’s well worth it,” added Carol McLaughlin, CHIP research director for global public health.

As an undergraduate at Princeton University, McLaughlin left the United States for the first time on a similar trip.

“I decided to go into international public health and devote my career to this,” she said. “If I didn’t have that opportunity, I would have never thought of those issues.”

Both Rosqueta and McLaughlin emphasized that one of the most important roles of a volunteer on a service trip is “giving a voice” to the communities after the week is over.

Donations to Japan start at slow pace: Companies, individuals may not think help is needed (MSNBC)

In Japan, some big U.S. businesses may be feeling more compelled to donate to relief efforts because they have large customers or other business interests there.

“You have companies who have operations in Japan, who have personnel in Japan,” said Katherina Rosqueta, the executive director for the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania.

But others have held back on giving — at least initially — because they didn't initially think they were needed.

Guiding donors to improve teacher quality (Penn Current)

A report issued this month by Penn’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP) in the School of Social Policy and Practice says improving teacher quality, especially among those who work with high-need students in grades 6-12, “represents a great opportunity for private philanthropy to make a difference, bridging the gap left by public investments and offering donors a chance to leverage investments in the earlier grades and sustain their impact.”

Authored by Kate Barrett, lead analyst on teaching quality for CHIP; independent consultant Katherine Hovde; Zehua Li Hahn, CHIP’s senior research assistant in education; and Katherina Rosqueta, the founding executive director of CHIP, the comprehensive report includes findings and insights about teacher quality reform provided by Penn’s Graduate School of Education as well as other leading policy, education and social research organizations. Funding for the report came from the Ford Foundation, which Rosqueta says also served as a partner in development of the final document.

A year after Haiti quake, there is hope despite the devastation (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

"It's important," said Carol McLaughlin of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, "not to discount the progress that has been made."

McLaughlin said two million Haitian children were vaccinated against measles and tetanus.

No humane analysis can conclude that the tragedy was beneficial. Still, McLaughlin said, the international attention it inspired may ultimately prove to be a blessing.

For decades, Haiti has been dependent on outside aid. During McLaughlin's first visit 20 years ago, she asked a Haitian friend what he wished for his country. She remembers his words vividly: "To end an era when decisions are made about us, far from us, without us."

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20110112_A_year_after_Haiti_quake__there_is_hope_despite_the_devastation.html

BILLIONAIRES GIVING IT UP? No one in state signed up, so far (Arkansas Online)

The Giving Pledge has great promise to encourage people, both billionaires and average citizens, to give more to philanthropic causes, said Carol McLaughlin, research director at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania.

“A lot of high-net-worth individuals and businesspeople respect Warren Buffett and Bill Gates as entrepreneurs and would like to emulate them,” she said.

The second step is for the money to actually be donated, McLaughlin said.

“Even more important is to see that the pledged and donated funds have the highest impact possible,” she said.

Student’s ‘well’-doing: College sophomore’s charity won $100K to provide water in Africa (The DP)

Penn’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy acknowledges the importance of clean water and applauds Young’s work.

“Community access to clean water is an essential component of access to health and community,” Global Public Health and Research Director Carol McLaughlin said.

“Since most women and children spend several hours a day collecting water instead of going to school or tending to crops, water access makes an economic impact as well as a health impact,” she added.

Opinion: Giving Donations That Transform Haiti (CBS News)

Haiti has already begun to fade from the headlines. But for individual donors, the real opportunity to have impact has just begun.

As Haiti transitions from rescue and relief to recovery and rebuilding, the most lasting change will come from nonprofits with at least one of two characteristics. The first is specific expertise in moving from immediate disaster relief to mid-term recovery to long-term development. The second is experience and a track record of results operating on the ground in Haiti. Both of these characteristics indicate a capacity for sustainable impact. In other words, supporting these models ensures that the impact of your donations will stick long after the headlines and the celebrity appeals end.

Bigger Bangs for Charitable Bucks (Pennsylvania Gazette)

The recent disaster in Haiti sparked numerous posts on CHIP’s blog, whose self-explanatory titles include: “Haiti: Getting It There Without Getting in the Way,” “Haiti: How Can I Help?” and “Haiti: ‘Cutting Through the Noise’—Effective donor help during the immediate relief phase.” All provide contact links to the most appropriate and effective organizations.

“The devastation in Haiti has been matched with an outpouring of generosity,” said Katherina Rosqueta WG’01, CHIP’s executive director. “We are working to make sure those dollars and good intentions actually result in impact—both now and for the longer term.”

Haitian relief, long-term (Penn Current)

In the first days after the disaster, the Center provided tips on how to donate wisely to groups delivering immediate assistance to Haiti. Weeks into the relief work, the focus of the information has changed.

“Now, our work is focused less on the best way to give, and really [on] what are the ways in which anybody who wants to help can have the greatest impact,” says Rosqueta. “That’s the kind of information and guidance we’re providing.”

Database Helps Vet Charities (Miami Herald)

Donors can follow a few guidelines before deciding how, where, and what to give, said Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Make sure what you give matches what groups in Haiti need, she advised.

Three Steps to Making Smart Haiti Donations (New York Times)

“What really matters in this situation is not their ratio of overhead to other expenses,” Katherina M. Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, told me later. “It’s their experience and record of having impact in Haiti.”

Haiti: Making Donations Count (South Florida Business Journal)

So, in the back of many people’s minds, is the question of how or whether their donations, no matter how large or small, will make it to those most in need.

The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania provides some insight into the process and outlines the different phases of effective philanthropic support.

Haiti Relief Effort: Chicagoans raising money, collecting food and medicine… (Chicago Tribune)

Authorities have warned that Haiti remains a "logistical disaster," meaning that freelance philanthropy might only get so far. And, sometimes well-intended efforts like shipping canned food or water can actually complicate rescue and relief missions if groups do not work together, according to Katherina Rosqueta, executive director at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for High Impact Philanthropy.

Lessons Learned from Answering the Million Dollar Question (Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal)

Written by Kat Rosqueta

January 2010

I want to make a difference.
I've got a million dollars to give.
How should I spend it to make the greatest social impact?

Since our founding in Spring 2006, the Center for High Impact Philanthropy has worked to answer that “million dollar question”. While straightforward to pose, the question about how to make the greatest social impact can be maddeningly difficult to answer in a way that is both informed by the evidence and actionable. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

Read the full article on the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal website or download a pdf of the article. Continue reading on our news page.

Special Report: Haiti Earthquake Provokes Wave of Text Donations (BusinessWeek)

"We don't have benchmarks for this yet," says Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. "The power is in the scale."

Technology a Key to Fundraising Efforts (KCBS News Radio)

"For this Haiti campaign, most of the phone operators are not charging a fee for texting," said Carol McLaughli with the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Local People, Agencies Step Up Despite Recession (Democrat and Chronicle)

Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, said nonprofits have had to make difficult decisions, including cutting programs and reducing staff. They've also had to prioritize their services, she said, with basic necessities like food taking precedence. "The pain is pretty widespread..." Rosqueta said. "It's kind of that perfect storm of a recession."

JPMorgan Chase Invites Facebook Users to Help Choose Charities for $5M Campaign (Star Ledger NJ.com)

The combination of decisions made by popular vote and an advisory board intrigues Katherina Rosqueta, the executive director of the Center for High-Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. By structuring the program in this way, the bank has retained some control over the crowd, she said. "It will be interesting to see if the winners of the popularity contest and the (donations made by the advisory board) will be the same or different," she said.

Review: Making the Case for Return on Philanthropic Investment (Schultz & Williams)

In illustrating high-impact funding opportunities to address the current housing, health and hunger crises, the report calculates the impact of philanthropic investments on broader indicators. For example, the cost to provide effective housing counseling ranges from $300 to $3,800, and this investment generates a $34,000 savings in municipal costs per foreclosure and helps stabilize home values and crime rates.

Interview -Paul Brest, Jed Emerson, Katherina Rosqueta, Brian Trelstad, Michael Weinstein (Alliance)

Center for High Impact Philanthropy favours simplicity

The chief virtue of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy’s approach, says Katherina Rosqueta, is its simplicity: ‘We divide the philanthropic capital required to obtain a given impact by the incremental impact expected. We call this “cost per impact”. Examples would be “$1,000 per child life saved” or “$30,000 - $250,000 per additional on-time high school graduate”.’ One of the reasons for this simplicity, she acknowledges – touching on one of the great sticking points in this whole area – is that ‘when we looked at the state of available evidence and data to be used in linking cost and impact, we found it was pretty thin’.

Other reasons for its simplicity are the need to produce something that works across the various different contexts in which the Center operates (which are ‘as different as US education and global public health’) and the need for ‘an approach that requires minimal incremental data collection on the part of non-profits and that can be easily grasped by individual philanthropists. When we tested it, our approach worked on both counts.’

The chief drawback, she says, is that it involves ‘focusing on one primary impact. That limits comparability to those programmes or activities that have set out to achieve the same primary goal. It also means that important secondary or related impacts are not captured.’

Download the article as a pdf: http://www.impact.upenn.edu/images/uploads/Apr09_AllianceInvtw-Rosqueta.pdf

Philanthropic Triage During an Economic Downturn: Linking Financing to Impact

In any economic downturn, the demand for philanthropy increases as the supply of philanthropic capital declines. The current financial crisis is no exception. Its breadth, severity, and potential duration bring new urgency to the need to manage philanthropic dollars wisely.

The forces at work are clear and painful: a reduction in the supply of philanthropic investment simultaneous to an increase in nonprofit demand for that investment. On the supply side, the wealthy have less wealth to give. Private foundations, which are required by law to spend 5 percent of their net investments each year, have seen their asset bases shrink. While some experts have called on foundations to increase endowment draw-downs, overall foundation payouts will almost certainly contract.

Download the excerpt as a pdf: http://www.impact.upenn.edu/images/uploads/Dec2008_FCphilanthropyannual.pdf

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