Intelligent Giving
Encyclopedia
Bethnal Green
Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...
, London. It was founded in 2005 by two former journalists, David Pitchford and Peter Heywood, and launched on 1 November 2006. In September 2009 the charity wound down but the website and brand were taken over by New Philanthropy Capital
New Philanthropy Capital
New Philanthropy Capital is a charitable organisation based in London. It states its mission is to direct more funding to effective charities and help donors make more informed decisions on how to give. New Philanthropy Capital produces reports on issues of social welfare and analyses the...
.
Overview
Intelligent Giving aimed to raise public interest in charitable giving and advised donors how to make the most satisfactory use of their money. It was one of several organisations, including New Philanthropy CapitalNew Philanthropy Capital
New Philanthropy Capital is a charitable organisation based in London. It states its mission is to direct more funding to effective charities and help donors make more informed decisions on how to give. New Philanthropy Capital produces reports on issues of social welfare and analyses the...
(UK) and Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
(US), that formed for this purpose, and it operated in a relatively new sector in the not-for-profit arena. It sought to bring its findings to as wide a readership as possible, employing chatty and casual English on its website and issuing timely press releases of charity-related material. The authors aligned themselves with donors, not with the charity fundraising community. The organisation was a company limited by guarantee and itself gained charitable status in 2008.
Services and work
Transparency (humanities)
Transparency, as used in science, engineering, business, the humanities and in a social context more generally, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed...
as an important indicator of a charity’s diligence, and said that this was the most important aspect - and a cross-sector comparable one - of a charity's annual report
Annual report
An annual report is a comprehensive report on a company's activities throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholders and other interested people information about the company's activities and financial performance...
.
Intelligent Giving claimed to assess transparency using 43 criteria derived largely from research carried out by the Charity Commission in 2004. Intelligent Giving gives a percentage score for the transparency, or "Quality of reporting" of each charity.
The website also contained overviews of charity sectors, an explanation of the full range of ways to give, interviews with givers and short articles by experts. It also provided a discussion forum for the donor community.
Media coverage
In November 2006, Intelligent Giving published an article about Children in NeedChildren in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
, a big charity, which attracted wide attention – some of which Intelligent Giving regarded as misleading - across the British media. The article, titled "Four things wrong with Pudsey", described donations to Children in Need as a 'lazy and inefficient way of giving' and pointed out that, as a grant-giving charity, Children in Need would use donations to pay two sets of administration costs. It also described the quality of some of its public reporting as 'shambolic'.
In March 2007, Intelligent Giving claimed that English Premiership football clubs were not giving enough to charity. Chelsea FC was particularly criticized in this work, and an alleged member of the Club's media team threatened an Intelligent Giving employee with violence in response to media reports.
In June 2007, the organisation analysed the Jewish charities it had profiled and concluded, "They are pretty appalling in terms of transparency." Details from the report were published in The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...
.
In July 2007, Intelligent Giving won the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
New Media Award for Information & Openness.
October 2007 saw Intelligent Giving name and shame in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
the rugby union charity Wooden Spoon Society
Wooden Spoon Society
Wooden Spoon is a children's charity founded in 1983, when the England rugby team received the Wooden Spoon in the 5 Nations. Spoon is dedicated to helping children and young people who are disadvantaged physically, mentally or socially by using sport as a method of improving lives while...
for providing a very low return on its fundraising activities.
Intelligent Giving's argument was refuted by John Inverdale
John Inverdale
John Inverdale , is an English radio and television broadcaster who works for the BBC, mainly covering sporting events.-Biography:...
, a BBC broadcaster, in an opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
as "misguided reporting that fails to understand how fund-raising operates." It was also condemned by Wooden Spoon in its statement "Putting the Record Straight".
Charity commission
Intelligent Giving was criticised by the Charity Commission following the complaint it raised regarding Wooden Spoon. In a letter dated 13 November 2007, a Charity Commission representative disagreed with IG's financial analysis and stated, "The Commission does not concur with your view that the charity's costs were excessive, taking into account the method of fundraising which is employed by the Charity". This judgement subsequently attracted attention in The Sunday Telegraph, where it was given as an example of the Charity Commission's poor decision-making process.Voluntary sector response
Intelligent Giving said it received good and bad responses from charities in equal measure. Negative responses included: Steve Taylor of Sue Ryder CareSue Ryder Care
Sue Ryder is a charity which was founded in 1953 by Sue Ryder, with the creation of a nursing home in Suffolk, UK....
, who decried the organisation as a 'self appointed guardian' with 'little demonstrable understanding of the operating framework' of charities; the Institute of Fundraising, which called its research methods 'rudimentary'; and Sir Terry Wogan (a trustee of Children in Need) who condemned its work as 'contemptible'.
Intelligent Giving's analytical approach - which resulted in the production of league-tables that rank charities by their degrees of transparency - also caused concern. Detractors argued that charities do complex work that cannot be summed up in tabular form. Intelligent Giving, however, said that its approach was significantly more nuanced than that of other charity-profiling services, such as Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
in the US.
See also
- Charity NavigatorCharity NavigatorCharity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
- financial analysis and ratings of US charities - GuideStarGuideStarGuideStar USA, Inc. is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2010, their database contained over 5 million IRS Forms 990 filings on 1.9 million organizations.....
- UK and US databases and information on charities - Development RatingsDevelopment RatingsDevelopment Ratings is a UK Community Interest Company founded in 2006 that provides ratings of charities. The organisation's goal is to increase the flow of funds to developing countries by finding the best solutions to fight poverty and increasing transparency about charitable organisations...
- research and recommendations on international development charities
External links
- http://www.philanthropycapital.org/about_npc/about_us/intelligent_giving.aspx NPC explanation of Intelligent Giving's work