First it was shoes, then shirts. I don’t have much to add on questions like “Are supplies in fact clogging the roads?” and “Are there in fact people in Africa who don’t wear shirts because they can’t find/afford them?” But … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
Monthly Archives: April 2010
I’m very interested in the recent debate over microfinance interest rates (see our response to the NYT article, as well as Te-Ping Chen’s comments at Change.org). It seems that realizing how high interest rates can be has been a wake-up … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
We’ve previously argued that the “headline program” a charity uses to raise money may not be the one you’re effectively funding with donations – even if your donations are formally restricted to that program. (See our full series on the … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
Note: I posted most of this post last night as a comment. There has been some interesting back-and-forth in the comments lately between Laura Deaton and me (see the Should Charity Evaluation be “fair”? thread). Laura seems worried that by … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
Recent coverage of microfinance has had a sharp focus on interest rates, implying some line between “reasonable” interest (associated with “social investment”) and “excessive” interest (associated with “loan sharking”). In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega, outraged that interest rates there were … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
One of the goals we do not have is the goal of being “fair” to charities, in the sense expressed in this comment: You are right on in your focus on provable results, but some areas are much easier to … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
