other money links
Mar. 5th, 2008 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenk"Can you spot the rich person" isn't just a Northwet game anymore. (And no, I don't feel sorry for a car salesman complaining about having to be nice to everyone now ... ;)
An article on how charities do (and don't)report success is mostly about how they don't, and how some benefactors are starting their own charities because they don't trust that existing charities will do the job. I'm glad some groups are getting on the ball with this. If you're trying to solve huge problems, sometimes knowing what didn't work for someone else is very illuminating.
One sidebar has some links that look interesting:
Millionaire Suffers from Oversized-Home Syndrome. As the Palm Beach Post puts it:
And MSN summarizes a survey on how American married couples' financial roles have changed.
An article on how charities do (and don't)report success is mostly about how they don't, and how some benefactors are starting their own charities because they don't trust that existing charities will do the job. I'm glad some groups are getting on the ball with this. If you're trying to solve huge problems, sometimes knowing what didn't work for someone else is very illuminating.
One sidebar has some links that look interesting:
Some charities are moving away from the field's traditional secrecy and offering public assessments of their programs' effectiveness. A few notable examples:
- "Strategic Plan Progress Report 2007," American Cancer Society
An overview of progress toward the group's goals of reducing cancer rates spotlights failures as well as successes.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/acs2007report.pdf- "Looking Back at Zimbabwe," Carnegie Corp.
This article on an effort to advance democracy begins bluntly: "This is the anatomy of a grant that failed."
http://www.carnegie.org/results/carn.results_winter_07.pdf- "Hard Lessons About Philanthropy & Community Change From the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative," William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
In an introduction, the foundation's president calls a program meant to improve the lives of residents in three San Francisco Bay area communities "a great disappointment."
http://www.hewlett.org/NR/rdonlyres/6D05A0B4-D15E-47FA-B62E-917741BB9E72/0/HewlettNIIReport.pdf- "Midcourse Corrections to a Major Initiative," James Irvine Foundation
Evaluation of a program to improve the educational performance of low-achieving students in California, an effort that revealed "numerous shortcomings on our foundation's part," according to the organization's president.
http://www.irvine.org/assets/pdf/pubs/evaluation/Midcourse_Corrections.pdf- "Fighting Back," Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Report concludes that a long-term program to combat drug and alcohol abuse "did not produce robust results."
http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=16956&catid=17&typeid=132&gsa=5- Visit the Coalition for Evidenced-based Policy for examples of more scientific evaluations.
www.evidencebasedprograms.org
Millionaire Suffers from Oversized-Home Syndrome. As the Palm Beach Post puts it:
Boca moneybags Dru Schmitt painstakingly merged three adjacent lots alongside a canal in the ultra-exclusive enclave of Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club.
The 39-year-old then spent nearly two years building a state-of-the-art mansion with 300 feet of docking space, lush landscaping and a breathtaking interior.
[Last month the family moved in.]
Within days, according to neighborhood buzz, Schmitt decided he just didn't like it.
Too big - at 23,000 square feet.
So just like that, one of the most expensive homes in South Palm Beach County is on the market. Price: $24.9 million.
And MSN summarizes a survey on how American married couples' financial roles have changed.
