GlobalGiving - case study - presented at Skoll ISIRC

Real-time technology-aided feedback loops in international philanthropy: a case study Mari Kuraishi, Marc Maxson, Josh Goldstein

the technology

the technology email mobile web forms website

technology - aided word of mouth email mobile visitors evaluators web forms website

Word of mouth Email Newspaper Websites Radio SMS Television Twitter ‘blogs’ How do messages spread?

… .then your feedback strategies should mirror it. If messages spread these ways…

Does technology make a difference in feedback loops?

Iran election word of mouth email twitter gatherings YouTube Facebook mass media

Twitter and YouTube replace mass media, augment public protests word of mouth gatherings mass media email twitter Facebook

Ted Talk Clip on the great firewall of China: How social media undermines efforts by orgs/govs to hide sub-optimal results in the field. http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html (queue video from 10:10 to 11:28)

Does real-time feedback make a difference?

Twitter: power of real-time feedback $14.4M – Fri $8.8M – Sat 39% drop-off (a record!) $21.5M – Fri $26.4M – Sat +23% increase Instant-messaging can make or break a film within 24 hours. Friday is the new “Opening Weekend.”

What GlobalGiving does:
crowd-sourcing
the funding decisions
3000+ project pages

What GlobalGiving does: 3000+ project pages Individuals donate crowd

What GlobalGiving does: 3000+ project pages donate crowd see results follow and influence the project

GlobalGiving’s evaluation toolkit Reputation signals Quarterly project updates see results visitor postcards evaluators Beneficiary feedback

Next: Story of one project transformed through beneficiary feedback

What do these pictures tell you?

Read the whole story online (20 total project updates, visitor postcards, evaluations, and this paper)

Case narrative on feedback loops in Western Kenya 1 | Staff visit to say : “We are listening.” Project: Support 250 orphans through education and sport GG staffer met org staff and youth. Gave away bumper stickers.

Case narrative Staff visit to say: “ We are listening.” 2 | visitors send virtual postcards back
Visitor postcards raised flags
“ We were supposed to visit the orphanage but we never got the chance…”
“ founder asked us for a lot of money throughout the day”
“ It’s a shame because I do believe that SACRENA is doing good work.”

Case narrative Staff visit to say: “ We are listening.” 3 | youths start to give direct feedback
Beneficiary feedback via online form complained about founder misconduct
Emailed a petition with 8 names asking GG to audit the org.
GG already had auditor visit scheduled for next month.
visitors send virtual postcards

Case narrative Staff visit to say: “ We are listening.” 4 | evaluator visits, postcard to donors visitors send virtual postcards direct feedback “ Org had overwhelming potential but closed leadership and a lack of financial controls” - Evaluator "You can’t dare speak, you will be kicked out." – Youth Should GG keep SACRENA? All said yes but asked for more oversight.

Case narrative Staff visit to say: “ We are listening.” visitors send virtual postcards direct feedback evaluator Professor from Univ of Oregon visited and decided to send 2 volunteers. They ran conflict workshops with staff and beneficiaries, took youth on field trip to TYSA – org with same goals. Found mentors. 5 | conflict resolution volunteers help

Case narrative Staff visit to say: “ We are listening.” visitors send virtual postcards direct feedback evaluator Leaders emerged from youth and formed a new org with volunteer help. Local school kicked out the old founder, favored working with the new org. Volunteers, mentoring 6 | youth form new org

Case narrative Staff visit to say: “ We are listening.” visitors send virtual postcards direct feedback evaluator Final SMS/phone survey of beneficiaries – “do you want GG to remove this org?” Everyone voted “yes.” We removed the org. Donors now understand how & why. Volunteers, mentoring 7 | final SMS and phone feedback survey New leadership

Case narrative Staff visit to say: “ We are listening.” visitors send virtual postcards direct feedback evaluator Volunteers, mentoring 7 | final SMS and phone feedback survey New leadership Final SMS survey Donors have context and a reason to support the new org now. What if we could do more with SMS? First 6 steps took 6 months; SMS survey took 1 day.

Lessons
real-time feedback aided by new technologies
generates signals that force others to take action to resolve the underlying problems faster
donor feedback is a powerful tool for triggering good project leader behavior
beneficiaries have more power when donors are not anonymous to them
allows GG to address ongoing problems , rather than just abandoning the project / community

Lessons
focus on the environment
sustaining the dialogue
more participation
direct feedback circumvents the principal/agent problem
prevents problems from escalating
cost effective

Scaling up feedback
crowd-sourcing feedback, filtering, and analysis
Technology to capture conversations
SMS-to-web
2-way SMS
reasons for people to talk
mobile money (to pay village-based evaluators)
Technology for helping the crowd find meaning
Need SMS-data-mining tools to flag problems automatically
The narrative arc is what makes this story teachable. How do we combine narrative fragments into more teachable stories?

GlobalGiving - case study - presented at Skoll ISIRC

by Marc Maxson / GlobalGiving on Sep 16, 2009

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