How to make your giving go $16,000 further.
After around a century of research into poverty and well-being, combined with the mounting evidence from ‘big-data’, we now know more clearly the power of each dollar given to fight poverty - the potential benefit seen, in economic terms, when you invest in a particular type of anti-poverty program.
And what does the data tell us?
It tells us, unequivocally and undeniably, that not all anti-poverty strategies have the same impact. It tells us, unmistakably and indisputably, that some strategies give very little in return while others give a powerful and life-changing return. It tells us, unambiguously and irrefutably, that your money is better placed in some hands than in others.
Different strategies have different impact.
Imagine comparing the cumulative impact ($) when you give $10 per month, over the course of 5 years. You have four different anti-poverty initiatives that you can choose from - Strategy A, B, C and D - and you measure their impact at Year 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
If you committed to giving $10 a month to an anti-poverty organization, over the course of 5 years you’ll be out of pocket $600. That’s $600 given to improve the life of someone else. (Yep. It’s gone. Thank you!)
But let’s look at the results.
Your Giving to Anti-Poverty Strategy A:
Now, picture for a moment if that $10 a month was given to an organization involved in one specific anti-poverty program - let’s called it Strategy A. This strategy, according to robust data, gives a yield of $2 for every $1 invested. After 5 years of giving (a total of $600), this strategy gives an impact of $1,200. That is, the person or family at the end of the giving line receives an economic benefit of $1,200.
That’s good: over 5 years, you invested $600 to help someone experiencing poverty, and they enjoyed $1,200 worth of benefits. You’re helping them move out of poverty.
Nice work.
Your Giving to Anti-Poverty Strategy D:
Take that same $10 a month, or $600 over 5 years, and put it in the hands of someone engaging in an anti-poverty activity that - according to all the data points - gives a yield of $30 for every $1 invested. Let’s call this Strategy D.
The same $10 a month. The same 5 years. You’re still out of pocket the same amount - $600.
But the person you’re helping? Life has got better for them to the tune of $18,000. Yes, you read that right. The impact of Strategy D is $18,000 over 5 years. Your $600, put into the hands of someone engaged in a known high-impact strategy, helps someone $16,800 more than Strategy A. In fact, they’ve already hit Strategy A’s $1,200 threshold after just 4 months.
For the same amount of giving, over the course of 5 years, an anti-poverty organization using Strategy D provides over $16,000 more help than the organization using Strategy A.
That’s not just nice work - it’s phenomenal work.
Put your giving into the right hands: it’s the $16,000 difference.