globalgiving - case study - presented at skoll isirc
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Presentation at the Skoll International Social Investor Research Conference (ISIRC) 2009 - a case study about technology aided real time feedback loops in international philanthropyTRANSCRIPT
Real-time technology-aided feedback loops in
international philanthropy:a case study
Mari Kuraishi, Marc Maxson, Josh Goldstein
the technology
the technology
mob
ile
web forms
website
technology - aidedword of mouth
mob
ile
visitors
evaluators
web forms
website
Word of mouth Email Newspaper
Websites RadioRadio
SMS Television
TwitterTwitter ‘blogs’
How do messages spread?
….then your feedback strategies should mirror it.
If messages spread these ways…
Word of mouthEmail Newspaper
Websites RadioSMS Television
Twitter ‘blog’
Does technology make a difference in feedback loops?
Iran electionword of mouth
twitt
er
gatherings
YouTube
mass media
Twitter and YouTube replace mass media, augment public protests
word of mouth gatheringsmass media
twitt
er
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 – Sat39% 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-sourcingthe funding decisions
3000+ project pages
What GlobalGiving does:
3000+ project pages Individuals donate
crowd
What GlobalGiving does:
3000+ project pages
donatecrowd see results
follow and influence
the project
GlobalGiving’s evaluation toolkit
Reputation signals Quarterly
project
updates
3000+ project pages
donatecrowd see results 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)
1 | Staff visit to say: “We are listening.”
Case narrative on feedback loops in Western Kenya
Project: Support 250 orphans through education and sport
GG staffer met org staff and youth.
Gave away bumper stickers.
Staff
vis
it to
say
:“W
e ar
e lis
teni
ng.”
Case narrative
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.”
Staff
vis
it to
say
:“W
e ar
e lis
teni
ng.”
Case narrative
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.
visi
tors
sen
d vi
rtua
l pos
tcar
ds
Staff
vis
it to
say
:“W
e ar
e lis
teni
ng.”
4 |evaluator visits, postcard to donors
visi
tors
sen
d vi
rtua
l pos
tcar
ds
dire
ct fe
edba
ck
Case narrative“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.
Staff
vis
it to
say
:“W
e ar
e lis
teni
ng.”
visi
tors
sen
d vi
rtua
l pos
tcar
ds
dire
ct fe
edba
ck
Case narrative
eval
uato
r
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
Staff
vis
it to
say
:“W
e ar
e lis
teni
ng.”
visi
tors
sen
d vi
rtua
l pos
tcar
ds
dire
ct fe
edba
ck
Case narrative
eval
uato
r
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.Vo
lunt
eers
, men
torin
g
6 | youth form new org
Staff
vis
it to
say
:“W
e ar
e lis
teni
ng.”
visi
tors
sen
d vi
rtua
l pos
tcar
ds
dire
ct fe
edba
ck
Case narrative
eval
uato
r
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.
Volu
ntee
rs, m
ento
ring
7 | final SMS and phone feedback survey
New
lead
ersh
ip
Staff
vis
it to
say
:“W
e ar
e lis
teni
ng.”
visi
tors
sen
d vi
rtua
l pos
tcar
ds
dire
ct fe
edba
ckdi
rect
feed
back
Case narrative
eval
uato
r
Volu
ntee
rs, m
ento
ring
7 | final SMS and phone feedback survey
New
lead
ersh
ip
Fina
l SM
S su
rvey
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?