Feb 5, 20232 min
Updated: Feb 6, 2023
Caroline Fiennes, Director at Giving Evidence, on the need for more research on how to give.
There is a robust body of research on 'what' donors fund. However, many questions around ‘how’ to fund need to be researched and explored more thoroughly.
If you have $100 million available to fund a cause, do you give it all in one grant, do you make a handful of large grants or do you make a high number of small grants?
In this episode we explore some of the big questions on how to fund; consider a range of dynamics, such as transaction costs and grantee perceptions; and call for more research in this field.
Caroline Fiennes is one of the few people whose work has appeared in both OK! Magazine and the prestigious scientific journal Nature. She is a Cambridge University Visiting Fellow, and former Financial Times columnist.
Caroline founded and directs Giving Evidence, which encourages and enables giving based on sound evidence. It grew out of her experiences of charities as an award-winning charity CEO, trustee, and analyst – as well as her background in commercial strategy consulting and physics.
Caroline has advised many donors and foundations in many continents on many issues over many years: they include Eurostar, professional tennis players, and foundations set up by governments of the UK, US and in the Gulf. Caroline is a recognised leader in thinking and practice on donor- and funder- effectiveness and their use of reliable evidence.
In that vein, Giving Evidence devised the research method behind the Foundation Practice Rating, and leads its research work.