Making an impact is as easy as...
What is Daily Good?
Daily Good is a program where volunteers sign up to vote on the level of impact that various burdens have on our society. With just 30 seconds per day – volunteers contribute by answering three questions about a burden that is the focus of one or more non-profit profit programs. The volunteers' answers are then added to a database to create a score called a utility weight. We use utility weights to measure how much a burden negatively impacts society. Once enough data is collected to have a statistically significant result, we publish the utility weight for each burden. Using our impact calculator donors (and charities) can then use these utilities to help them understand how much of an impact is made each time a particular burden is averted or resolved by a charity’s program. By measuring utility of burdens we can normalize the manner in which we compare two burdens, thereby giving us the ability to compare the impact of two (or more) charities even if the programs are focused on producing very different outcomes.
Read more details about the program here.
Read more details about the program here.
Why is this data so important?
Currently, there is no universally accepted measurement for charitable impact. When donors make a strategic decision about where to deploy charitable resources, they typically rely on stats and data that communicate outputs rather than impact. For example, a soup kitchen might communicate the number of meals served – but this does not measure how much the meals have increased the quality and/or quantity of life for the beneficiaries. Communicating outputs instead of impact is also problematic for donors that want to compare organizations that focus on different burdens in an effort to focus resources in areas where impact is more likely.
Having a database of utility weights empowers donors and charities to measure impact in a manner that is consistent with the collective perspective of society. This data empowers the non-profit sector to prioritize impact over outcomes, learn from other charities with higher impact, and optimize program strategies in a more effective manner.
There is a tremendous disparity between the impact of the average charity compared to the top charities, this is in part because of the lack of data to communicate impact in a consistently comparable manner. Top-tier charities are 500x more effective than the U.S. Healthcare Intervention Threshold. While the U.S. Healthcare intervention is not an exact proxy for the charitable impact in the U.S., we do believe that it is a relevant benchmark until adequate data is collected to establish an index for the nonprofit sector. A loose, but we would argue conservative, estimate is that top-tier charities are at least 10x more effective than the average charity in the U.S. Our vision is that the nonprofit sector will achieve 10x greater impact without increasing charitable giving norms.
Having a database of utility weights empowers donors and charities to measure impact in a manner that is consistent with the collective perspective of society. This data empowers the non-profit sector to prioritize impact over outcomes, learn from other charities with higher impact, and optimize program strategies in a more effective manner.
There is a tremendous disparity between the impact of the average charity compared to the top charities, this is in part because of the lack of data to communicate impact in a consistently comparable manner. Top-tier charities are 500x more effective than the U.S. Healthcare Intervention Threshold. While the U.S. Healthcare intervention is not an exact proxy for the charitable impact in the U.S., we do believe that it is a relevant benchmark until adequate data is collected to establish an index for the nonprofit sector. A loose, but we would argue conservative, estimate is that top-tier charities are at least 10x more effective than the average charity in the U.S. Our vision is that the nonprofit sector will achieve 10x greater impact without increasing charitable giving norms.
Sign up to participate in our beta launch.
Participants that sign up for the Daily Good beta launch can expect to begin receiving the questions starting February 1, 2021. In the meantime, we may send email updates to keep you posted on any relevant developments with this project.
|