Real-time technology-aided feedback loops in

international philanthropy:a case study

Mari Kuraishi, Marc Maxson, Josh Goldstein

the technology

the technology

email

mob

ile

web forms

website

technology - aidedword of mouth

email

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

email

twitt

er

gatherings

YouTube

Facebook

mass media

Twitter and YouTube replace mass media, augment public protests

word of mouth gatheringsmass media

email

twitt

er

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 – 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?