Mindful social investing
Good intentions are sometimes not enough. If you want to get the biggest bang for your donated buck, it's wise to educate yourself a bit about the projects and organizations who are asking for your support.
The Internet is the ideal tool to find information quickly and free of charge. What does "effective" work mean? Which questions are important to ask to make sure that your engagement makes the best possible changes in the places where it's most needed? Almost all social projects are well intended, but some of them are better than others.
A good project catches your eye. But are the project's targets structured toward finding solutions to the original problems? Does it result in any negative side-effects? Does it make sense in a broader context? Is it organized around short-term goals, or has consideration been given to the long term impact? In order to help you judge the quality of your chosen projects, we've put together a catalogue of useful questions. If you don't see the answers to any of these questions in the project descriptions on betterplace.org or on the organization's own webpages, then we encourage you to contact and challenge the project managers or organizations directly to make these answers apparent.
Checklist for project supporters
The following checklist can assist you in the search for better projects and provide a structure to help you reach your decisions.
Long-term sustainability
- Is the project target-oriented and comprehensively planned? Does the project have a long-term value?
- Does the project have possible negative side-effects (for example, ecological or social effects)? How will those be dealt with?
- Technical requirements: is the use of the technology secure over the long-term? Are replacement parts easy to obtain? Can the instruments be maintained and repaired at low cost? Can local workers do the repairs?
- Will the project be financed over the long-term?
Local circumstances, participation of the population
- Is the local population integrated into the work of the project goals and measures as well as in the further development of the project? Have considerations been made to include all impacted groups, such as women, children, and those without land ownership?
- Technical requirements: are the proposed technologies suited to the geographical, social and cultural characteristics of the region?
- Will all residents have access to the projected project results and benefits, regardless of their social status?
Rights, administration
- Who will be responsible for the project when the organization is no longer onsite? Is it possible for the project to continue without the help of external organizations?
- Does the project lead to or encourage unfair working conditions? Will corruption and exclusion be avoided as much as possible, and how?
Impact
- Is it possible to estimate the impact of the project? Will there be opportunities for evaluation?
You can download this checklist as a pdf above in the right hand column.
