Strategic philanthropy with visible results

Organisations we work with

What you get

• A clear giving strategy

  A simple theory of change: what you want to change, why, and how your gifts contribute

• Choosing organisations with care

  A check before you give, in proportion to the gift, that looks beyond ANBI status to what an organisation achieves and learns

• Light on the organisations you support

  Reporting that helps them learn rather than adding paperwork

• Fits how you give

  Goals and reporting that work whether you give directly, through a named fund, a family foundation or a giving circle

• An honest account

  A credible account of your giving for family, advisers and fellow givers

Why we do what we do

Read the film as text

1. We all want to know
2. our place in the world.
3. Thin grey lines join dots into a web.
4. We like to believe that what we do is part of something larger.
5. It is.
6. Together we make our surroundings, our brands, our communities.
7. We shape the work of others, as they shape ours.
8. The web grows dense.
9. We live in one web of cause and consequence.
10. Each path tells a story, part of a larger narrative.
11. A system of meaning.
12. So what is our impact?
13. Whose lives do we touch?
14. What changed? For whom? How much? And what part was ours?
15. Intended or not, for better or worse.
16. Knowing that changes what you do next.
17. A dark line draws a path through the web. Impact management helps you see it, steer it, and use it.
18. A large word: Lead. A purple path runs through the web. Lead with purpose, and fund your mission.
19. A large word: Improve. A green path runs through the web. Learn what doesn’t work and design for better.
20. A large word: Engage. A blue-green path runs through the web. Share your story, and bring others into it.
21. A large word: Account. A blue path runs through the web. State your claim, and prove it.
22. A large word: Discover. A yellow path runs through the web. Find your next impact before it happens.
23. “How do you measure impact?”
24. It sounds hard.
25. It isn’t.
26. It’s not about the how.
27. It’s about
28. Portraits of people fill the screen.
29. A large word: Who.
30. About rights-holders, whose lives are touched.
31. And stakeholders, whose choices shape them.
32. The people stand side by side, at the same height. A wave of colour runs through the web. Every voice, every perspective, equally weighed.
33. The web turns many colours. Pluriform and equivalent.
34. Who determines what.
35. And what determines how.
36. That’s it. No more, no less.
37. We count what can be counted, and listen to the rest.
38. Coloured paths wind across the web. We find the stories that connect the dots, and make sense of the whole.
39. We love our craft:
40. to ask the questions,
41. to measure what matters,
42. and narrate what works.
43. One dark path remains. Let’s reveal your path.
44. The word narrate, with the line: impact in numbers and stories.

What we often hear

• “I want my money to make a real difference, but choosing between such different causes is hard. Tax status only tells me a gift is deductible.”

  We help you set clear criteria for choosing, and a proportionate check before you give, without forcing everything into the same metrics

• “The organisations I support see reporting as paperwork that keeps them from their work.”

  We help you agree light-touch reporting that is useful for their own learning too

• “I give through a named fund and a giving circle. What does it add up to?”

  We help you agree shared goals with your family, fellow givers or the foundation that manages your fund, and a simple way to follow results together

• “My children ask whether our gifts tackle root causes or only ease symptoms.”

  We help you make your theory of change explicit and test it against what actually happens

What you may be wondering

• Isn’t this too much for what I give?

  We keep it in proportion to your giving. Sometimes one well-answered question is enough.

• Won’t this add work for the organisations I support?

  That is exactly what we want to avoid. We agree light reporting that they find useful themselves, and start from what they already track.

• Can you actually measure what giving achieves?

  Not everything, and we don’t pretend otherwise. You see what organisations achieve and learn, and what part your gift played in that.