Nick Cooney

Lever Foundation · Research/management

When it comes to measuring the financial success of the company though, the bottom line remains as clear as ever: How much money it is making? Just as for-profit businesses have a clear, measurable goal of making money, charity has a clear goal as well: to make the world a better place. Non-profits can ignore the bottom line and still survive and,...

In 1961 the Ford Foundation made a commitment to spend a quarter of a million dollars over the next four years helping to establish and launch a new non-profit called Theatre Communications Group (TCG). The goal of TCG would be to improve communication between theaters and theater workers around the country so that they could learn from one another...

This chapter going to reality-check some of that standard advice. Instead of trusting in feel-good maxims. The goal of charity is to make the world a better place, so charity decisions should be based on what will best achieve that. When faced with the hard fact that certain types of charity work do far more good than others, a common justification...

Efficiency is key for those who work at non-profits. But efficiency is also key for donors. In fact, when it comes to deciding where to donate, efficiency is everything. There can be huge differences in impact among charities in different fields, such as the Seva Foundation and the Theatre Communications Group. But is it really possible there could...

Charity has two key elements. First, charity is something done to help others. It's not about satisfying own desires. Second, the goal of charity is to reduce the suffering of those in need. Not every action taken under the banner of charity has that exact goal. Improving well-being and helping those in need are two sides of same coin. So perhaps a...

This chapter has been mostly doom and gloom so far, take the self-centered tendencies and actually put them to use for making the world a better place. There are still more ways in which our brains seem to be conspiring to trip us up trying to do good. It also discusses empathy has glaring biases that can lead us to make inefficient charity decisio...

Scientists, businesses executives, and political campaigners are not the only ones who can turn to testing and data to become more effective at reaching their goals. Those of us who want to make the world a better place can do so, too. Most care designed to address some problem: reduce poverty, prevent domestic abuse, end environmental destruction,...

This book discusses the hurdles we face in trying to be great at doing good. While the hurdles are real, they're actually pretty easy to overcome. The hard part is noticing they're there and recognizing them for what they are: obstacles that get in the way of doing good. Here, then, are nine steps to being great at doing good. 1) Get Serious; 2) Ne...

Praise for How to Be Great at Doing Good Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface: Schindler's Regret

Charities that were extremely efficient would grow very large, their donor base growing and growing as more people learned about the organization and what they do. Extremely inefficient non-profits that required a lot of money to do just a little Good, the Crash Colas of the charity world would not grow, because donors would not want to waste money...

How can we make the world as much of a better place as possible with limited time and money that each of us has? It seems like a simple question. But answering it honestly is like staring down the slope of a mountain. The hard fact is this: there is a massive difference in impact among charities in different fields. It's vitally important to think...