Can charity categorisation help donors donate better?

Project summary

Explore the feasibility of categorising charities. This is the first step in building a tool to help donors direct their funding to where they would really like to make an impact.

How will this project benefit the organisation?  

EQ Foundation envisages that a charity categorisation of this sort would enable it to better direct its own £1m annual charitable donations in line with its charitable objects, and that it would help other major donors to direct their own funding similarly. It believes that this will significantly increase the impact achieved by funders across the whole charitable sector.

Client description

The EQ Foundation developed Giving is Great, a website dedicated to making it simpler to identify highly effective charities. It is a free access database of all UK charities with sophisticated analytics to help identify the most effective in order to inform people wishing to donate to charity.

Project description

This project aims to categorise registered charities in such a way that donors who want their money to go to a particular cause, or a particular type of activity, or a particular locality, or other personal requirements, can readily identify a shortlist of potential recipients.

The volunteer would work with the EQ Foundation Chair and his colleagues to firm up on the purpose of a charity taxonomy; clarify what it might look like, and how this could be presented in a way that is of use to donors; and propose the key classifications.

A successful outcome will either be a taxonomy with initial rules for classification; or a conclusion that, for reasons that have emerged during the discussions, this project is not worth pursuing.

The volunteer should have problem-structuring skills and experience. They may wish to use a specific approach such as Soft Systems Methodology, or simply facilitate an expert conversation. They should either have experience of designing a classification scheme, or be able rapidly to understand the basic principles of doing so.  

Apply

If you feel you can offer your assistance please complete the application form by Wednesday 17 April 2024. 

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Location

Remote

Time commitment

To be agreed between volunteer and organisation when completing detailed project proposal.

Desired start date

Whenever convenient

Desired end date

Whenever convenient

About the organisation

For further information about the EQ Foundation please visit https://eqfoundation.org.uk/

About Pro Bono OR

For further information about Pro Bono OR, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono or email [email protected]