Making Philanthropy Developmentally Effective

This project builds on two previous research projects. The first, (ES/1033890/1) investigated the 'philanthroscape' of Colombo focusing on the actual and potential role of charity and philanthropy in supporting development. This indicated that most charity takes place within specific social groups and reinforces existing social differences. Interventions are relatively unplanned and mainly consist of simplistic forms of social protection rather than address underlying causes of poverty and marginalisation. The research aimed to influence stakeholders through knowledge exchange meetings, training workshops and policy notes. We also encouraged various international agencies to support links between indigenous charitable organisations and local development organisations through distributing our policy notes and visiting major players.
In the course of the research it became clear that there was considerable demand within the charitable sector for assistance in defining more sustainable and effective activities amongst Sri Lankan organisations, the general public and the corporate sector. This led to a second project (ES/L007819/1). Our conceptual framework was based on the key finding that while many Sri Lankan charities and philanthropists often lack knowledge of best 'principles' and 'practices' of effective philanthropy, CSR, and social business to deliver real change. This was the basis for a series of training days, associated activities and materials. The workshops were mounted with CSR Lanka. Our target for participation was 105: 130 attended the workshops and the feedback was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Whilst implementing this latter project and in subsequent discussions the considerable demand for further training sessions became evident. In Colombo this involves assistance in generating sustainable linkages between donors and recipients and making available knowledge and skills enabling stakeholders to engage in effective decision making. This project will mount a series of advanced workshops addressing such issues. As in the last project, training material will be made available in all three of Sri Lanka's official languages. The target number of participants is 50 decision makers.
One of the issues raised during the workshops was the need for some sort of online register or map allowing donors and beneficiaries to interact with each other, recognise potential area for collaboration and areas of synergy. This will be addressed through establishing a network using open source software (Ushahidi) and lodging it with either the BC or CSR Lanka to ensure sustainability.
Another is the need to bring state and parastatal organisations into conjunction with the charitable and private sectors. To this end, policy forums will be held at the start and end of the workshop series, both as a way of encouraging governmental involvement and ensuring aims and objectives reflect national development priorities, but also as a way of promoting uptake of our findings.
We were surprised at the number of applicants for our workshops from the north and northeast of Sri Lanka. Here, there is an ongoing process of reconstruction. Charitable organisations are active but in a relatively unfocused way and with little understanding of development. Local organisations are finding it difficult to create and maintain partnerships with donors. Interest has been expressed in the workshops mounted during the previous project, and during this project a series of revised workshops will be held in Jaffna. The target number of participants is 50.
In our first project we attempted to interest major donors in our research and its implications for policy. This resonated with some of the activities of the ADB which has expressed interest in working with us to encourage larger philanthropic organisations to support smaller agencies. To meet this need a seminar will be held in Singapore in association with the ADB.

The direct beneficiaries of this project will be organisations in the charitable sector, private sector companies involved in CSR activities and representative of the state sector involved in policy making and activities associated with the charitable sector. In Colombo this will include both local and national charitable organisations on the donor's side, and various NGOs and CSOs on the recipient side. Similarly, both donors and recipients will benefit from structured interaction with policy makers and state organisations. In Jaffna, the major direct beneficiaries will be locally-based developmental organisations and potential donor partners. From the seminar in Singapore, higher level philanthropists and other donor organisations will benefit from exposure to the lessons learnt in the Sri Lankan context and be able to better support local level initiatives.
Indirectly, poor and marginalised groups will benefit from this project. To some extent this will be more direct in so far as representatives of such groups are members of developmental organisations, but indirectly groups already in touch with development organisations supported by charitable bodies will benefit as will others yet to be approached by such bodies.
The benefits will primarily be achieved through improving the efficiency and effectiveness of both charitable agencies and the recipients of their assistance. This will be achieved through creating long running linkages between the parties involved, and increasing the capacity of donors and recipients to design effective developmental interventions plus monitoring and evaluation capacities. This will result in development assistance which moves beyond simple forms of social protection, and will have impacts not only in terms of income of poor groups but also in their engagement in the development process.