The Robin Hood Rules for Smart Giving

by Michael M. Weinstein, Ralph M. Bradburd

The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization focused on alleviating poverty in New York City. Michael M. Weinstein is the foundation's senior vice president. In that role he developed its metrics-based approach, called "relentless monetization," to ensure that the money the foundation receives and grants is used most effectively. Ralph M. Bradburd has served as long-time consultant to Robin Hood on matters of metrics.

In this book Weinstein and Bradburd show how to implement the Robin Hood approach and explain how any nonprofit organizations or philanthropic donor can use it to achieve the greatest benefit from every philanthropic dollar. Drawing on their extensive knowledge, the authors devote specific chapters to the difficulties most frequently encountered by donors trying to measure the benefits of their initiatives.. This book provides straightforward, targeted advice for funding "smart" nonprofit programs.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2013

Reviews

[Wesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book outlines a framework for a philanthropic valuation model that the authors refer to as: Relentless Monetization. It is essentially a rigorous cost-benefit analysis methodology that the authors claim can be used to value social impact across different organizations regardless of the social mission. The Robin Hood Foundation aggressively collects and analyzes data on the effects of each of their programs in order to inform their investment decisions. I admire their commitment to measurement, but I am not convinced that they have discovered the 'holy grail' of valuation models. The whole model is built upon a number of unproven assumptions: most importantly, it is predicated on the belief that the RH Foundation knows which metrics are most important in quantifying their social impact (they say education and health are key to fighting poverty). They knowingly disregard feelings of safety, strengthened relationships within the community, feelings of human dignity, etc. This is not an all-encompassing valuation and it dangerously overlooks some very important factors. That being said, I think this is a great book and I highly recommend that anyone interested in valuing social programs read it. This is one of the most rigorous attempts to quantify social impact in a way that can be scaled across organizations, and there is much to learn from their efforts.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blah blah blah, garbage in garbage out (GIGO) theoretical calculations.
If you're going to write a book with a pretentious title like "Rules for smart giving" then you should have some record of major successes to back that up. The Robin Hood Foundation's goal is to fight poverty in NY City: they should let us know when they declare victory. One of the sparse examples in the book is of a program that they noticed by accident did not work.

[Peter Flom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about how to give away money more sensibly and effectively. It details "relentless monetization" (RM) which is the method used by the Robin Hood Foundation. It does a very good job of describing RM and showing how it works and can be applied. I think, though, it is less effective at selling the benefits of RM in general.

As a very brief summary RM looks at both the benefits and the costs of a donated dollar; it does this by monetizing benefits and looking at counterfactuals - that is, what *might* have happened.

This is an effective (if cumbersome) method when the donor is interested in things that can be monetized in some sensible way. For instance, if you want to donate money to fight poverty, this book will be useful. Or, if you want to look at donating to medicine, the book can be useful.

But, for some causes, I think any attempt at monetization is such a guess as to be useless. Suppose you believe strongly in civil liberties. What is the value of a free press? $100,000? $1,000,000? $1,000,000,000? One guess is as good as another. What is the value of keeping a newspaper in business? Put any number you like! Because, while you can look at the circulation and guess at the benefit to each reader, that neglects the benefit to other newspapers.

The book also advocates the use of Quality Adjusted Life Years. This can certainly be a useful tool, but it mostly looks at length of life and health related issues. What other adjustment is worth what? The Innocence Project, for example, works to get innocent people out of jail. What's the value of that, per prisoner? How much better (in monetary terms!) is a year out of jail versus a year in jail? I don't know. And I don't think RM answers it.

[Rob Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible must-read for anyone in the industry of philanthropy. Robin Hood is on the cutting edge of smart giving and has created a rigorous formula for evaluating its giving. This book is a concise and clear guide to how they do it.

[Batul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes two essential claims, although the authors elide the distinction.
The first is that smart, responsible philanthropy requires a clear and transparent way in which to make funding decisions.
The second is that Relentless Monetisation, developed and practiced by the Robin Hood Foundation, is the most reliable (if imperfect) framework that can be used to that end by-- and this is key-- all philanthropists regardless of their mission.
The first claim I find indisputable. Of the second, I remain skeptical.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is primarily a business publication for the philanthropy industry, and a fascinating one it is too. As well as thought-provoking formulae for calculating the comparative worth of philanthropic projects, there are also some frank tales from insiders and their efforts, particularly in projects addressing poverty in New York. Well-written and interesting in a beautifully presented slim professional volume. Lots to think about or refer back to once the last page is turned.Well done. I am most grateful for winning this giveaway copy. I already have 3 people in the industry lining up to borrow it.

[Sonia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book on a goodreads giveaway first reads. It wasn't my kind of book but it wasn't bad. And plus I am not into business books. It's ok if your a business person and if you own a business. But it wasn't for me sorry :(