Toolkit to help philanthropists achieve ‘maximum impact’ released in the UK
Howard Lake | 28 May 2014 | News
A toolkit to help philanthropists plan and refine their giving to ensure they achieve the greatest impact has been released in the UK by wealth management firm UBS.
The UBS Philanthropy Compass guides philanthropists through the “necessary building blocks and addresses the key questions” that “any philanthropist should consider when shaping his or her philanthropy”.
It is provides advice on:
- different strategic approaches to philanthropy
- identifying and assessing opportunities
- how to implement and evaluate the impact philanthropic of activities
- choosing the right ‘philanthropic vehicle’, or product, such direct giving, donor advised funds, or setting up your own foundation.
“Whether you are just starting out or running a long-standing foundation, philanthropy is iterative,” the Compass advises potential philanthropists. “It is natural to query and review the basis on which yours is run.”
Taking this iterative, approach, UBS says, will allow philanthropists to:
- adapt their philanthropy to a changing environment
- improve their operations to maximize impact
- stay true to their initial visions.
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A ‘logical theory of change’ for philanthropists
Speaking at the British launch of the Compass at City University last week, Dr Peter Grant, of City’s Cass Business School, said the compass would help provide a “logical theory of change” that will help philanthropists balance the resources they have, with the impact they could achieve with those resources, and the risk they’ll need to take to achieve that impact.
Dr Peter Grant: Compass provides a “logical theory of change”
“I see even sophisticated philanthropists and foundations enter into programmes without anything like the resources needed to have a significant impact, and they are then surprised when they don’t find any measurable impact,” Dr Grant said.
He added that ‘risk’ was “inculcated throughout” the Compass.
UBS has released the compass – which was first developed in 2011 with Cass Business School and social impact consultants FSG – as an open source resource for trustees, philanthropy advisors and individual and family philanthropists, not just clients of UBS.
“We are taking an extremely progressive view of corporate social responsibility, by looking at where we can add most value,” UBS’s head of philanthropy services in the UK Tom Hall told delegates.
The Compass was launched in the USA at the end of March. It can downloaded from USB’s website or viewed online.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.