Keyhole Gardens

Keyhole gardens are viable gardens for Africa that take up about as little space as you can imagine. (I've got to spend some more time at Send a Cow because it looks like they have a good number of interesting ideas.)

PATH delivers new health care technology

"PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology and Health) is a nonprofit organization that is about making sure that the benefits of innovation in science and technology are available to developing countries and remotely located, low-income groups." Dr Christopher Elias discusses some of their work and how they get it out to people in this podcast. As two examples, they have improved the malaria nets (so you don't have to dip them in insecticide as often), and they have come up with an indicator to tell if a dose immunization has lost it's potency due to inadequate refrigeration. It's fun to hear about.

In each case, he also discusses how they have to make sure to work with all the following aspects, because if you miss one area your initiative may end up being ineffective:

• new technology
• systems for delivery
• individual behavior that needs to change

When do you formally evaluate your charitable work?

Alana Connor and others (a successful evaluator and a funder) did a very interesting, informative discussion on how to evaluate a non-profit's effectiveness. In part of it, she explained that "very few" organizations will benefit from an evaluation because they do not meet the following criteria:

• the program has a clear theory of change
• the staff are implementing it with fidelity and you know that and you've measured that
• someone, somewhere wants to replicate it
• people are proud of the program

They go into detail on why it's good to evaluate (if you can), what kinds of studies and methodologies are useful, and how to work effectively with all the parties involved. I recommend listening if you're even remotely interested in the topic.

Why government should help social entrepreneurs, and why it should not

David Gergen ("advisor to Presidents") gives his views on why our national government should help with innovative social enterprises in this interview; thankfully, it is followed by some commentary that give good arguments why the government should not get involved.

students who are getting far better opportunities

I just listened to an interview with Rafael Alvarez about his organization Genesis Works that is helping very low-income students get much better opportunities when they graduate. He gives some good detail about their growth and lessons learned; he includes a few stories... I think you'll like this (4-minute) story about a kid named "German". That impact is what it's all about.