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The Measurement Maven and Menace
of the Month Awards

The Measurement Maven of the Month:

John List
Economics Professor at University of Chicago

When three or more people forward you the same article saying, "You have to read this!" -- it makes you pay attention. That's what happened with the New York Times Magazine piece about John List and his research on why people give to philanthropic organizations. And, since KDPaine & Partners is doing quite a lot of work in that area, we were thrilled with his main premise: Non-profits need to be making decisions based on data, not on long-standing beliefs that may or may not still hold water.

Professor List brought together results from several research projects to demonstrate some interesting, if unexpected conclusions. One of which was that, for stimulating donations in fundraising campaigns, challenge grant seed money works better than matching grants.

Of course we'd like to factor in some PR metrics into his research to figure out what impact headlines have on charitable giving. We know PR works with the ASPCA (see this article from last fall) but we'd love to see it factored into a broader range of philanthropic efforts. Nonetheless, he's this month's Measurement Maven for the rigorous approach he brings to the subject. --KDP

The Measurement Menace of the Month:

Microsoft's
"Engagement Mapping"

(Okay, I'm hopelessly prejudiced. I just got my new beautiful HP laptop pre-loaded with Vista and I hate it. It crashes about five times an hour, and my experience so far with Vista guarantees that my next laptop will be a Mac.)

That having been said, we are also naming Microsoft our Measurement Menace of the Month for their "Engagement Mapping" product. Not that we don't believe in measuring engagement, (we really like that whole concept, see this recent article), but for throwing its weight into the whole discussion without providing any transparency or information as to how they "map engagement," or any details at all as to what is behind this black box. --KDP

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