Data For Donor Impact Research Paper (August 2018)

There is a growing number of philanthropic intermediaries that organize, synthesize, analyze and present information about nonprofits, most of which they make available online. These intermediaries seek to help donors in their philanthropic decision making. It is unknown whether donors find this information useful, and/or actively use it to guide their philanthropy. The Stanford PACS Effective Philanthropy Learning Initiative (EPLI) studies how High Net Worth (HNW) donors research potential grantees, with special attention to how they use online data presented by intermediaries through the ‘Data For Donor Impact Research Project’.  This project was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.