The rise and fall of GiveWell at the Chronicle of Philanthropy

Excerpts from the Chronicle of Philanthopy article below.  (If you're in nonprofit work & your group doesn't subscribe to the Chronicle, it should.  As someone in the design world observed when I was talking about a CofP article, "It's the Women's Wear Daily of charity!") 

While Mr. Karnofsky's actions angered many people, not everyone agreed that what he did was reprehensible.

"The controversy is way out of proportion to the 'crime,'" wrote Seth Godin, a marketing consultant in New York, in an e-mail message. "All he did was mask his identity while asking a question. People need to chill out a bit."

Michelle Moon, the Metafilter member who first raised questions about Mr. Karnofsky, disagreed. While public-relations companies may use such "guerrilla marketing," charities need to avoid such tactics or risk being seen as untrustworthy, she said.

Ms. Moon, who is director of education at Strawbery Banke, a museum in Portsmouth, N.H., said young people like Mr. Karnofsky, who is 26, need to better understand nonprofit principles; at the same time, experienced charity workers should learn more about Internet communications tools.

"Our standards already exist, we just need to apply them to another medium," she said. "The philanthropic world needs to get more comfortable online."

One step in this direction is drafting a disclosure and ethics policy that covers Internet operations, said Bill Strathmann, chief executive officer at Network for Good, an online giving portal. Network for Good, in Bethesda, Md., has signed a code of ethics created by the ePhilanthropy Foundation, a group in Ellicott City, Md., that helps charities with online fund raising.

The one-page code, which about 100 organizations have endorsed, requires groups to "employ practices on the Web site that exhibit integrity, honesty, and truthfulness and seek to safeguard the public trust."

If more charities consider adopting such policies, Mr. Strathmann said, the GiveWell episode might have a silver lining.

"Ironically, it may put more attention on transparency than anything the group had done previously," he said.

For its part, GiveWell's board is writing a communications policy to govern online activities, said Mr. Elliott, the charity's chairman.

"The organization wants to ensure these types of activities don't happen again," he said. "When communicating with the public, you need to be consistent with your values. It is not worth drumming up extra Web site hits if the message is not consistent."

But several observers said the organization continues to fail to demonstrate the values it set out for itself, and they question whether the group will be able to attract donors with this high-profile black eye.

Jeff Trexler, a professor of social entrepreneurship at Pace University, said GiveWell should have closed its doors or merged with another group to honor its promise of "radical accountability."

"I would've shut it down," said Mr. Trexler, "because its original mission has been compromised."