Giving Compass' Take:

· In this excerpt from his book, Phil Buchanan addresses the common problems donors face when approaching an issue and how they can give with more impact.

· How can donors better invest their funds to make a big impact without focusing on 'disrupting' an issue?

· Check out these five ways for donors to give better.

In 2016, Bill Gates decided to donate 100,000 hens in developing countries, in partnership with the nonprofit Heifer International, to combat extreme poverty. He had written a blog post about the wisdom of raising chickens as a way out of poverty. “It’s pretty clear to me that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens. In fact, if I were in their shoes, that’s what I would do—I would raise chickens,” he wrote.

While the wisdom of this effort may have been clear to Gates, it wasn’t necessarily clear to everyone else. In fact, the Bolivian government rejected the help, calling it “offensive.”

“Cluck You: Bolivia Rejects Bill Gates’ Donation of Hens,” blared a headline in the UK newspaper the Guardian. “He does not know Bolivia’s reality to think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce,” said César Cocarico, the country’s minister of land and rural development. “Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia, and once he knows more, apologize to us.”

Gates’ mistake is emblematic of a common one among both individual givers and institutional ones, and it’s led to a kind of backlash against so-called “strategic philanthropy.” Givers sometimes feel like they know what’s best for those they intend to help. It’s perfectly clear to them: They’ve got just the thing to address the problem.

Read the full article about giving better by Phil Buchanan at Stanford Social Innovation Review.