For the past two years, I’ve called for charities to admit their failures. I wrote about this issue just last week. So I’m happy to announce that on January 14, a new Web site was launched to provide a platform for admitting mistakes, and it’s aptly named admittingfailure.com, created by Engineers Without Borders Canada. That organization and GlobalGiving have both already included stories of their own mistakes.
In addition, Engineers Without Borders Canada released its 2011 Failure Report, detailing more projects that did not achieve full success.
In its press release announcing the new site, Engineers Without Borders described its goals for the new Web site as an “effort to get a seemingly simple but virtually non-existent practice adopted throughout the development sector.”
The announcement continues, “The need for this sort of practice is summarized by [international-development veteran] Ian Smillie in his conclusion authored for the Failure Report: ‘The development business is largely uncharted territory. If we knew how to end poverty, we would have done it a long time ago. And yet the enterprise is notoriously risk-averse; donors demand results and punish failure. The development challenge is not to avoid the risk that comes with charting new paths. It is not to deny failure. It is to learn, to remember, and to apply what is being remembered.’ ”
I challenge all charities to publicly admit and share their mistakes, and I challenge all individual donors to write to the nonprofits they support and encourage them to share their mistakes as well. We all know that mistakes are made all the time in aid and development. It’s time to stop hiding them and start learning from them.
What do you think?
4 Responses to New Web Site Encourages Charities to Admit Errors
ceffect - January 19, 2011 at 11:02 am
Saundra,
I’ve been a strong proponent of getting foundations to share grant reports on line. It seems to me that there is a lot we can all learn from programs others have worked on.
I do think it would enable more courage if a LOT of NGOs were willing to do this… it is very easy for the press or a disgruntled donor to single out and reposition the honesty. There are real risks here.
Gayle
PS Like the new name.
saundra - January 19, 2011 at 11:29 am
Gayle,
I agree, there is a risk unless many more NGOs are willing to admit their mistakes as well. With only a few being honest it makes it appear as though the honest ones are less competent than the ones that hide their mistakes.
I do feel like the tide is turning however. As I highlighted in my post http://philanthropy.com/blogs/world-view/why-admitting-mistakes-can-help-charities-educate-donors/11 the Case Foundation admitted their mistake in funding PlayPumps. You’ll also see in the comment section of that post that both Peace Dividend Trust http://ow.ly/3zC4D and the Robert Wood Johnson foundation http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=50910 have admitted their mistakes and lessons learned as well.
I’ve heard through twitter that Engineers Without Borders have had several submissions since launching their website. Following Gayle’s comment I’ve contacted them and asked them to comment on how the website has been received. They’ve said they’ll post a comment here later on today or tomorrow. I’m interested to hear what they have to say.
lisadnash - January 19, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Bravo to Engineers Without Borders Canada for this effort!
While sharing failures is important, the most important word is “sharing”. Today, there are many examples of innovative approaches to development challenges that could be adopted by many nonprofits, but aren’t because no one beside the nonprofit and its funder know about them. Transparency also promotes accountability and trust…which is what we need to increase support of important development efforts.
We have approached this issue in the water and sanitation space by building a global online network for funders, implementers, and local communities to share learning (good and bad). The general public is welcome to review all our member project data as well. Take a look at http://www.blueplanetnetwork.org and let us know what you think.
Lisa Nash, CEO, Blue Planet Network
philippeboucher - January 19, 2011 at 6:30 pm
This is an excellent initiative I support 150%. It should go hand in hand with systematic transparency.
I’ll spread the info.
Philippe Boucher
Tobacco Control in Africa
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/africa