In early 2014, Perla Ni, CEO and Founder of GreatNonprofits.org (the Yelp for Nonprofits) spoke to the World Bank about crowdsourced citizen feedback and opportunities globally. Learn more by reading her presentation.

1. Crowdsourced Citizen Feedback
January, 2014

2. Hurricane Katrina

3. Lack of On-the-ground Information

4. New Systems Information Model

5. Why Citizen Feedback Matters
1. Quality of services can reliably be
measured from the perspective of the
user.
2. Feedback from the user can provide
insight into how to improve programs.

6. Why Citizen Feedback Matters
“I believe that nonprofits need to adopt a similar
perspective and make sure that continuous
improvement is part of their operation.” - James D.
Power, formerly of J.D. Power & Associates.

7. A Citizen Feedback Tool for Nonprofits
• 1.8mm Nonprofit & project profiles
• >5,500 US City & Issue Pages
• ~200,000 reviews
• >19,000 Nonprofits

8. OUR MISSION
Help inspire and inform prospective donors and
volunteers
Enable great nonprofits to harness their most authentic
and most effective advertising – the stories of the people
they served
Promote greater nonprofit excellence through feedback
OUR PARTNERS
Our Mission & Partners

9. In The News
“GreatNonprofits focuses on helping people make great giving decisions through
socially sourced feedback and reviews. Increasing the amount and quality of
information available to donors will ultimately make giving easier, more effective, and
rewarding.”
– Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The website GreatNonprofits allows users to review and comment on charities, much
like Yelp does for reviews of restaurants or stores.
Sites such as GreatNonprofits are trying to use crowdsourcing to generate better
information about which charities really work.

10. Content syndication partnerships across nonprofit
information platforms to audience of 20million
Open Syndication of Content

11. Developing Countries Utilizing Tool
Primary usage in North America. We also have nonprofits
doing work in on developing countries that use our platform.
Such as in:
Africa:
Ghana
Malawi
Nigeria
Rwanda
Uganda
Asia:
Bangladesh
Philippines
Latin America:
Dominican Republic
Honduras
Jamaica
This is a partial list

12. Nonprofit & Project Profiles

13. - Tymesha T. Client served at Family Scholar House
Sample Beneficiary Review

14. Sample Donor Review
Cambodian Children’s Fund

15. Sample Donor Review
Cambodian Children’s Fund
“The Cambodian Children's Fund (CCF) serves among the most
poor and at risk children in Cambodia…Domestic violence, child
abuse, substance abuse and pedophilia are some of the problems
many of the children face on a daily basis. The transformation of the
children's lives is so dramatic…The children learn
Khmer, English, computer skills and receive vocational training in
addition to going to public school. They also receive free medical
and dental care. I now sponsor one of the little girls at CCF and
have encouraged my investment firm, Sterling Stamos Capital
Management, to provide annual funding as part of our corporate
giving program.”

16. Nonprofit Case Study Program
Improvements

17. Nonprofit Case Study Program
Improvements
“What interested us in being open to reviews from
our constituents is really the desire to improve our
services. Without hearing feedback about what
we’re doing well and what we can do better, we
really can’t make improvements in how we serve
our kids.” – Nicole Molinaro, Fmr Executive
Director of Communities in Schools
Pittsburgh, PA.

18. Lessons Learned
1. Feedback needs to be
easy, fast and inexpensive
to collect. Nonprofits
should not need to hire a
PhD or outside consultants
to do this. Nonprofits do
not want to take on
another large and
expensive operational
burden. Unless it can be
done in-house with existing
staff resources, it will not
be sustainable.

19. 2. Feedback needs to be easy to understand - for
everyone. Low-income people should be able to
submit feedback; nonprofit staff should be able to
easily take action based on the feedback and an
external audience of donors and volunteers should be
able to understand the information as well. It needs
to be easy enough for all these audiences to
understand what the feedback means.
Lessons Learned

20. 3. Feedback needs to be dynamic, and part of
continuous management improvement. It should be
on-demand - beneficiaries should be able to provide
feedback when they want to. And social programs
can encourage this process by inviting their
beneficiaries - by email or other means - to provide
feedback. If the feedback is negative, it benefits the
organization to follow-up more in depth and find out
why the beneficiary is dissatisfied.
Lessons Learned

21. 4. Feedback should not be edited. It may be
tempting to remove feedback that is perceived by
staff to be inaccurate. Just remember- feedback by
its very nature, is subjective – and keeping the voice
of the beneficiary as it is, is vital to the integrity of the
information and process.
Lessons Learned

22. 5. Feedback should be public. Beneficiaries become
cynical when their responses are edited, or not visible
to the public. As a result, beneficiary response rates
decline over time. Public feedback, as long as the
management of the organization can also get equal
space and be able to respond to the feedback publicly
as well, can hold everyone more accountable. It is far
harder to ignore and not respond to feedback that is
publicly posted online, than when the feedback is
filed away in a cabinet.
Lessons Learned

23. Quality & Validity of Reviews
Objective & Findings
Objective:
Create an open dialogue
Foster a culture of honest and open feedback, where users are less
afraid of giving feedback
Findings:
The majority of reviews are positive; but there are often
criticisms, complaints and constructive feedback
Some international organizations that have initiated feedback
programs, do get an equal number of complaints / compliments
(such as the Danish Refugee Council in Somalia)
We encourage nonprofits to leverage constructive criticism to
improve programs and drive transparency
See next page for sample reviews/constructive criticism.

24. “I would love to see more full-time staff positions to
encourage a even greater level of loyalty and support year-
round programming through study and work abroad
opportunities.”
– writes a volunteer with Amigos De Las Americas
“If I had to make changes to this organization, I would go
further to get feedback from the beneficiaries on what
exactly are their problems and work together with them to
help change their lives.”
- writes a supporter of the Malawi Project
Quality & Validity of Reviews “Samples”

25. Enables Project Staff Response

26. Either: Search your organizations name and claim the profile
Getting Started: search & claim your
profile

27. STEP 2: Claim your organization.
Getting Started: search & claim your
profile

28. Or: Add your organization manually
Getting Started: or manually add your
profile
Go here: http://greatnonprofits.org/organizations/add
You may also contact support
to be added at:
support@greatnonprofits.org

29. INVITE REVIEWS
1 2 3
Getting Started: Invite Reviews

30. INVITE REVIEWS
Getting Started: Invite Reviews

31. INVITE REVIEWS
Getting Started: Invite Reviews

32. • Send an email
with your reviews
page link to your
• Citizens
• Volunteers
• Donors
• Other non-paid
stakeholders
Getting Started: Invite Reviews

33. GET YOUR BADGE
Getting Started: Invite Reviews Using
Website Badge

34. Getting Started: Users Write Reviews

35. Future Tools

36. Your Challenges
Poor network coverage in rural villages
Frequent power shortages that prevent people from
charging their cell phones.
Illiteracy among the most vulnerable beneficiaries
means that they have to rely on third parties to
deliver messages.
The wide diversity of dialects can sometimes cause
communication difficulties

37. Example: Danish Refugee Council
Communication between
aid workers and
beneficiaries in Somalia
through SMS has allowed
the Danish Refugee Council
to monitor and improve the
way in which it delivers aid
in the field.

38. Danish Refugee Council

39. Danish Refugee Council

40. Sample Outreach -Danish Refugee
Council
Faa’iidada habkani dirista maasayjku u leeyahay ka
faa’iidaysta yaasha
· Si fufud u isticmaalid — fariintaada u dir numberkan
+252 2 4000919, adigoo isticmaalyaaya moobilkaaga
gacanta meelkastood joogto.
· Degdegsiinyo — ha sugin cidkale ee dir waxaad rabto
in aad tabiso ee maskaxdaada ku jira, dir xiligkasta oo aad
jaanis u hesho in aad maasayj dirto.
· Kalsoonidda warkaaga — ha dhibsan in aad gudbiso
ceeb iyo cillo nuxurka ay leedahay fariintaadu, cidna
waxba kuu raaci mayso.
· Natiijada fariintada — Codkaaga dhiibo oo fikradaada
ha la maqlo, haddaadan wax noo sheegin, ma ogaan karno
ra’yigaag. Ka qaybqaado isbedelka horumarka socdo.
Benefits of the SMS beneficiary
system:
· Simple to use — just send your
comment from your mobile phone by
texting to +252 2 4000919.
· Immediate — no waiting
around, you can say what you want
while it’s on your mind. Time
flexible, send messages anytime
convenient for you.
· Anonymous — no hassle, safe
and if it’s a bad comment, there’s no
confrontation and nobody to upset.
· Result! — Be heard and be part
of the decision-making, if you don’t
tell us, we won’t know. You can make
a difference!

41. Appendix

42. Quality & Validity of Reviews, Cont.
“I have been the sole care-giver for a poor sick Cambodian
friend and my friend has been treated at SHCH… The
hospital does not have a very enlightened view of the
value of complaints and has stated that they see them as
destructive, unhelpful and disruptive. This uninformed
view is in start contrast to widely accepted best-practice
methods and models that place a high value on complaints
as a key driver of ongoing healthcare quality
improvement.”
- writes a friend of a beneficiary at the
Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope in
Cambodia