Caroline Fiennes @carolinefiennes Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

7,641

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731

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1,065

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31,297

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Director, Giving Evidence: enabling charitable giving based on sound evidence. Cambridge Visiting Fellow. 'Charmingly disruptive': Nobel laureate Richard Thaler

https://t.co/NwSz7Xqywt

Joined April 2010

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 years

Dear medical profession, When you realise that somebody is dying, please tell them that clearly. I know it must be god-awful thing to say, but, oddly, it's a massive gift. That was my family's experience. Me, in the @bmj_latest :

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Caroline Fiennes: Tale of a life ended well - The BMJ

Caroline Fiennes describes how a doctor’s honesty about how long her mum had left to live was a much appreciated gift My mum died in 2016, a more decorous and [...]More...

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Giving Evidence today publishes #research about Royal patronages of charities: what are they, which charities have them, and whether they help. It's in today's @TheTimes (£). Our findings include these (thread): #charity #Royal #royalfamily

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Having a royal patron doesn’t pay for charities

Having a member of the royal family as patron is perhaps the most sought-after prize for a charity. But beyond lifting spirits and gracing its headed notepaper and website, a royal patron brings no...

www.thetimes.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

10 months

It's often claimed that the UK's #royal family "does a lot for #charity ". Our analysis could find no effect of royals on charities. Plus a resident royal family doesn't make countries more generous: that was true in our analysis in 2020, & also by this year's World Giving Index:

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

9 months

My annual Quote of the Year award goes to.... this gem from The Guardian!

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 months

To become a Companion of Honour, you can either predict the existence of a particle which accounts for all of matter, or you can just be Prince Charles' daughter-in-law. The white daughter-in-law; not the mixed race one, obvs. #royal #royalfamily

@Otto_English

Otto English

5 months

The Companion of Honour, which recognises achievements in science and the arts, is limited to 65 people - Peter Higgs has just died, and there's therefore a vacancy. I'm not sure what has Kate done to deserve this honour alongside Sir Paul Mccartney and Dame Maggie Smith.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Striking that Meghan's disclosure of her & Harry's miscarriage gets zero mention or comment on the Twitter accounts of Harry's brother, father or grandmother: nothing on @RoyalFamily , @clarencehouse , or @kensingtonroyal . Surely not hard to mention it & express sympathy. #royal

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

Anti-malaria bednets are cheap & effective at preventing a common & fatal disease. It is not OK to write in int'l newspapers claiming they fail. So Prof Paul Garner of the Liverpool School of - !! - Tropical Medicine & I wrote in The Economist in response to the recent letter:🧵

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

The @Independent cites "a source close to the royal family" when reporting the royals' reaction to Harry's complaint that the royals brief the press against him. They literally admit the charge right there. The irony-o-meter is blowing.

@DrPoulRohleder

Poul Rohleder

@DrPoulRohleder

2 years

C’mon, really?! “Cult” of psychotherapy? The Independent shamefully stigmatising mental health

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

2/ UK charities should not seek or retain #Royal patrons expecting either many public events with them, nor an effect on revenue. We couldn't find any effect of Royal patronages on charities’ revenues, despite multiple sophisticated statistical analyses. #charity #fundraising

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

@POPSUGARUK When you say "The Duchess of Cambridge took time out of her busy back-to-work schedule", she's only had one single meeting in the last 25 days. Some of the @royalfamily do really hardly anything. #tennis @the_LTA #royal #Kate #KateMiddleton

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

I've often said: a fundamental problem with the British #RoyalFamily is that there's nothing material for the non-monarch to do. Hence Prince Andrew busied himself as he did, Prince Harry saw the problem & quit, and this kind of thing:👇 #royal

@vitt2tsnoc

Vitt

2 years

Princess Margaret's morning routine is something I aspire to.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

3/ We were surprised that three-quarters (74%) of UK charities which have #Royal patrons did not get a single public engagement with them during 2019. Only 1% of charities which have #Royal patrons got more than one public engagement with them during 2019.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

To be clear, none of the £5m for the mental health campaign that William and Kate are 'backing' is coming from them personally, nor from their foundation. It's government money. and #philanthropy #charity #royal #corona #Covid_19

Government announces support for mental health during coronavirus outbreak

The Government has issued guidance about looking after wellbeing during the pandemic, as well as a £5m pot to help charities support people’s mental health.

www.mind.org.uk

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

Harry's central claim seems to be that the @royalfamily was (is) using taxpayer-funded press office staff to brief against him. Surely that's an abuse of public money. The UK has mechanisms to prevent that, right? Will be interesting to watch those wheel into action (or not…)

@natashaloder

Natasha Loder

2 years

Hearing all these Royal correspondents talk abstractly about “allegations” that the palace was briefing journalists is infuriating. Obviously it is true. If it wasn’t the Royal correspondents would say so… and they can’t admit it or the RF will never…

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

A basic failure of the British #Royal Family is not creating anything for those who aren't the Monarch to do. Their #charity patronages mainly involve zero official engagements 👇 Andrew busied himself as he has. No wonder #HarryandMeghan have left.

@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

3/ We were surprised that three-quarters (74%) of UK charities which have #Royal patrons did not get a single public engagement with them during 2019. Only 1% of charities which have #Royal patrons got more than one public engagement with them during 2019.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

20/ I'm happy to talk to press. Note to journos: there are several Caroline Fiennes'es. I was never married to Ralph & Joseph's father, my husband wasn't stabbed, and I don't sell soap...😠

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Apparently under protocol, such gifts remain property of the Crown. So, if association with any such gift is so embarrassing, the the @royalfamily should just return it. And get Prince Andrew to talk to the FBI.

@thetimes

The Times and The Sunday Times

4 years

The Times can reveal that the duchess wore earrings to a 2018 event that were a wedding gift from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said by the US to have approved the murder of the Jamal Khashoggi. The dinner took place three weeks after the killing.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

7/ *The data that the #Royalfamily publishes about its "charities and patronages" (its term) has many errors, duplications, omissions, and is hard to use. It took us six weeks to construct a defensible list. So these numbers are from Giving Evidence, not the Palace.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

This statement looks false. The refurb was funded from the pot of money that the UK gives to the Royals, i.e., it wasn't marginal cost to the tax-payer. Harry and Meghan seem to have repaid that money into that pot that the Royals have, i.e., it isn't returned to the tax-payer.

@Reuters

Reuters

4 years

Prince Harry and Meghan refund UK taxpayers for home renovation

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

1 year

There are regulatory investigations into various charities set up by UK royals: #charity #governance #philanthropy #royal #royalfamily

King’s charity removed from register

www.civilsociety.co.uk

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

Do other countries send their head of state's grandchildren on fully-paid jolly trips with no political or economic purpose? #royalfamily #Royals #royal

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William and Kate arrive in Belize for jubilee Caribbean tour

The couple were all smiles as they began their week-long tour celebrating the Platinum Jubilee.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

4/ Royals do far more public engagement w/ charities they set up than with pre-existing charities they take on. The latter (Prince’s Trust, the Duke of Ed Award, etc.) are 2% of their charity patronages, but get 36% of public engagements that they do w/ their patronee charities.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

6 years

This is brilliant. For Brits, something can be literally unbelievably good and still not score 9/ 10. Mustn't grumble ;-)

@YouGov

YouGov

6 years

How good is "good"? About 6.92 out of 10, according to the British public.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Harry & Meghan have given $130,000 to a patronee #charity . This is (understatement) unusual for what the @RoyalFamily (which they're not really now in) gives its patronee #charities . Our detailed research is at #Royal #Royalfamily #giving #philanthropy

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Royal patronages of charities don’t seem to help charities much

___________________________ A note about Royal charity patronages re the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II: HM Queen had ~600 patronages. They were not all charities: many were parts of the military…

giving-evidence.com

@Camfed

CAMFED - Campaign for Female Education

4 years

Just in, a message from The Duke & Duchess of Sussex, who are matching your INSPIRING actions by making a $130,000 gift to CAMFED: ‘No better way to celebrate what really matters. Thank you to everyone who donated, Harry and Meghan’ #TogetherWeCan !

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Happy anniversary to Prince Andrew, who 'stepped back from public duties' a full year ago - but who, as far as we know, remains fully on the #Royal payroll and hasn't spoken to the FBI as per their request. (Weird that he quit on his parents' wedding anniversary.) @RoyalFamily

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

@ortonheart @POPSUGARUK @RoyalFamily @the_LTA The problem is fundamental and structural: there is nothing for anyone in the @royalfamily except the monarch to do. That's why Harry left. Prince Andrew has busied himself as he has. Giving Evidence showed that their ' #charity work' has no discernible effect. We don't need them.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

5/ #Charity patronages seem to matter to the Royals. 26% of the Royals’ public engagements during 2019 were with patronee charities. {So, taking public engagements as indicator of workload, they're 1/4 of the Royals' work. We could find no effect of that.}

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

Private Eye, which has long had a mole in the palace, says that the Queen is pretty ill: much more so than the palace is letting on. It also says that "in good spirits" means body failing. #royal #royalfamily

@Telegraph

The Telegraph

2 years

🔴 Palace sources have been at pains to stress that the sovereign is not ill and is “as committed to her duties of state as ever”

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 months

The @royalfamily invents baubles and awards them to itself. This BS has no role in a democracy. The UK should wake up to the waste of resources that they are, and get rid of royalty: it serves no purpose except perpetuating elites & unearned, tax-funded privilege.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

3/ e.g., here, it transpires that Kate hadn't visited one of her patronee charities for *nine years*: *Giving Evidence's analysis of #charity patronages of the UK royals is here: It found no evidence that royal patronages help.

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Kate Middleton Caught In ‘Embarrassing’ Situation During Zoom Call

Kate Middleton was criticized by the netizens after learning that she has not visited one of her patronages, Action on Addiction, for eight years.

www.designerzcentral.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

12/ Charities with patronages are disproportionately in London, the South East and South West of England – where the Royals’ main residences are. More deprived regions seem under-represented.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

4a/ We found this pattern for both all charities in 2019, and the sample of charities we analysed for the three years 2016-2019.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

17/ We found no reason to think that charities with Royal patronages are better (more effective) than those without: the selection process and criteria aren't clear, but it looks like history, geography, the Royals' personal interests and serendipity play large roles. #charity

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

9/ Re effect on revenue, the complicated maths couldn't find an effect*. But here are revenue of air ambulances: they go red when they get a Royal patron. You can see that nothing much happens then: (*note: this ≠ conclusively finding no effect)

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

6/ The Royals seem to be* patrons of 1187 registered UK charities. Of those, 1064 have one Royal patron, and 123 have multiple Royal patrons. Their patronage positions have various titles, incl. patron, honorary patron, president, honorary fellow, & in one case, Companion Rat.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

14/ We found no evidence of Royalty having any ‘macro’ effect on generosity. There's no correlation between the % of #Royal patronages in an English region and the ‘participation in #giving ’ there (the % people who have given recently).* #philanthropy #charity

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

13/ Charities with patronages are concentrated in ‘ #environment and animals’ and ‘culture and #sport ’ - relatively uncontroversial causes. The sectors with fewest Royal patronages are #housing , #employment , social services, and #religion . #charity #Royal

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

8/ #Charity patronages are very unevenly distributed. The Queen, Charles and Anne have 532 between them*: by contrast, William has just 12, Kate 9 and Harry has 8. (*= half of the single-patron patronee charities). 19 UK Royals have charity patronage positions.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

10a/ Of course, revenue isn't everything and Royal patronages may have effects on other things, eg., beneficiaries, staff morale. But we're trying to do science, and there's no analysable data on those other outcomes. We tried to analyse press coverage, but couldn't.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

16/ And internationally, it is not the case that countries with resident #Royal families (the UK, Cambodia, the UAE, Morocco, etc.) are more generous than countries without. No country with a resident Royal family has been in the top 8 most generous countries over the last 4 yrs.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

10/ Much the same for revenue of children's hospices. And for all the other comparator groups that we looked at. (The report has more graphs - many more!😉.)

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

10 months

3/ To be clear, our analysis included ALL UK charities with a #royal patron. We had literally three million data-points. Sure, there are the odd exceptional good story, but seven different regression analyses don't lie about overall patterns. The research is here: ( #royalfamily )

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Re-stating this. re #Royal & #charity

@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

To be clear, none of the £5m for the mental health campaign that William and Kate are 'backing' is coming from them personally, nor from their foundation. It's government money. and #philanthropy #charity #royal #corona #Covid_19

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 years

ICYMI: Dear medical profession, When you realise that somebody is dying, please tell them that clearly. I know it must be a god-awful thing to say but it's a massive gift. That was my family's experience. Me, in the British Medical Journal @bmj_latest

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Caroline Fiennes: Tale of a life ended well - The BMJ

Caroline Fiennes describes how a doctor’s honesty about how long her mum had left to live was a much appreciated gift My mum died in 2016, a more decorous and [...]More...

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

2/ When Giving Evidence read the Court Circular (daily listing of all activities of each #royal ) for an entire year, for our analysis of their charitable activities*, it was clear that some royals choose to do a lot & some choose to do little. Their system tolerates idleness.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

19/ Our research is here, with some explanatory videos🎊🎉: It was funded by the Belgian Red Cross, Flanders, @RodeKruisVL (see also ) Cambridge University was not involved. Many others were - thanks! 👏🤜🤛 - eg, @DrSylviaMcLain .

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Royal patronages of charities don’t seem to help charities much

___________________________ A note about Royal charity patronages re the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II: HM Queen had ~600 patronages. They were not all charities: many were parts of the military…

giving-evidence.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

18/ Giving Evidence takes no position on the #Royal family (or Royalty more broadly). Our interest is providing sound #evidence to inform decisions by charities & donors to improve their #effectiveness .

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Yeah, both these charities have had #Royal patrons for years. BTO has had just two Royal engagements in the last *ten years*; FFI not even that - it's had just one. Methinks most Royal #charity patronages are not really a thing:

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@KensingtonRoyal

The Prince and Princess of Wales

@KensingtonRoyal

4 years

Today The Duke of Cambridge has become Patron of two wildlife conservation charities, @FaunaFloraInt and @_BTO , handed to The Duke by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

Klaxon! New project: to rate grant-making foundations on their #diversity , accountability and transparency. It's unprecedented. We'll rate them without their permission, using only info that is public. We'll publish all our findings. Next year, we do it again.🧵 #philanthropy

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

11/ Charities with patronages are generally large: their revenue is (on average) nearly 30 times larger than the average UK charity. The charities with multiple Royal patrons are huge: on av. >80x the ave revenue of UK charities:

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

7 years

Listening, not shooting.

@ahgamich

michelle

7 years

This is the best thing I've seen today

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

15/ (*I'm well aware that we are here using English regions as controls / comparators for each other & that that is not perfect b/c there are loads of confounding factors. I do not need a lecture about that from anybody! We looked from many angles to try to get a line of sight.)

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

The Telegraph claims that a #charity flew #PrinceAndrew , its then-patron, to New York (presumably not in cattle class) to attend a #fundraising event. We suspected that #royal patronages carry a cost - so it matters that we found no evidence of benefit.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

So it may be that neither #charity had a choice in whether Prince William became its patron. Reminder: we couldn't establish what a #Royal patronage comprises nor find evidence of effect on revenue, but did find that most (74%) patronee charities got zero visits last year.

@KensingtonRoyal

The Prince and Princess of Wales

@KensingtonRoyal

4 years

Today The Duke of Cambridge has become Patron of two wildlife conservation charities, @FaunaFloraInt and @_BTO , handed to The Duke by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

Recently spoke to a new foundation, just getting set up. They want to fund "innovatively". Honestly, the best #philanthropy is just evidence-based or evidence-generating, unrestricted, long term, easy to apply for, and low maintenance. Sadly that is still pretty innovative.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 months

Americans sometimes think that when a UK royal is a patron of a #charity , they give it (lots of) money. We've never heard of that. That's not basically what it is. Our royals are not the Medici! Rather they, er, use the charity to do photo-shoots & try to look busy, & relevant.

@Oddeconomics

Odd N. Hanssen

4 months

@lukusem @carolinefiennes I never thought the point of royals' participation in charities was to get other people to donate money. I always thought it was a charity they gave significant amounts to.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

7 years

'We need a science of #philanthropy ': my piece in - gasp - @nature : #giving #charity #development #science #intdev

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We need a science of philanthropy

Nature - Billions of dollars are being donated without strong evidence about which ways of giving are effective, says Caroline Fiennes.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

I'm asked to teach some #charity people about measuring #impact . Most shouldn't: they lack adequate sample size, funds, skills. Instead, they should use existing lit to design the intervention; ensure it reaches the right people; & everybody gets it all.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

Interesting aspect of this 'scandal' around Royals raising money for #charity from dodgy people, is that Royals' (alleged) ability to raise money for charity is PRECISELY a key justification for their involvement - and indeed for the monarchy*. And the purpose of patronage is...

@charleskeidan

Charles Keidan

3 years

Prince Charles’ Foundation under statutory investigation. Latest from ⁦ @eroohi ⁩ and me in ⁦ @Alliancemag ⁩ with the allegations against the Prince’s Foundation and what it all means for philanthropy

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

10 months

3/ here: #royal #royalfamily #brfact #charity #philanthropy

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

There's a debate on #econtwitter about the merits of difference-in-difference vs two way fixed effects analyses. Giving Evidence's analysis of #Royal #charity patronages used both: six types of TWFE with various input variables*. None found an effect.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 years

@philipoltermann @PaulLewis Poor woman! Leave her alone on her hols.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

We are interviewing loads of grantees of a big fdn whose grants are mainly unrestricted. They all have tons of stories of that flexibility proved essential and enabled them to do waaay more than the same amount restricted. Who knew? Well, lots of us. But still🙄 #philanthropy

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

?! letter in @TheEconomist , claiming that Gates Fdn's funding of bednets distribution had no effect on malaria incidence, because thet were (all?) used as fishing nets. It's BS. MASSES of rigorous evidence finds that nets reduce malaria cases, eg, cont'd

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

2/ Reminder: we could not find any evidence of positive effects of UK royals on charities of which they're patrons, despite looking super hard:

Do Royals help charities? We’re finding out

Apparently ~3000 organisations have Royal patrons. About 200 have this week lost their relationship with Prince Andrew. Securing and maintaining a relationship with a Royal is work, and is it worth…

giving-evidence.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 years

FUNDERS. Every time you ask a #charity or other grantee for some 'monitoring & #evaluation ' data which neither you nor they will use, you waste resources, impede the work, and probably make 'beneficiaries' waste their limited & valuable time on answering useless Qs. #eval

@RuthLevine5

Ruth E Levine is on Substack

5 years

All researchers and funders should think about the harms of doing studies that don’t yield value for decisionmaking. “Uninformative trials squander scarce resources, divert participants from better research, and dilute the evidence base.” @goodmanmetrics

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

10 years

Maths > physics >> economics (!) @Slate The 17 equations that changed history: http://t.co/tKECeHIgut http://t.co/YNvXzPUeaa #maths #physics

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

@KateWilliamsme Also, Friday was Prince Andrew's anniversary of 'stepping back'. I may have missed it, but I didn't see anything about that in the press.

@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Happy anniversary to Prince Andrew, who 'stepped back from public duties' a full year ago - but who, as far as we know, remains fully on the #Royal payroll and hasn't spoken to the FBI as per their request. (Weird that he quit on his parents' wedding anniversary.) @RoyalFamily

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

@trishgreenhalgh @BootsUK You seen @xkcd this very day? 🤦‍♀️

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Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

6 months

Britain's "honours system" is so corrupt. Take no part in it: don't accept them, don't use the titles when referring to people, don't nominate people for them. Like civil disobedience. We can ensure that the whole charade is associated only with corruption & hence discreted.

@PippaCrerar

Pippa Crerar

6 months

NEW: Rishi Sunak has just given a knighthood to businessman Mohamed Mansour, a Tory party treasurer who gave them £5m last year 🤨

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Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Delighted to say that I have been appointed a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, in its new Centre for Strategic #Philanthropy . Look forward to working with @CWoodcraft , @KamalMunir5 et al to understand & improve philanthropy in emerging markets:

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CSP appoints Caroline Fiennes as Visiting Fellow - News & insight - Cambridge Judge Business School

The Centre for Strategic Philanthropy (CSP) is delighted to announce the appointment of Caroline Fiennes as a Visiting Fellow. One of the …

www.jbs.cam.ac.uk

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 years

@aidybarnett @craigcook3 Craig, your comment is so brilliant. I pity the poor person who has to count every single person in Australia, to establish that there are 24m of them. Or count every USD produced by Australia to establish that there are 1.32 trillion of them. I agree, that is a lot of work.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

1 year

@ByRobDavies And who is preparing (&shopping for) those meals? Doesn't sound like he was. Doubtless some magical fairy who doesn't warrant being cited 🤦‍♀️

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

About UK Royals' involvement in #charity : implication that it helps the oligarch laundro-mat: "Donations to charities - esp those headed by members of the British #Royal family - are a key part of reputation laundering by the Soviet elites" - so says Chatham House, no less:

@charleskeidan

Charles Keidan

3 years

@karlwilding @ChathamHouse

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

You know how @IDinsight is really awesome? - creating / curating / providing rigorous data & evidence *on demand* to help #policy bods make #evidence -based decisions? Well, I've just joined its advisory board. Hoorah! Pretty august company, tbh 😮

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

@xtophercook Hello. I didn't know that @tortoise had done a piece on the Royals. Our investigation might be relevant / useful. It's at and in the thread above. (BTW, you & I met at the Royal Institution quite recently)

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

Today, am working against the two most dangerous beasts in the #evidence world: HiPPOs and ZEBRAs! - HiPPO: Highest Paid Person’s Opinion - ZEBRA: (person with) Zero Evidence But Really Arrogant :-) #research #impact #philanthropy

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

It's nonsense that Harry and Meghan must drop their #charity patronages. Charities can invite as patrons whomever they want. Remember: many charities get a Royal patron whether they want one or not: will be interesting to see who chooses to have one, who thinks one will help.

@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Prince Harry is allegedly relinquishing his #charity patronages... but, as we showed, the @royalfamily doesn't know which charities those are(!) e.g., its list didn't include Diana's beloved Halo Trust. So they may not twig if he doesn't! #royal #HARRY

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 years

You know how Post-Its often curl upwards, rendering them illegible? Evidently if you peel them off the stack horizontally (from the side), rather than vertically (from the bottom), that doesn't happen. {Top insight from an HCD workshop...}

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

@thePiggsBoson From years and years ago:

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Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

For example, implying even in that short statement that she / they have made it up / misremembered it. They can't even write 4 sentences without trying to undermine her. That encapsulates the whole problem. Many many people who have tried to report discrimination recognise this.

@DrJessTaylor

Dr. Jessica Taylor

4 years

As a psychologist, as someone who specialises in trauma, as someone who can pick out what people are not saying, and as someone who can see abusive family dynamics - everything playing out around Meghan is deliberate, & designed to destroy her because she is a whistleblower.

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Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

Why don't economists include cost data in #impact evaluations? Amazing discussion from @DaveEvansPhD : basically, economists don't care about costs(!), don't know about costs(!), and anyway, it's all a bit tricky(!!): #research #policy #development #science

Why don’t economists do cost analysis in their impact evaluations?

There isn’t much cost analysis in impact evaluations. In McEwan’s review of 77 randomized experiments in education, he found that “56% of treatments reported no details on incremental costs, while...

blogs.worldbank.org

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

5 years

Tis not every day that one gets to email two foundations to say 'You know that thing that you funded a while ago on my suggestion? Well, it just got the Nobel Prize!' :-) #philanthropy

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 months

The UK Royals are giving up many chary patronages. Reminder: in the sole analysis of those patronages, Giving Evidence could find no effect of them on charities' revenue* (= the sole 'outcome' for which reliable data exist). See:

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Royal family to relinquish patronages at hundreds of charities and organisations

www.civilsociety.co.uk

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

6 years

Not one but TWO articles in Nature this week about #evidence synthesis. (Both by Brits, am proud to say). 1. Four principles for doing it: 2. A new approach where data are sparse: #impact

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A fresh approach to evidence synthesis

Nature - Systematic reviews have transformed medicine, but a more cost-effective means of appraisal is needed for fields in which data are sparse and patchy.

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

Great letter in @TheEconomist about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. So important to get proper data & identify real causes, rather than assume a cause & grab onto one 'solution'. Important to do #science , in other words. Ht @hans_zollner :

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

Re this blah about #Djokovic being (nearly) the greatest of all time: He & Roger have 20. Rafa has 21. Steffi Graf has 22 (+ uniquely the Golden Slam), Serena has 23 (one of them *whilst pregnant*, + a stack of Olympic golds), & Margaret Court has 24. Women do also play #tennis .

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

A good day for #evidence ! 1. @deankarlan becomes Chief Economist of USAID, and 2. @poverty_action , which produces rigorous evidence & founded by Dean, gets $8m from MacKenzie Scott. So, more evidence produced, heeded and improving lives 🤜🤛 #development #impact #evaluation #eval

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

7 years

Why you shouldn't judge a #charity by how little it spends on administration. Me, in today's @FT : #philanthropy

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

"Funded by royals" here means 'funded by a foundation of which royals are patrons but not even trustees, ie, by donors to that foundation and very possibly no Royal money at all.' #charity #Royalfamily #philanthropy

@ObserverUK

The Observer

3 years

Mental health helpline funded by royals shared users’ conversations

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

We are researching & analysing Royal patronages of charities, to see: - what charities they're patrons of, by sector, geography and size, and - whether Royal patronages have any effect on charities. Stay tuned: #royal #charity #philanthropy #volsec

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Royal patronages of charities don’t seem to help charities much

___________________________ A note about Royal charity patronages re the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II: HM Queen had ~600 patronages. They were not all charities: many were parts of the military…

giving-evidence.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

I should add that we did a ton of research, and could find zero evidence that Royals do help charities to raise money. See #royal #Royalfamily #charity #philanthropy #fundraising

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Royal patronages of charities don’t seem to help charities much

___________________________ A note about Royal charity patronages re the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II: HM Queen had ~600 patronages. They were not all charities: many were parts of the military…

giving-evidence.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

Why is it so expensive for charities to find & apply to foundations, and what can be done about it? New research by Giving Evidence is out today :-) Findings included: #philanthropy #charity #giving #impact #eval #giving

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A call to foundations: make it easier for charities to apply for funding - Alliance magazine

The system by which charities apply to charitable foundations for funding is dreadful. When I ran an operational charity, I and the team spent far too long on it – often simply re-writing and...

www.alliancemagazine.org

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

This is utterly brilliant. One of the world's best choral groups does the mighty 40-part Spem in Alium, from their various homes, with a Periodic Table-type visual showing which of the eight 5-part choirs is doing what when. Bravo 👋👋

@stileantico

Stile Antico

4 years

We are so proud to share our socially distanced performance of Spem in Alium, Tallis' amazing 40-part motet, to mark 40 days of UK lockdown. We hope its beauty and confidence inspire you as we travel together through these uncertain times. #40parts40days

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

6 years

Reminder for people at #geis2018 : Impact isn't a verb. You mean affect. Evidence isn't a verb. You mean demonstrate. Impactful isn't a word. You mean consequential. justsayin' ;-)

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

4 years

@SimchaModupe @nicd70 @Success4Sussexs @camcamdamn Thanks. We did a study of the Royal patronages of charities, which couldn't find any evidence of them having an effect:

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Royal patronages of charities don’t seem to help charities much

___________________________ A note about Royal charity patronages re the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II: HM Queen had ~600 patronages. They were not all charities: many were parts of the military…

giving-evidence.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

8 years

Love this from Hans Rosling: "I don't engage in debates. There are too many debates. Too much Word; not enough Excel". #science #data #stats

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

2 years

Today is the anniversary of Apollo 13 returning to Earth = excellent excuse to listen again to the whole tale as told by @Kevin_Fong & co. in "13 Minutes To The Moon", ace podcast series.

@Rainmaker1973

Massimo

2 years

This is what the severely damaged Apollo 13 Service Module looked like after the separation from the command module, exactly 52 years ago #Today [read more: ]

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

Our research into charity patronages of the UK #Royal family is here:

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Royal patronages of charities don’t seem to help charities much

___________________________ A note about Royal charity patronages re the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II: HM Queen had ~600 patronages. They were not all charities: many were parts of the military…

giving-evidence.com

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@carolinefiennes

Caroline Fiennes

@carolinefiennes

3 years

Our #research about charities applying for ££ just uncovered a foundation whose form for a £3k grant is...60 pages long! Reminds of @bengoldacre 's law(!), that the less £ you want, the more detail you have to provide on your org & plans. We are a bonkers species. #philanthropy

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