This independent review, led by Dr. Michael Scriven, found that, “It is beyond doubt that in all 20 of the countries we have examined, Heifer has brought large overall benefits to very large numbers of low income rural families.”, Evaluators cited, “The ‘Heifer edge’ in the organization’s cost-effective crusade against poverty has always been the built-in sustainability of the commitment to ‘Passing on the Gift’ of livestock, and of skills in (i) their care, and in (ii) respect for the Twelve Cornerstone Values (guiding principles of all the organization’s programs),” evaluators noted. It doesn’t sound right to me, and I also believe the “overhead ratio” issue is usually a distraction. “Our evaluation convinced us of the importance of continuing with this core feature.”. We encourage you and your readers to visit the Heifer Web site to review this report and its findings. I feel that raising questions like the ones we raise above is more productive. Mr. Wang and the four Smile Train board members, all of whom work for Mr. Wang’s various enterprises, negotiated the merger with a small group of Operation Smile board members. Still, I would happily donate to a charity with high executive compensation over one with low executive compensation, if the former had more impressive social impact. The IRS requires that private foundations file a Form 990-PF which differs from the document public charities file. And yes, I think that funders deserve the lion’s share of the blame – charities market the way they do, presumably, because it works. Certainly not every gift goes to provide geographically appropriate animals or plants to families gripped by poverty, but Heifer makes that fact clear in all of its publications, collateral and material. One of the drafts makes it clear that Smile Train blames Mr. Mullaney for the failure of the merger. Additionally, you express concerns about Heifer’s livestock model and its impact. However, we require 4 years of Forms 990 to complete an evaluation and The Smile Train has not yet completed this many filings as a public charity. A merger of Smile Train and Operation Smile, two nonprofit groups that work to repair cleft lips and palates, is being called off as a result of widespread opposition among Smile Train’s donors, according to documents whose contents were confirmed by a person familiar with the matter. I am saying that it’s not a very useful question to ask. I still try to steer donors away from animal gifts towards less restrictive donations but it is good to see Heifer include this kind of information on their site. I did some deeper research than most would. For greater detail about Heifer’s impact, I encourage a visit Heifer’s Web site, http://www.heifer.org, to read the results of five years of evaluations by the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University. He remained on the board and voted against the merger. Smile Train donors representing about $7.9 million in contributions have signed an online petition opposing the merger; its medical advisory board has also unanimously opposed the plan. I’m not saying that salaries are justified in every case. Re: executive compensation. Re: executive compensation. Any remaining money is put to use where it is needed most.”. or RSS. But in almost all cases, international aid charities are (a) carrying out complex projects that can fail to do good (or even do harm) in a variety of ways, and (b) not systematically sharing the information that would make it possible to assess how their work is going. diets, in particular on the consumption of animal source foods, and on child nutritional status in those households….