Intervention selection is the process of figuring out the types of activities you will focus on. If you care about education, for example, will you build schools or provide laptops or train teachers? There are typically hundreds, if not thousands of possible interventions to choose from. Devoting some time and effort to figuring out which interventions to focus on can substantially increase your expected impact.

Below is graph of impacts per dollar (measured as benefit-cost ratio) from a project that conducted almost 80 cost-benefit analyses in a state of India. In this case, the median intervention returned 4 rupees in benefits for every rupee spent. However, the best intervention returned 180 rupees in benefits, 45x greater impact. 

This type of distribution, where a handful of interventions deliver outsized impact is common in philanthropy and government policy such as in education, climate change and global health.

How is this even possible?

Without a profit incentive, high ROI ideas are not naturally captured as they are in the private sector. Instead, much philanthropy is driven by factors other than efficiency, such as campaigns or marketing. Great ideas are rarely fully funded.

Mettalytics is currently advising a family foundation about which interventions would maximize impact in the areas of sustainable agriculture and regenerative tourism. We’ll be sharing insights from that experience when the results are ready.