Sarah Gammoh
David Kane
- Sarah Gammoh, Charizone Founder
The idea for Charizone came out of a long frustration about my own charitable giving. I have always donated to charities but had become increasingly discouraged by the scarcity of information and tools that existed to help me navigate these important decisions.
The ability to undertake diligent research to find the 'right charity' is dependent on the availability of useful and reliable data in the public domain. It is not too hard to prove that information regarding a charity's effectiveness and sustainability is not readily available; often either hidden within many pages of a glossy report or too difficult to access. In fact, such evidence is often too expensive for charities themselves to produce and too complex to understand.
With a background in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting in the corporate sector, I asked myself: could we apply the data analysis methods used in the ESG world to help gain an understanding of a charity's performance? What answers would reassure us that we are supporting a "good" charity that aligns with our values? Would an ESG type framework be helpful to the charities themselves?
I got in touch with charity data guru, David Kane... and after four years of hard work, countless meetings and so, so much coffee, Charizone was born. It's expanding exponentially day-by-day; connecting charities and philanthropists, and making the world a better place - and we're so excited to see what comes next.
"Individuals in the UK give more than £10 billion every year and yet there are surprisingly few resources out there to support us in our philanthropic giving. Charizone is here to change that."View our methodology
- David Kane, CTO
Together, Sarah and I reflected on the fact that we live in the day and age where we have the technology, the knowledge, and the resources to solve the world's greatest challenges. But, as a society, we aren't allocating those resources effectively.
Data and information isn't always available; sometimes it's too hard to find, other times it's difficult to understand or scattered across various sources.
In order to truly change the world, we realised we needed to first transform the sector with data. We've worked closely with experts in the charity sector who brought their experience and passion to guide our analysis.
We are aware that starting something completely new is difficult, but our combined skill set is fundamental and the time is right: we are talking about "impact" now more than ever. Younger donors especially are more likely to look for information about charities' effectiveness and understand that overhead ratios don't mean anything.
If we can help move even a small percentage of the £10bn donated each year away from low-performing non-profits to the most effective non-profits, we'll transform the sector and have an enormous impact. Charizone: the zone for charity information and inspiration.
We want to build a more generous world. We care about our team, our clients, the sector and our environment. We will do the right thing even if when it's hard. We want to leave a positive impact in everything we do.
We love kindness.
We are always looking to improve. We do this by understanding others, listening openly to feedback and working together for shared success. This is how we remain relevant, innovative and positive.
We stay humble.
We build trust through transparent and open communication. We want to boost collaboration. We support, celebrate and invest in each other, working together to achieve the change we dream of.
We win together.
We understand how important our work is to our clients and to our charities - which is why everything we do is based on diligent research. We work hard and rely on data to stay focused on our long-term vision.
We are objective.
Sarah draws from over 20 years' experience in the business sector; after starting her career in banking, she transitioned into social and responsible finance in various roles as a business consultant working with Impact FinTech, ESG and corporate governance and charities. She sits on the Board of Directors of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association(UKSIF).
Driven by passion and supported by a comprehensive and unique skill-set, Sarah now dedicates her work life to evolving Charizone into an organisation like no other; supporting UK philanthropists and charities to work together towards a better world.
Connect on LinkedIn
With over 10 years' experience working with charity data (having worked for NCVO, CAST and the Greater London Authority), David is now a Data Scientist and Researcher, specialising in data for, by and about charities and wider civil society.
His talents lie in turning messy, raw data into actionable intelligence - aimed at answering the questions you're asking.
David maintains the comprehensive database of registered charities and other organisations in the UK that the Charizone framework is built upon - and would love to help you to access this data for your work.
Connect on LinkedInGet in touch with the Charizone team here. We endeavour to respond within 48 hours.
