Susan Davis

www.provingit.org
What’s cool about it:  This website, launched recently by A Child’s Right, does something brave.  While A Child’s Right shows an impressive success rate (99.3% when I checked today), they also provide information on their failures.  Just click on the success rate and you’ll see A Child’s Right’s commitment to a) tracking all of the systems they support for 10 years after the system is inaugurated and b) sharing the results, good or bad.  Right underneath you’ll see a few of the typical cute photos of kids, but with something rather shocking in the non-profit world:  a red “failed” banner across the photo. You can also find more detail about what happened.  A Child’s Right has funding for a big expansion so it will be interesting to learn from their bumps in the road.

What else I’d like to see:  Combined lessons learned.

www.washfunders.org
What’s cool about it:   This is intended to be a “‘one stop shop’ for the data and information [donors] need to improve water access, sanitation, and hygiene around the world.” I think it has potential to help donors (and humanitarian organizations) better coordinate their efforts.  As the Foundation Center continues to populate the data (right now it has Foundation and OECD funding 2003-2009), we should be able to see on the map which countries have the greatest need and where the gaps in funding are.

What else I’d like to see: Add in funding for water from other donors (individuals, civic organizations, and fundraising organizations like charity:water and Blue Planet Network) to complete the picture

www.waterhackathon.org
What’s cool about it:  The idea is to get some smart people thinking about how technology can help solve some pressing water problems. For example, in Peru, the most discussed needs were more transparency, water utilities benchmarking, improving water service management, and water culture in Peru.  Other problems submitted for solution dealt with desertification, floods, water conservation, water use and billing, irrigation, and so on.

What else I’d like to see:  Updates on the practical application of the ideas

www.admittingfailure.com
What’s cool about it:   This isn’t really a new website but I just had to include it.  They actually say it for me: “Competition for financial support in the aid sector has resulted in a ‘worst practice’ – secrecy. This site and those who support it are attempting to correct that error, and create a best practice of openness, transparency and honesty. We’re all in this together. We’re on the same side in the fight against poverty, inequality and unnecessary suffering in too many forms. Let’s admit our failures to find greater successes.”  See here for a post about a failure in setting up a monitoring system:

What else I’d like to see:  More failures submitted, and then an analysis of commonalities across the failures

What’s your favorite website (new or not)?