Prisoners’ Education Trust recommended by Good Giving List

Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) is one of the first charities to be recommended by the Good Giving List, the UK’s first thoroughly-vetted list of effective UK charities.

How do you know that the money you donate to charity makes a difference? An unprecedented new service launched this week, the Good Giving List, recommends charities whose programmes are shown by rigorous and independent evidence to succeed. This ensures that donors’ hard-earned donations will improve lives.

The Good Giving List has been created by Giving Evidence, an independent research and advisory organisation that specialises in philanthropy.

How does the Good Giving List choose charities to recommend?

Focusing on charities operating in the UK, The Good Giving List uses existing research by various independent organisations which rigorously assess the effectiveness of social programmes.

By analysing that research, the List identifies charities which run programmes which have been found to work. Finally, it runs checks on those charities including whether they are financially sound.

Consequently, donors can be confident that charities recommended by the Good Giving List are stable and run programmes which have been shown effective in recent and rigorous evaluations.

The List recommends charities only in sectors where it can find suitable research organisations. It launches with seven recommended charities in three sectors – education, children and families, and reducing crime – in time for Giving Tuesday on 28 November and for the Christmas giving season.

Caroline Fiennes, Director of Giving Evidence, said:

When savvy financial investors make investment decisions, they use independent assessments of companies’ performance and prospects. But this sort of information is very hard to find about charities.

Until now! We reviewed hundreds of independent evaluations of social programmes so that you don’t have to! Giving Evidence created The Good Giving List so that any donor can easily find charities which succeed and which they can support confidently. The recommended charities are hidden gems: not household names, but nonetheless proven to deliver results.

Cassie Edmiston, PET’s Head of Fundraising and External Affairs, said:

I’m delighted that PET is one of the first charities to be recommended by The Good Giving List. We are grateful to Caroline and the team for the robust approach they have taken. The inclusion of PET reflects the impact of our work and the difference we know education makes to people in prison.

All the recommended charities are profiled on the Good Giving List website which provides links to donate to each recommended charity. The website also explains the selection criteria and method in full detail.

The List aims to expand to cover more sectors and include more charities over time.