Our Focus

We have been deeply involved in the social impact ecosystem since 1997. You can see some details about us on LinkedIn: Todd, Kristine. We have founded and co-founded five social problem-solving organizations (SPSOs) that have worked with over 70 million vulnerable people and raised and invested over $2.5 billion in trying to improve their lives. We have worked with hundreds of other practitioners by strategising with them and talking with funders of every size and type. These funders range from individuals deciding where to send their year-end gift to foundations and other institutional funders managing hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and impact investments. In all of that time, one thing has stayed stubbornly, frustratingly true.

We want to be clear about what we mean by that, because it is not a small critique. This is not about fraud, negligence or bad intentions. The people giving money and other resources to solve social problems are, overwhelmingly, good people who care. The SPSOs receiving that money and resources are staffed by hardworking people who also care. The problem is not intent. The problem is the standard we have collectively agreed to accept and how far that standard falls short of what the people being served by SPSOs actually deserve.

Over the past 29 years, while Todd taught, researched, and interacted with SPSOs, he developed a methodology to evaluate organizations based on their use of data to understand how effective their interventions are at solving the problems they address and to become learning organizations that become more effective over time. This methodology works both to evaluate organizations and to guide them on how to improve and be more effective in creating real impact.

The Core Thesis

When trying to determine if a SPSO is actually improving their clients' life, funders are met with an opaque philanthropic marketplace that obscures their ability to make that decision. The signals available, compelling stories, impressive activity counts, long operating histories, prestigious donor lists, correlate imperfectly with genuine quality-of-life impact. Most funders, working with the information the marketplace provides, cannot reliably distinguish the organizations that are genuinely improving people's lives from the organizations that are very good at appearing to do so. The result? At best, funders accidentally pick a life changing SPSO from time to time rather than consistently.

On the other hand, funders who are wealthy enough to hire a well-trained person to vet SPSOs for them (a program officer, a philanthropic advisor, or an impact evaluation specialist) are able to move from the accidental pick to a strong, intentional portfolio of SPSOs that actually improve people's lives. They have purchased the expertise and time that turns random into deliberate. But most funders do not have access to that capacity. 

This website hosts the Fierce Certified Marketplace which is a collection of SPSOs that actually improve their clients' life and wellbeing. These SPSOs are producing what we call ultimate life-changing outcomes that reduce the negative consequences of the social problems they are working on. Any funder can access the marketplace to search for the best organization working to solve a social problem, in a geography, with a population of vulnerable people. Once they find that SPSO, they can immediately fund them through the marketplace where 100% of their contribution goes to the SPSO. This does the following two things simultaneously: 

• more certified live-changing SPSOs receive more funding more frequently, 
• and non-certified SPSOs start to realize that they need to become certified or over time they will not be receiving some of the funding that they used to receive. 

The marketplace creates the incentive for life-changing accountability to spread across the entire sector.

Fierce Philanthropy

In addition to hosting the marketplace, we also consult with funders and SPSOs to help them be more impactful in improving people's lives.

We are Fierce Philanthropy, a 501(c)(3) public charity that is the doing business as name of Solving Social Problems. Our EIN is 33-3682799.