We’re levelin’ up philanthropy!

The Dollar Donation Club Integrated Impact Score was designed to ensure that the world’s most powerful and holistic solutions are presented to our members. The goal is to identify acupuncture points of change – solutions that create maximum positive benefit using minimal resources, while triggering a large cascade of additional benefits.

More importantly, the Integrated Impact Score embodies our approach of smart-philanthropy.

It’s not enough for us to give with only our heart. We must also give intelligently – identifying solutions that address root causes, generate outsized measurable outcomes, integrate holistically into existing communities, consider long-term impacts, reduce the risk of unintended consequences and lead to self-reliant capabilities rather than co-dependencies.

It’s time for us to focus less on things like “overhead ratios” and more on the total, holistic positive result per dollar. Oh yeah, and it should be fun!

We believe that the best solutions...

• Solve root-causes rather than symptoms.
• Consider their impact 100 years into the future.
• Produce massive impact efficiently.
• Care for people and planet holistically.
• Leverage nature’s and humanity’s best technologies.
• Are radically transparent – financially and operationally.
• Are resilient against threats of reversal.
• Result in self-reliance, rather than dependence.
• Clearly understand total costs to achieve outcomes.

This vetting methodology was designed with careful care to identify these solutions.

How we calculate the Integrated Impact Score:

Individual Dimension Score

The scores for each individual dimension (e.g. Transparency, Measurability) are calculated by adding up the total points (1-5) per section and dividing by the total possible points for that section.

Impact Stack

The amount of points awarded for the Impact Stack section is based on an assessment of how directly or indirectly and effectively or ineffectively the solution addresses a particular Sustainable Development Goal, using the SDG indicators as a guide. Impact Stack is treated like a bonus of points by adding up the total Impact Stack score and dividing by 10 (i.e. every 10 points gives a bonus of +1 to the final IIS score).

Overall Integrated Impact Score

The overall Integrated Impact Score is calculated by averaging the total scores received in each of the Individual Dimensions (e.g. Transparency, Measurability, etc.). We then add the bonus points awarded by the Impact Stack. Overall scores are rounded up to the nearest integer at 0.5 (e.g. if a score of 94.5 is calculated, the final score will be 95, if a score of 94.4 is calculated, the final score will be 94).