[skybrian]

Yes, many plans to do charity work are half-baked. But I'm actually pretty pleased with this story since they're publishing their failures rather than sweeping it under the rug.

Market incentives aren't really there to reward charities for being really effective; most charities raise money by telling a good story. Few people dig deeper because digging deeper is hard.

As far as I know, http://givewell.org/ is the best thing out there when it comes to evaluating charities. Also, I highly recommend reading Poor Economics, a book that just came out that describes some more solid research using randomized trials.

[lotharbot]

You might also appreciate http://charitynavigator.org/

[lurker19]

Particularly, the CEO pay reports. Why should I donate money to pay someone richer than me?

Lead by example, charity CEO.