Research

The research taxonomy

These are the words the research uses, and what each one means. Wherever one appears in a cause thesis, it means exactly this.

Core concepts

Cause: A broad area of concern to donors.
Problem: A specific issue within a cause area that reduces the well-being of a target population.
Approach: A category of interventions that share a mechanism for change.
Intervention: A specific mechanism for change.
Solution: An approach or intervention: the general word when the rung does not matter.

Approaches

Interventions are grouped by the mechanism they work through. Four groups cover the mechanisms we evaluate.

Direct Delivery

Delivering goods or services directly to beneficiaries or their communities.

Service Provision: Providing services or goods directly to beneficiaries.
Social and Behavioural Change: Changing the behaviour, beliefs, practices or decisions of beneficiaries at the individual, household or community level.

Industry and Provider Engagement

Working directly with non-beneficiary actors to improve practices that affect the target outcome.

Corporate Engagement: Engaging companies to voluntarily change their policies, procurement, standards, reporting or practices.
Producer and Provider Engagement: Working with producers, farms or practitioners to improve their practices through training, tools or technical assistance.

Meta Non-Profit

Enabling other non-profits to better pursue their missions.

Ecosystem Services: Providing services, infrastructure, tools, research or talent pipelines that help high-impact non-profits pursue their missions.
Fundraising and Capital Allocation: Influencing where philanthropic, retail, institutional or grantmaking capital is directed.

Systems-Level Change

Changing the institutions, markets, rules, incentives, technologies or information environments that shape many actors’ behaviour.

Government Policy, Regulation and Governance: Changing government laws, enforcement, decision-making or public spending.
Market Shaping: Changing market incentives so beneficial goods and services become more available, attractive or adopted.
Information and Evidence: Correcting information asymmetries by generating or communicating evidence.
Tech Development and Adoption: Developing, adapting, commercialising or scaling a beneficial technology to increase its availability or adoption.

Implementation positions

These describe how much an intervention depends on actors outside the non-profit, in ascending order of resistance.

Execution-Dominant: The non-profit is the primary implementer and controls most steps of change, requiring few or no external actors.
Capacity-Filling: Relies on external actors who face informational or technical barriers rather than motivational ones.
Prioritisation-Dependent: External actors have competing demands and must be convinced the benefits outweigh the costs.
Contested Influence: Organised opposition or deeply entrenched interests must be overcome for the intervention to work.

The taxonomy classifies how an intervention works, not how good it is. The judging happens in identifying solutions.

The intervention mechanisms and implementation positions are adapted from Ambitious Impact’s charity taxonomy, extended with the ladder of core concepts above.