Peer Learning and Productivity Across NGOs

Last registered on November 15, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Peer Learning and Productivity Across NGOs
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014733
Initial registration date
October 31, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
November 15, 2024, 1:04 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Jack Thiemel
Affiliation
London School of Economics
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Michelle Rao
PI Affiliation
London School of Economics
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-09-01
End date
2025-06-01
Keywords
Firms & Productivity, Other
Additional Keywords
NGOs, Management
JEL code(s)
O2, M0
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
A large share of interventions in development, education, and workforce development organizations involve non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or civil society organizations. This project randomly assigns NGOs that share a common funder into community organizations to study the effect of networks on organizational performance. These NGOs will send representatives to monthly meetings wherein they will discuss partnerships, how to best use volunteers, and monitoring/evaluation among other topics. This project seeks to understand whether randomly induced peer-learning across NGOs can improve outcomes for both for the funder and for the funded NGOs.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Rao, Michelle and Jack Thiemel. 2024. "Peer Learning and Productivity Across NGOs." AEA RCT Registry. November 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14733-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We study the impacts of monthly peer learnings groups on NGOs that work on either early childhood development or refugee services. The group meetings occur monthly online and are facilitated by a staff member of a grant-making organization that partially funds each of the participating NGOs. Meetings have the goal of helping participants learn how their peer organizations have solved common challenges within the framework of (i) using volunteers effectively, (ii) forming public and private partnerships with local stakeholders, and (iii) improving, monitoring evaluation and learning practices. At the end of the 12 month intervention, each group will prepare a capstone project that will be shared in person at the annual meeting of the funder and its universe of funded organizations.
Intervention Start Date
2023-11-16
Intervention End Date
2024-10-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Peer interactions, public goods game results, zero-sum thinking.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We will measure the number of organizations that a beneficiary reports having contacted to discuss business during the previous six months. Public goods game outcomes are standard. Zero sum thinking is the response to three questions on whether each organizations feels they are competing with one another for (a) internal funding, (b) external funding, (c) whether each organization feels that they are working with other NGOs towards shared goals in their field.

We will explore impacts on our primary sample on the basis of:
- World Management Survey style scores which have been adapted for NGOs
- NGO size (by budget and number of employees)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Medium-term fundraising, reporting quality, volunteer use, partnership formation, monitoring evaluation and learning (MEL) satisfaction, beneficiaries reached.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Medium-term fundraising is the budget of the NGO in the year following the intervention. Reporting quality will be a dummy variable for whether the NGO falls below the quality or quantity of grant reporting required by the funder. Volunteer use, partnership formation and MEL outcomes will be the raw responses to the November 2024 survey questions. Beneficiaries reached will be NGO reported beneficiaries who are reached by programming in the two quarters (then later four quarters) after the end of the intervention.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
All organizations which receive grants from the common funder were invited to participate in the project. Half of the organizations which expressed interest in the research project were randomly given an offer to participate in the peer learning group. Conditional on assignment to the treatment arm, the peer learning groups were formed based on area of NGO focus (i.e. early childhood development or refugee services) and monthly availability to account for time zones.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Organization (i.e. at the level of the individual NGO)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
42 NGOs
Sample size: planned number of observations
42 NGOs
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
21 treated NGOs, 21 control NGOs
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Treatment effect on peer interactions. We have a MDE of .941 connections per organization (1.07 control group standard deviations for a control mean of 0.77 peer organizations worked with in the last six months in the baseline survey). For public goods game and zero sum thinking, the MDE is 1.7 euros in a game where the maximum contribution is 10 euros and the standard deviation is 2 and the control mean is assumed to be 5 euros.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

Analysis Plan