A technical report on client income levels refers to a detailed, technical report on a systematic attempt to assess the income levels, and/or standard of living, of the clients served by your organization (or, if your organization is a grantmaker, your organization's grantees).
Such a report may be an "impact study," comparing clients to a "control group" or examining their incomes over time, or it may simply be a "client study" that attempts to gauge client incomes at a point in time.
A summary document, with selected stories about clients and/or summary figures on their income/standard of living, is not sufficient. We seek a full technical report, with specifics on how data was collected, who collected it, and how clients were selected for examination, as well as information for the complete set of clients examined.
A report along these lines will generally include:
- Data on a number of clients' standard of living, using measures that may include:
- Occupation and income.
- Crop output and estimated market value of crops.
- Financial assets.
- Physical assets, including beds and clothes.
- Condition of housing.
- Diet and symptoms of undernutrition.
- Access to water and sanitation.
- Access to medical care.
- Access to education.
- Specifics on how many clients had their income/standard of living assessed for the study, and over what time period.
- A specific description of how the clients included in the study were selected, including information on study attrition if relevant.
- A specific description of who collected the data reported in the study, and how they collected it.
Please feel free to email povertygrant@givewell.net with any questions on this matter.