If there is one thing that a philanthropist wants, it’s bang for their buck. One way to increase the chances that your money does real good is to address a problem where the possibility of success is great, and it’ll be clear what success looks like.
Take, for example, literacy rates among the underprivileged in India – and especially among girls. Female literacy there is appallingly low. Nationwide, just two-thirds of women can read and write, a number that falls to just half in the north-west state of Rajasthan.