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OUR STORY

About Pro Bono Economics

Pro Bono Economics is a new charity whose aim is to broker economists into the charitable sector to help on short and medium-term assignments, typically addressing questions around measurement, results and impact.

Mission

PBE seeks:

• To improve the effectiveness of the charitable sector, in particular when evaluating the wider impact of its activities and when presenting these results effectively to an external audience; and
• To provide a mechanism by which the economics profession can contribute to a well-functioning charitable sector of society, both as an end in itself and as part of professional development for economists.

People

PBE is being set up by two economists, one working within the public sector, the other from a charity. Martin Brookes is chief executive of the charity, New Philanthropy Capital. Before joining NPC, Martin was an economist at Goldman Sachs and, before that, the Bank of England. See Martin's biography here

Andy Haldane is Executive Director, Financial Stability, at the Bank of England. Before taking up his current role, Andy held a number of positions within the Bank's monetary and stability directorates, where he has worked throughout his career. See Andy's biography here

PBE is now a charity registered with the Charity Commission. Andy and Martin are trustees of the charity together with two others, Lucy Heady and Dave Ramsden. Lucy Heady is head of the quantitative measurement team at New Philanthropy Capital. Before joining NPC, Lucy gained a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge and completed post-doctoral work at the university. See Lucy's biography here. Dave works at HM Treasury where he is a Managing Director and Head of the Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy Directorate. He is also co-head of the Government Economic Service. See Dave’s biography here.

Laura Gibbon is responsible for the administration of PBE. Laura is currently the administrator for the Financial Markets Group research centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Prior to working at the LSE, Laura worked for a public policy think tank, and gained an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Bristol and an MSc in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). You can contact Laura at info@probonoeconomics.com.

More trustees will be recruited in due course as the charity grows.

We also have a number of patrons for the charity. These are as follows;

Sir Alan Budd
Gavyn Davies
Sir Howard Davies
Lord John Eatwell
Rachel Lomax
Sir Gus O’Donnell
Robert Peston
Lord Adair Turner
Sir John Vickers
Sushil Wadhwani
Martin Wolf

We recently received the endorsement and support of the Government Economic Service, representing over 1,000 economists working within government departments. This support will be invaluable in helping supply economists into the charitable sector. We hope to announce support from other institutions employing economists in the period ahead.

Projects

Alongside the process of establishing PBE, some pilot projects are commencing to learn about the practicalities of providing economics support to charities. Hopefully, these will provide ‘proof of concept’. See current projects here

How will PBE work?

For information about the operations of PBE, and the rationale behind the organisation, visit our FAQ page.

Contact us

To find out more about PBE or get added to our mailing list, write to info@probonoeconomics.com.