To have a good time the tip of 2023, we’re highlighting a couple of key issues to learn about GiveWell—from A to Z. These aren’t essentially the 26 most essential elements of our work (e.g., we might embody solely “transparency” or “prime charities” for T) however they do match the alphabet, and we’ve linked to different pages the place you’ll be able to be taught extra.
All Grants Fund. Our advice for donors who’ve a excessive stage of belief in GiveWell and are open to applications that could be riskier than our prime charities.
Bar. We set a cost-effectiveness bar, or threshold, such that we anticipate to have the ability to absolutely fund all of the alternatives above that stage of cost-effectiveness. This bar isn’t a tough restrict; we contemplate qualitative elements in our suggestions, as mentioned right here. This put up additionally discusses our bar in additional element.
Cost-effectiveness. The core query we attempt to reply in our analysis is: How a lot good are you able to do by giving cash to a sure program? This weblog put up describes how we method cost-effectiveness estimates and use them in our work.
Donors. Not like a basis, we don’t maintain an endowment. Our influence comes from donors selecting to make use of our suggestions.
Effective giving organizations. Organizations like Effektiv Spenden fundraise for applications we suggest and supply tax-deductible donation choices in quite a lot of international locations. We’re grateful to those nationwide efficient giving organizations and teams like Giving What We Can that suggest our work.
Footnotes.1Our analysis supplies wouldn’t be full with out footnotes; they help our dedication to transparency. Citing our sources and explaining our claims makes it potential for individuals to examine our work for themselves and draw their very own conclusions.
Generalizability. How properly proof generalizes to completely different settings, together with variations in program implementation and the contexts the place a program is delivered. Additionally known as “exterior validity.”
Health employees and group distributors. The individuals who ship lots of the applications we help; contains each skilled well being employees and distributors who obtain stipends to ship applications of their native communities. For instance, group distributors go from family to family to supply seasonal malaria chemoprevention to hundreds of thousands of kids.
Incubating new applications. We companion with the Proof Motion Accelerator and Clinton Well being Entry Initiative (CHAI) Incubator to scope, pilot, and scale up promising cost-effective interventions.
Judgment calls. We goal to create estimates that signify our true beliefs. Our cost-effectiveness analyses are firmly rooted in proof but in addition incorporate changes and intuitions that aren’t absolutely captured by scientific findings alone. Extra in this put up.
Okayangaroo mom care. A program to cut back neonatal mortality amongst low-birthweight infants by means of skin-to-skin contact to maintain infants heat, breastfeeding instruction, house visits, and extra.
Leverage. How our funding choices have an effect on different funders, both by crowding in extra funding (“leverage”) or by displacing funds that in any other case would have been used for a given program (“fungibility”).
Mistakes. Transparency is core to our work. Learn right here about errors we’ve made and classes we’ve discovered.
Nigeria. One of many international locations the place we most frequently fund work. (Our work is usually concentrated in Africa and South Asia.) New Incentives, considered one of our prime charities, presently works solely in northern Nigeria, the place low baseline vaccination charges make its work particularly invaluable.
Oral rehydration resolution + zinc. A low-cost technique to stop and deal with dehydration attributable to diarrhea. We’ve been serious about ORS/zinc for a very long time (going again to 2006!), and lately funded the CHAI Incubator to conduct a randomized managed trial in Bauchi State, Nigeria, finding out the extent to which preemptively distributing free ORS/zinc on to households will increase utilization by kids below 5.
Plasmodium falciparum. The parasite that causes most deadly instances of malaria. Malaria prevention is considered one of our largest areas of labor, receiving over 30% of the funding we directed in 2022.
Questions. Within the spirit of truth-seeking (considered one of our core values), we ask troublesome questions so we are able to make well-considered suggestions.
Randomized managed trials. Research that present significantly robust causal proof for the influence of a program. They underpin lots of our suggestions, however we additionally contemplate different experimental or observational proof, particularly when RCTs aren’t possible (extra right here).
SPAQ (sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine + amodiaquine). The drugs utilized in seasonal malaria chemoprevention, which protects younger kids (who’re most in danger) throughout the time of 12 months when malaria is most typical.
Top Charities Fund. Our advice for donors who need to give to the applications we now have the best confidence in.
Unrestricted fund. Our advice for donors who’re open to supporting each GiveWell’s working bills and our really helpful applications. If we elevate extra unrestricted funding than we want for our working prices, we’ll grant out the extra.
Vitamin A supplementation. Twice-annual supplementation campaigns like these supported by Helen Keller Worldwide cut back the chance of loss of life from infectious illnesses for youngsters with vitamin A deficiency.
Water chlorination. Packages like chlorine dispensers and in-line chlorination disinfect unsafe water, decreasing diarrhea charges and stopping mortality.
X-cash. We use unconditional money transfers as a benchmark for evaluating alternatives, such that we estimate a program to be “12x money” if we consider it’s 12 instances extra impactful per greenback than giving cash on to individuals residing in poverty. In different phrases, if we estimate {that a} program is 12x money, we expect donating $100 to that program does as a lot good as donating $1,200 to a program that delivers unconditional money transfers.
Y-RISE. One among a number of organizations we now have funded to conduct new analysis on matters of significance to us. The Yale Analysis Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE) identifies and assessments promising well being and livelihood interventions and researches the results of scaling up applications.
Zero charges. Our operations are funded by donors who select to help us by means of our Unrestricted Fund. 100% of all different donations (minus commonplace financial institution and bank card charges) will go to the fund or group of your selection.
