The GiveWell Blog

GiveWell is aiming to have a new #1 charity by December

Our current top-rated charity is VillageReach. In 2010, we directed over $1.1 million to it, which met its short-term funding needs (i.e., its needs for the next year or so). VillageReach still has longer-term needs, and in the absence of other giving opportunities that we consider comparable, we’ve continued to feature it as #1 on…

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What it takes to evaluate impact

When someone asks me what makes GiveWell different from other third-party charity evaluators, I often answer by listing all the things we’ve done in order to investigate our current top-rated charity, VillageReach. We’ve done extensive background research on international aid and argued for key takeaways such as the overall promise of international aid for donors,…

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GiveWell Labs: Our criteria for giving opportunities

[Added August 27, 2014: GiveWell Labs is now known as the Open Philanthropy Project.] We’re starting a new initiative, GiveWell Labs, an arm of our research process that will be open to any giving opportunity, no matter what form and what sector. This post lays out, very broadly, what qualities we are looking for in…

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Update on GiveWell’s web traffic / money moved: Q3 2011

In addition to evaluations of other charities, GiveWell publishes substantial evaluation on itself, from the quality of its research to its impact on donations. This year, we have added quarterly updates regarding two key metrics: (a) donations to top charities directly through our website (b) web traffic. Money moved By “money moved” we mean donations…

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