The GiveWell Blog

GiveWell Labs update

[Added August 27, 2014: GiveWell Labs is now known as the Open Philanthropy Project.] While we haven’t spent as much time as hoped on GiveWell Labs, we have made some progress. This post summarizes how we’ve spent our time, what we’ve learned, and what we’re planning next. We’ve put substantial time into each of the…

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Challenges of passive funding

[Added August 27, 2014: GiveWell Labs is now known as the Open Philanthropy Project.] Something I think about a lot is the spectrum from “passive funding” to “active funding.” By “passive funding,” I mean a dynamic in which the funder’s role is to review others’ proposals/ideas/arguments and pick which to fund, and by “active funding,”…

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Is the world getting better?

I recently spoke with Robin Hanson and he proposed that donors invest their money in order to give more in the future. One question that came up was whether the world is improving such that opportunities to cost-effectively accomplish good are running out. I think there’s a strong argument that this may be the case,…

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GiveWell’s history of philanthropy/philanthropy journalism project

Programs’ track records have always been a major input into our research process. For example, when assessing the case for distributing nets to prevent malaria, we’ve looked for information about the track record of similar programs. As we begin to research other areas where philanthropy could play a role, we similarly want to learn from…

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