The GiveWell Blog

Donor illusions

There’s an persistent conflict in international charity: It feels great to be able to say, “My donation helped THIS person.” But it’s rarely – if ever – practical for that sort of connection to be real. As a result, international charities tend to create “donor illusions” by implying that donations can be attributed more tangibly,…

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What’s different about Kiva

Why has Kiva been singled out for so much criticism lately (see GiveWell Board member Tim Ogden’s summary)? Part of the answer is that Kiva has arguably been misleading donors – but that can’t be the full answer. David Roodman’s original post could never have come about without the fact, as Mr. Roodman puts it,…

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DonorsChoose vs. Kiva

This Tactical Philanthropy post implies that the salient difference between DonorsChoose and Kiva is that DonorsChoose is more “authentic” in terms of connecting donors to projects. (Update: Sean points out in the comment below that most of the post I cited was a quote from a former DonorsChoose employee and doesn’t necessarily reflect TacticalPhilanthropy’s opinion.)…

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Kiva repayment data

GiveWell Board member Tim Ogden asks, is Kiva reporting phantom payments? It’s hard to say for sure, but it seems that the answers is either (a) yes, they are or (b) no, but borrowers listed on Kiva’s website are not representative of the average borrowers visiting that MFI. The table below shows default rates for…

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Kiva and fungibility

David Roodman, whom we previously interviewed, has a very interesting post up about a specific microfinance vehicle, Kiva.org. Our existing report argues that donations through this sort of vehicle are likely “fungible,” and therefore better thought of (for impact purposes) as general support of organizations rather than as support of specific projects or people. Mr….

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