The GiveWell Blog

Pneumonia Day is another General Health Day

On World Pneumonia Day, it’s natural for a donor to ask, “Where can I give to fight pneumonia?”

But the actual plan to fight pneumonia consists of the following: breastfeeding promotion, vaccination, and treatment in communities, health centers, and hospitals.

All of these are general health initiatives that touch on a wide variety of health problems. So it’s not surprising to see that almost none of the World Pneumonia Day Coalition members are organizations devoted to “pneumonia”; they are vaccine organizations, general charities, and even malaria and tuberculosis organizations.

If you are a “traditional” donor, we hope World Pneumonia Day succeeds in making you support these extremely worthwhile initiatives, by playing to your need for breaking news, grand announcements, and shocking facts that you didn’t know/remember last month.

If you are a results-oriented donor, you don’t need World Pneumonia Day. Just support great global health charities.