Our 2008-2009 recommendations for international aid are now available. Report homepage Recommended and top-rated charities Highlights: We believe that health is the best area for an individual donor looking to accomplish concrete good. Many programs have strong and proven track records of success in international aid. This is largely not true of other areas. More…
The GiveWell Blog
Year: 2009
A conversation with a donor interested in obstetric fistula
Jeremy, a teacher, recently emailed us because he was interested in supporting charities that work on the problem of obstetric fistula. Fistula is a cause that I’ve written about before and is one that, emotionally, is extremely compelling. I thought the email exchange with Jeremy was informative, so (with his permission) we’ve posted it here….
Donating to Gates – against its will
With all the people and organizations out there who would like more money, there’s something remarkable about the fact that the Gates Foundation is specifically asking people NOT to give to it (PDF) – and still couldn’t keep away over $10 million in donations in 2008. Why the Gates Foundation doesn’t want your money First…
The challenge of local ownership
One of the consistent refrains we’ve seen in aid literature is the importance of local participation/enthusiasm/ownership for aid projects. Many programs have been criticized for being too “top-down” (i.e., imposing outsiders’ designs on local communities), with the implication that more “bottom-up” programs (i.e., getting local people to participate in the design of execution of programs)…
November conference sponsored by Social Solutions
I’ll be speaking on a panel, “Improving How we Give,” at this November conference. Should be interesting.
First randomized controlled trial of microfinance project
Has been released – available here (PDF). We haven’t read it yet, but recommend David Roodman’s summary. Based on other papers of Mr. Roodman’s that I’ve read, I believe he generally is a good bet to ask all the questions we would ask and then some, and do an excellent job putting his views in…