The GiveWell Blog

The path to biomedical progress

We’ve continued to look into scientific research funding for the purposes of the Open Philanthropy Project. This hasn’t been a high priority for the last year, and our investigation remains preliminary, but I plan to write several posts about what we’ve found so far. Our early focus has been on biomedical research specifically. Most useful new technologies…

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Thoughts on the Sandler Foundation

Note: Steve Daetz of the Sandler Foundation reviewed a draft of this post prior to publication. Previously, we wrote about the tradeoff between expertise and breadth in philanthropy. We noted the traditional “program officer” model of philanthropy, in which staff specialize in particular causes, and we contrasted it with some other possible models that sacrifice…

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Notes from November convening on our policy priorities

Last November, we held a day-long convening in Washington, D.C. to discuss possible priorities for Open Philanthropy Project work on U.S. policy. Our main goal was to present our picture of several policy issues, as well as to receive input to inform upcoming decisions about which issue(s) we should focus on. For each issue, we…

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GiveWell is hiring

We’re resuming hiring to expand our ability to identify outstanding giving opportunities. Filling the roles below would make a substantial difference to our research. If you follow GiveWell and want to help us out, please share this post with anyone whom you think might be a good fit for the jobs listed below. Research Analyst. Research…

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Putting the problem of bed nets used for fishing in perspective

A recent article in the New York Times describes people using insecticide treated bed nets for fishing instead of sleeping under the nets to protect themselves from malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The article warns that fishing with insecticide treated nets may deplete fish stocks, because the mosquito nets trap more fish than traditional fishing nets and because…

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