Every month we send an email newsletter to our supporters sharing recent updates from our work. We publish selected portions of the newsletter on our blog to make this news more accessible to people who visit our website. For key updates from the latest installment, please see below!
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Why are GiveWell employees sampling ORS in our office?
Last week, GiveWell employees Erin, Katie, and Karthik sampled oral rehydration solution (ORS) in our Oakland office.
ORS is a type of fluid replacement (similar to Pedialyte) that saves lives by preventing diarrhea deaths. Diarrhea is a leading cause of death for children under five, but when ORS is given with zinc tablets, we estimate that diarrhea-related mortality is reduced by 60%.
We spend 50,000 hours each year researching cost-effective global health and poverty alleviation interventions. Much of this time is “desk work”—analyzing models in a spreadsheet, evaluating evidence from studies, or talking with partners and subject-matter experts over Zoom. But the closer we can get to an intervention, the better we can understand it. Whether that’s sampling ORS in our office or taking site visit trips to witness a seasonal malaria chemoprevention campaign, we are committed to “heads-up work” that takes us beyond the spreadsheets to deepen our knowledge of the programs we support.
Read about our recent grant to CHAI to distribute ORS in Nigeria here.
July Quiz Question + Answer
Last month’s quiz question: What is the approximate number of conversations with donors our outreach team had in 2023?
We define donor conversations as phone calls, meetings, or major donor events (emails are not included in our estimate). These conversations allow us to build meaningful relationships with donors, understand why they give, and connect them to the work their gifts support.
We estimate that our Outreach team had approximately 830 conversations with donors in 2023. Out of the 68 responses we received—with answers ranging from 7 to 10,000,000 conversations—the closest guess was 800! Congratulations to our winner, Victor Matta, who will receive a GiveWell hat as a prize!
Sign up for our newsletter and answer our monthly quiz question for your chance to win!
Research and Partner Roundup
GiveWell publishes new research pages on a grant of up to $4.8 million to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to study the economic impact of distributing reading glasses, a $1.48 million grant to Malaria Consortium to design and pilot the “Be In A Net” program, and more. New Incentives publishes a photo blog chronicling a day-in-the-life of a Nigerian mother committed to getting her children vaccinated. On World Mosquito Day, Malaria Consortium published a new blog post identifying seven focus areas for malaria elimination.