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!

If you’d like to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox each month, you can subscribe here.

Growing Needs, Shrinking Aid: Cost-Effective Action in a Year of Funding Cuts

🗓️ December 4
🕛 12:00 pm ET / 9:00 am PT
💻 Live webinar on Zoom

Major cuts to foreign aid this year have created significant uncertainty for global health programs. GiveWell has been assessing these impacts in real time and identifying funding gaps where donors’ contributions can have exceptional impact.

We expect needs to continue growing in the years ahead. As foreign aid becomes more limited, it’s increasingly important that resources are used as effectively as possible.

Join us for a panel discussion on the effects of recent cuts, how GiveWell is responding, and what we’re learning along the way—including our predictions and uncertainties about the future. GiveWell researchers will answer questions selected live by the audience and share their latest insights.

Register to attend here.

Meet our speakers:

Bridging an Uncertain Time for a Lifesaving Program

Despite significant progress over the past several decades, malaria remains a leading cause of death globally for children under five. This year’s cuts to foreign aid funding disrupted highly effective programs to prevent malaria, such as seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC).

In this episode, GiveWell co-founder and CEO Elie Hassenfeld speaks with Program Officer Natalie Crispin about how GiveWell responded quickly and flexibly to ensure that SMC campaigns moved forward when the funding freeze jeopardized time-sensitive pre-campaign activities.

Elie and Natalie cover:

• Planning for SMC campaigns: Prior to carrying out SMC campaigns, implementing organizations engage in an intensive and time-sensitive planning process to ensure that drug distributors are fully trained, the right quantity of preventive drugs is shipped to each community, and people are informed about upcoming campaigns.
• GiveWell’s response to keep SMC campaigns on track: GiveWell considered funding for SMC in 11 countries, talked with stakeholders in 10, and ultimately provided funding guarantees for SMC planning activities in six countries, which enabled organizations to move forward with timely preparations while funding was uncertain.
• Challenges, reflections, and lessons learned: While the work required for us to decide whether, when, and how to provide funding was more time-consuming than many of our grants, it strengthened our networks among SMC implementers and funders and ensured that the campaigns were able to be carried out.

Read our episode summary for more, and subscribe to be notified of our newest episodes.

This episode was recorded on November 17, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time.

Grant Spotlight

Our grantmaking supports programs and research that aim to save and improve lives the most per dollar. Here’s a look at one recent example:

Where: Cameroon
What: Preventative medication that protects children against malaria throughout the peak transmission season
Who: Jhpiego
Amount: $1.8 million
How it works: This grant protected children under five from malaria by ensuring seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) campaigns in Cameroon stayed on track during the US government foreign aid funding freeze.
Why this grant: This grant provided month-by-month bridge funding to support SMC campaigns during a temporary gap in US government funding. The first monthly medication cycle of these campaigns—which are timed to take place during the high-transmission rainy season—began in June, and US government funding did not resume until September. We believe several of the cycles likely would not have happened without our funding.
Funded by: Donations to GiveWell’s All Grants Fund and individual donations

To learn more, check out the grant page.

Partner Roundup

• See the progress of a GiveWell-supported Against Malaria Foundation net distribution campaign in Ituri Province, DRC.
• Hear from a Helen Keller Intl staff member in a Q&A about her experience supporting vitamin A supplementation to help children grow and thrive.
• Read about Malaria Consortium’s symposium on malaria vaccines at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s annual meeting.

Comments or Questions?

We’re always looking for fresh perspectives on our research. If you have comments or questions on our work, we want to hear from you! Reach out to us at info@givewell.org.