We feel very good about recommending that donors give to our top charities, and they’re where all GiveWell staff are – happily and confidently – giving our personal donations this year. That said, we’re skeptical by nature, and internally, we keep thinking about and discussing the ways in which our top charities might not work…
The GiveWell Blog
All posts by Elie
6 tips for giving like a pro
This time of year, just about every news agency publishes an article titled something like “6 tips to give wisely this holiday season.” (Examples here, here, and here.) The advice they give makes sense to a degree – make sure the charity isn’t a scam, check that the CEO’s salary doesn’t account for 90% of…
Somalia famine: Update
Over the past month, we’ve worked to understand the situation in Somalia and make a recommendation to donors about where they should give. At this point we’re wrapping up our work with the following conclusions: We wouldn’t recommend giving to support Somalia specifically over supporting everyday aid. While the needs are extreme, we aren’t convinced…
Donating to the Somalia famine: A brief update
Since our initial post on the Somalia famine, we’ve continued our research to provide a stronger recommendation to donors. We do not yet have enough information to do so. At this point, we maintain our provisional recommendation for Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Over the past 3 weeks, we’ve contacted many aid and UN-based organizations. We’ve…
Update on GiveWell’s web traffic / money moved: Q2 2011
In addition to evaluations of other charities, GiveWell publishes substantial evaluation on itself, from the quality of its research to its impact on donations. This year, we have added quarterly updates regarding two key metrics: (a) donations to top charities directly through our website (b) web traffic. Money moved By “money moved” we mean donations…
How much time do charities spend participating in GiveWell’s process?
In May, we emailed all the charities we have analyzed in-depth asking them to fill out a brief survey about their experiences with our process. We asked: How much time did you spend on our process? How clear were you at the outset about what our process would entail? Do you think, looking back, that…