Over the past few months, we’ve been continuing our search for outstanding microfinance organizations (in addition to the one we’ve already identified). Below are the results. Overview of our process and key questions In brief, our take on microfinance is that offering credit and other financial services is likely an effective way to improve people’s…
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Invest in Kids
As part of our research into United States causes, we’ve been looking at Invest in Kids, an organization focused on implementing evidence-based programs in Colorado, and we recently had the chance to speak with Lisa Merlino, Invest in Kids’ Executive Director (edited transcript of our conversation (DOC)). While our research is still in progress, we…
The Money for Good study
The Money for Good study’s headline finding is that “few donors do research before they give, and those that do look to the nonprofit itself to provide simple information about efficiency and effectiveness.” That conclusion syncs up with our own experience talking to donors, but we aren’t discouraged by the results. That’s because where the…
How the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure spend their money
This year, we’ve been looking into the cause of disease research. We’re trying to find outstanding organizations for donors interested giving to help out with research efforts to develop cures, or new treatments, to cancer and other diseases. We figured that a logical place to start would be with two big-name organizations: the American Cancer…
Economic empowerment grant: Mistakes, lessons learned, and steps taken
We’ve just published reviews of all of the organizations that applied for our economic empowerment grant. (Note that we previously announced the grant winners here.) Whenever we publish new charity reviews, we get some push back from charities who aren’t happy that they’ve received a 0-star review. Before we published our economic empowerment reviews, we…
A proposal for donors interested in causes/charities we haven’t covered
I was talking with a friend of mine recently about how he decides which charities to support, and he said: I really like the GiveWell approach, but there are two reasons it’s not practical for me to base most of my charitable decisions on it. First, you just haven’t covered a lot of the areas…