Our first year of research implied, to me, that donors can have more impact focusing their giving on the developing world as opposed to the developed world. In a nutshell, developed-world interventions are expensive and the case for their effectiveness is often questionable, while developing-world interventions are often inexpensive and seemingly more reliable. However, the…
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The biggest giver: Individuals
This week, Giving USA released their 2007 estimate of U.S. charitable giving. Its data forms one of our favorite figures, and one of the biggest factors behind our decision to start GiveWell. Taken together, individuals account for 75% of total US giving; that’s 6x as much as all foundations combined. (In fact, it makes more…
Foundations and individuals
A new study sponsored by several major foundations (Gates, Packard, Hewlett, Irvine, and Robert Wood Johnson) found that among “engaged”* Americans, only: 43% can name a foundation on their first try 15% can cite an example of a foundation’s impact in their community 11% can cite an example of a foundation’s impact on an issue…
Worth watching
The Brookings Institution is hosting a conference this week called “What works in development?” including an interesting paper by Simon Johnson (International Monetary Fund) and Peter Boone (London School of Economics) titled, “Do Health Interventions Work? Which and in What Sense?” Johnson and Boone review the existing literature and conclude that there is very little…
Good vs. better
I recently read Better by Atul Gawande, and found myself particularly struck – and reminded of our own situation – by his analysis of hospital care. According to Dr. Gawande, conventional wisdom has long been that the vast majority of hospitals provides top-notch, quality care, and only a fraction treats their patients incompetently. This implies…
Why scholarships disappoint?
We’ve wondered why scholarship programs don’t have a stronger impact on academic achievement, and have guessed that it’s because disadvantaged children are so far behind by age 5 that they need special schools, with a special approach, if they’re to have any hope of catching up. The quote below, from an article in the Washington…