[Added August 27, 2014: GiveWell Labs is now known as the Open Philanthropy Project.] We think there are two key questions for someone trying to do strategic cause selection: (1) What is the history of philanthropy – what’s worked and what hasn’t? (2) What is the current state of philanthropy – what are philanthropists focused…
The GiveWell Blog
All posts by Holden
Strategic cause selection
[Added August 27, 2014: GiveWell Labs is now known as the Open Philanthropy Project.] Our picture of how most major foundations work is as follows: First, broad program areas or “causes” – such as “U.S. education” and “environment” – are chosen. This step is almost entirely “from the heart” – no systematic review is conducted,…
Microfinance and cookstoves
Two interventions that command a lot of attention are microfinance (financial services, particularly small loans, for the very poor) and improved cookstoves (with the hope of reducing air pollution). We’ve recently seen a couple of helpful summaries of relevant research: David Roodman summarizes the most rigorous research on microfinance. There are now five randomized controlled…
How not to be a “white in shining armor”
Edited April 2024 to fix several broken links. This post inspired by the upcoming Day Without Dignity online event GiveWell’s current top-rated charities focus on proven, cost-effective health interventions. These interventions appear to solve certain problems (malaria, parasites) quite well, while making no direct attempt to solve other problems (economic growth, education, gender equity, and…
The worst killer of invisible children is not Joseph Kony
Joseph Kony is evil and should be stopped. He has allegedly abducted 30,000 children in his long military campaign. Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of children every year. Joseph Kony has committed atrocities that make me furious. But malaria makes me angrier. Why? Because malaria deaths really do happen just because Americans don’t care enough….
More errors in widely-cited figures: The case of mothers2mothers
Note: mothers2mothers has provided a response to this post that can be viewed below. Summary: mothers2mothers, a well-respected group that focuses on HIV programs in Africa, published figures on its website that we have recently come to believe are erroneous. We feel this finding is important not because of what it says about mothers2mothers, but…