In a previous post, we asked whether Haiti earthquake relief has “room for more funding” and concluded that, in general, it isn’t clear. (For more on the general topic of “room for more funding,” see our 5-post series on the topic.) Of course, it probably makes a big difference which organization we’re talking about. We’ve…
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Celebrated charities that we don’t recommend
Note added April 2024: As we explain on our mistakes page, the tone of this blog post, which was written much earlier in our organizational history, fails to convey our uncertainty about the impact of these programs. It also doesn’t indicate that our research involves forming best guesses based on limited information, and that we…
The Carter Center
Early in 2009, we were extremely excited about The Carter Center. It seemed so strong that we devoted weeks to understanding it in depth. As discussed in a blog post we made at the time, several of its programs work on extremely promising “neglected tropical disease control” activities, and there’s a truly unusual amount of…
Agriculture charity evaluation: Incomes boosted are not the same as lives changed
What’s wrong with this “evidence of impact” for high-profile charities? The Millennium Villages project‘s main evidence of impact so far appears to be increasing crop yields by a factor of 4-15x in 3 villages. (H/T to the recent coverage of Millennium Villages on Aid Watch) A KickStart evaluation (available on our website (DOC)) reports that…
The Carter Center – part II
In Part I, I laid out my case for The Carter Center, and why we think they’re worth investigating deeply. I also said that we’re not yet ready to recommend them because we have some unanswered questions. Here they are: Relevance of your donation When I give, I want to know that the organization needs…
The Carter Center
I’ve spent a good part of the past month reviewing The Carter Center in depth. We found out about The Carter Center though referrals from an advisor and donor, and through the Gates Award for Global Health. We chose to investigate The Carter Center further for four reasons: Strong track record of success. The Carter…