The GiveWell Blog

Finals

Over the last four weeks, Elie and I have read through the ~160 applications we received, and now we’re wrapping up Round One and getting ready to get deeper into the issues and the charities we’ve picked as finalists. Unfortunately, putting the apps themselves on the web is going to take a while, just because…

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We’d like your thoughts

On two things: 1. The raging debate between me and Elie on how you should evaluate a large charity. Here’s the intro; here’s my take; here’s Elie’s response. What do you think? If you’re not sure, which of us do you like better? 2. Our new website designed specifically for fundraising/networking. The goal is a…

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Rolling

Yesterday was an important day for a couple reasons: 1. It was the due date for Clear Fund Round One applications (excepting the applicants who’ve been given extensions, which so far is everyone who’s asked for one). About 1/3 of the charities we invited to apply have submitted; we have 33 submissions for Cause 1,…

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Anonymity rocks

I’ve been flooding our readers lately, so today I just want to brag a little bit about an aspect of our application process. We provide a public online discussion forum as one way for our applicants to ask questions and give feedback. One of the advantages of that it lets our applicants criticize us anonymously…

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Wanna get pumped about GiveWell?

Read the debate over at Tactical Philanthropy, on the following question: Clarity in charity – good or bad? (My wording.) It reminds me of when I used to read really old arguments for democracy and free speech (I’m talking about Locke, John Stuart Mill, etc.) and think, “Huh, there were people who disagreed with this…

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