The GiveWell Blog

We’re discontinuing the standout charity designation

We aim to maximize our impact. That means we focus on directing funds as cost-effectively as we can. Rather than recommending a long list of potential giving options, we focus on finding the organizations that save or improve lives the most per dollar.

Going forward, we will no longer publish a list of standout charities alongside our list of top charities. We think our standout charities are excellent, but we believe donors should support top charities.

Removing standout charities will lead our website to better reflect our recommendations for donors. We hope it will reduce confusion about the difference between top and standout charities and help us direct funding as cost-effectively as possible.

We continue to see the nine standout charities we’ve shared as very strong organizations. This decision doesn’t in any way reflect changes in our evaluation of their programs.

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Our updated top charities

Our top charities are (in alphabetical order): Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) Deworm the World Initiative (DtWI), led by Evidence Action GiveDirectly Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) We have recommended all four of these charities in the past. We have also included four additional organizations on our top charities page as standout charities. They are (in alphabetical…

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Our ongoing review of GAIN

Note: GAIN has reviewed a draft of this post and added responses below. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) focuses on reducing malnutrition by fortifying foods and condiments with essential nutrients and through other interventions. We have been considering GAIN for a 2014 recommendation for its work on Universal Salt Iodization (USI) because of our…

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