This post discusses our detailed examination (including, with help from the authors, reanalyzing raw data) of the Miguel and Kremer 2004 study on deworming (treating people for parasite infections) as a way to raise school attendance, and a followup study (Baird et al. 2012) on the later-in-life impacts. Our current #3 charity, SCI, focuses on…
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Our top charities for the 2012 giving season
Over the past year, we’ve continued to follow and investigate our existing top charities, and we’ve also looked for more outstanding giving opportunities. Today we are announcing our updated top charities: 1. Against Malaria Foundation (AMF). AMF focuses on distribution of insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria; of all the charitable interventions we know of that…
New Cochrane review of the effectiveness of deworming
Update 07/20/12: Miguel and Kremer (and others) have responded to the characterization of their 2004 study by the updated Cochrane review here. We find many of their responses to the Cochrane authors’ objections (which are distinct from our reservations) persuasive, especially regarding attrition and sample selection in the haemoglobin data and baseline school attendance data….
Update on the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative: Our current #2-ranked charity
Since GiveWell recommended the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) in November 2011, SCI has received about $1.4 million in unrestricted funds ($500,000 of which we directly attribute to GiveWell’s recommendation), of which $1.1 million remains to be spent. We have spoken with and met with SCI to discuss its plans for using these funds. Funds spent…
Dissenting opinions on our top charities
We feel very good about recommending that donors give to our top charities, and they’re where all GiveWell staff are – happily and confidently – giving our personal donations this year. That said, we’re skeptical by nature, and internally, we keep thinking about and discussing the ways in which our top charities might not work…
Deciding between two outstanding charities
We’ve recently published our updated charity recommendations, featuring two top charities (Against Malaria Foundation and Schistosomiasis Control Initiative) that score well on all of our criteria. In this post, we discuss how we decided which of these two charities to rank #1 and which to rank #2. Both charities are executing health programs that deliver…