A couple of recent web/media appearances: Last week I appeared briefly on PRI’s The World – link here. A recent Bloggingheads between Tyler Cowen and Peter Singer includes an interesting exchange about charity effectiveness including the advantages of GiveWell’s approach, the limits of the “overhead expense ratio,” and Prof. Cowen’s preferred alternative of sending money…
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The Center for High Impact Philanthropy
We’re very excited about the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, which recently released two reports: one focusing on increasing equality of opportunity in the United States and one on combating Malaria in the developing world. (H/t Alanna Shaikh) We’ve read the full-length reports (available via email request to the Center) and we’re excited because: Their…
Preview report
Now linked from the front page of GiveWell.net is a preview of our 2008-2009 report. The main content of the report so far is a review of the Carter Center (discussed in previous blog posts here and here) as well as information on the track records of the programs it runs and the diseases it…
The root causes of poverty
GiveWell generally focuses on the question of how to get “bang for your buck” as a donor – help as many people as possible, as much as possible. Against this approach, one might seek to factor in the potential of a program to get at the “root causes” of poverty, and start – or be…
Malaria “success story” questioned
Aid Watch on questionable claims of success against malaria: Real victories against malaria would be great, but false victories can mislead and distract critical malaria efforts. Alas, Mr. and Mrs. Gates are repeating numbers that have already been discredited. This story of irresponsible claims goes back to a big New York Times headline on February…
Quick notes on our progress
A few updates for people interested in the nuts and bolts of GiveWell’s progress (some of these have been included in our email updates, but not yet flagged on our blog): We’ve recently (this week) updated our research agenda – see the updated agenda here. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded us $100,000 for…