Top charity research with GiveWell

Most charity ratings tell you what share of a budget went to overhead. That number says almost nothing about whether the work helped anyone. This program does something harder: it estimates how much good a given program produces per dollar spent, in units like deaths averted and incomes raised, and then publishes the full reasoning, including the parts that are uncertain.

Rather than rating as many organizations as possible, the work focuses on the handful that stand out, and holds them to four tests: strong evidence that the program works, cost-effectiveness, room for more funding, and transparency. The result is a short list of giving opportunities with the analysis attached, so a donor can check the reasoning instead of taking a rating on trust.

Several of the programs on this platform, including the malaria and vitamin A programs, are on the platform because this research put them there. The organization that carries it out is GiveWell.

A dollar given here does not buy a bed net. It buys some of the analysis that moves a great many other dollars toward bed nets, and away from programs that turn out not to work. Gifts support operating costs, mainly staff time, and an excess assets policy commits anything raised beyond a set level to be granted onward to recommended charities.

Canadian donors can support this work through Rethink Charity and receive an official Canadian donation receipt. If you would rather your gift reach a field program directly, our GiveWell recommendations page lists the programs this research points to.