In addition to evaluations of other charities, GiveWell publishes substantial evaluation on itself, from the quality of our research to our impact on donations. This page summarizes two key metrics: (a) donations to top charities directly through our website (b) web traffic. This page will be updated quarterly.
Money moved
The chart below shows GiveWell's annual "money moved" against its operating expenses. "Money moved" refers to donations to our top charities that we can confidently attribute to our research (more detailed definition below).
The table below it shows GiveWell's money moved by charity. Note that because the vast majority of GiveWell's money moved comes in during December of each year, we only update these figures annually.
| Charity | 2010 | 2007 - 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| VillageReach | $1,132,468 | $336,929 |
| Against Malaria Foundation | $130,097 | $128,374 |
| PSI | $31,172 | $161,273 |
| Stop TB Partnership | $57,092 | $123,830 |
| Small Enterprise Foundation | $13,403 | $125,000 |
| Village Enterprise Fund | $2,077 | $125,000 |
| Nurse-Family Partnership | $48,446 | $49,234 |
| KIPP | $30,843 | $56,890 |
| Not yet allocated | $80,763 | $0 |
| Partners in Health | $13,190 | $25,806 |
| The Global Fund | $30,000 | $8,660 |
| Opportunity International | $0 | $25,000 |
| The Hope Program | $0 | $25,000 |
| Pratham | $10,375 | $12,646 |
| Salaam Baalak Trust | $10,000 | $0 |
| Teach for America | $2,000 | $2,300 |
| Living Goods | $0 | $2,500 |
| Invest in Kids | $1,300 | $0 |
| Total | $1,593,224 | $1,208,442 |
(Note: GiveWell has not yet regranted some 2010 donations given to GiveWell for the purpose of regranting. These are listed as "Not yet allocated." In addition, donors who gave to GiveWell's donor advised fund but have yet to recommend a grant to a particular organization are also listed as "Not yet allocated.")
The following chart shows GiveWell's money moved by month (updated through September 30, 2011).
Web traffic
| Quarter | Unique visitors | Y/Y growth |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2009 | 20,681 | - |
| Q2 2009 | 14,974 | - |
| Q3 2009 | 18,418 | - |
| Q4 2009 | 45,956 | - |
| Q1 2010 | 48,027 | 132% |
| Q2 2010 | 33,173 | 122% |
| Q3 2010 | 27,729 | 51% |
| Q4 2010 | 68,870 | 50% |
| Q1 2011 | 89,588 | 87% |
| Q2 2011 | 102,506 | 209% |
| Q3 2011 | 115,482 | 316% |
More detail
More detail is available for each year in our annual self-reviews.
What we count as "money moved"
- Donations made to top charities directly through our website. Though these donations go directly to top charities, we are able to track them and verify that they went through our website. (Example: VillageReach donate page)
- Donations that our recommended charities report back to us as being attributable to GiveWell (we have a high standard for this - we count only cases where (a) the donor explicitly stated that their donation was on the strength of GiveWell's recommendation or (b) the donor gave to Nurse-Family Partnership and stated that they heard about it from a Nicholas Kristof column; Mr. Kristof has informed us that he included NFP in the column on our recommendation).
- Donations that donors report to us (informally or using our donation report form) as donations that they made on the strength of our recommendation. We cross-reference our data with recommended charities' data, when necessary, to eliminate double-counting.
- Donations made directly to GiveWell and earmarked for re-granting. We count donations made and restricted in year X, and then granted in year Y, as "money moved" for year X, not year Y.
