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This page is for nonprofits. It provides basic information on:

  • GiveWell: our mission and focus
  • Our process: what you should expect
  • The potential benefit to your organization
  • Our focus on transparency and how it affects you

Who is this page for?

This page is intended for nonprofits we believe are promising and have a reasonable chance at being recommended in our process. If we've contacted your organization, we are excited about what you're doing and would like to learn more.

If we haven't contacted you, please:

What is GiveWell?

GiveWell is an independent, nonprofit charity evaluator. We find outstanding giving opportunities and publish the full details of our analysis to help donors decide where to give.

In 2010, our recommended charities received over $1.5 million as a direct result of our research and recommendations.

For more information, see:

What is GiveWell's process?

We aim to ask you to spend as little time as possible creating new documents for us; instead we try to rely on existing documentation.

  • We begin our process by reviewing all publicly available information about your organization including your website, external evaluations, and other relevant information.
  • We then schedule a 1-2 hour phone call where we ask questions and create a list of follow up items (i.e., items we are seeking that were not publicly available).
    • If you don't have the items we request, it is unlikely we'll recommend you, and the process stops there.
    • If you do have the items we request, we'll review what you send and likely have 2-3 rounds of follow up emails and calls. Note: only organizations that we think are extremely promising reach this stage.
    • At any point in the process, we are happy to discuss the likelihood that we ultimately recommend your organization.

What is the potential benefit to my organization?

There are significant benefits to being a GiveWell-recommended organization. In 2010, VillageReach, our top-rated charity, received over $1 million in unrestricted donations directly as a result of our recommendation. The Against Malaria Foundation received over $125,000, and other organizations received a combined $300,000, all in unrestricted funding. (More information is available in our blog post summarizing GiveWell's key metrics from 2010.)

In addition, our recommendation may lead to increased media attention. For example, New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof highlighted our top-rated US charity in his column in December 2010. (For more information about GiveWell mentions in the media, see our press page.)

Organizations that agree to discuss our questions with us and to publish the transcript of the conversation on our website receive at least a "Notable" rating. (For more information, see our discussion of what our ratings mean and the characteristics we look for in a notable organization.)

Does GiveWell publish comments on non-recommended organizations?

Yes. We believe in maximum transparency about the process that went into our recommendations. Therefore, we list every charity considered, and when a charity is not recommended we explain why not.

We do this for every organization we consider, whether or not the organization sends us additional information or talks to us. Working with us will not have an adverse effect on what we write about your organization (see below).

We also do not believe that non-recommended organizations are harmed by being listed on our site. We recommend only a tiny fraction of the charities we review, and our audience is generally looking for a suggestion of where to give - not using us to "check" a specific charity. We have designed our site to discourage the latter. Donors looking to "check" a charity generally use other resources.

Since we focus on highlighting the organizations we deem outstanding, we do not give "negative" ratings. Instead, we provide a brief statement of why an organization did not qualify for our awards.

  • For example, see our UNICEF review.
  • A full list of all the charities we have considered, with links to their pages, is available on our list of charities page.

Are all communications with GiveWell on the record? Will GiveWell publish the documents we send?

We will only publish documents and conclusions from phone calls with you if you give us express permission to do so. We feel strongly that engaging with GiveWell should only possibly benefit your organization, not harm it.

We do believe transparency is important and hope that you'll agree to share your information with donors. We believe that information about how to help people should never be secret. However, we respect all confidentiality requests and are willing to sign appropriate nondisclosure agreements.

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