Full details of our research process
We seek charities that we can confidently recommend to individual, casual (i.e., non-professional, non-expert) donors. We feel that such charities should have the following qualities:
- Strong documented track record. Casual donors should not fund experiments; they should fund charities that can and do demonstrate their impact in terms of changing lives for the better. More on this criterion here.
- Highly cost-effective activities. We seek charities that provide high "bang for the buck," in terms of changing many lives (significantly) for relatively little money. Available cost-effectiveness estimates involve a great deal of uncertainty and approximation; we place limited weight on estimated cost-effectiveness, but we are mindful of extremely large differences. More on this criterion here.
- Room for more funding. It isn't enough to identify a strong program; we seek to identify strong programs that can productively use more donor funding. More on this criterion here.
- Transparency and accountability to donors. Recommended charities must be willing to share enough in-depth information about their work that we can assess them on the above criteria.
Consistent with our mission of trying to identify outstanding giving opportunities, we are open to any organization that can make a compelling case for impact and we would not exclude any organization just because it did not meet one of these criteria.
