I started work at GiveWell six months ago, just a few weeks after graduating from college. I had been following GiveWell pretty intensely for more than a year, since I had gotten back from my own trip to India. During that time, I had become a little obsessed: I had read the entire history of…
The GiveWell Blog
Month: January 2012
Evaluation of American Red Cross Haiti response
We’ve been working on an update of our disaster relief report, and came across an American Red Cross evaluation from December 2010 stating: If you would like to access this report, please get in contact with the ALNAP secretariat. We emailed the ALNAP secretariat, saying: I am writing from GiveWell, an independent, non-profit charity evaluator…
Trading off upside vs. track record
[Added August 27, 2014: GiveWell Labs is now known as the Open Philanthropy Project.] We previously listed our five chief criteria for GiveWell Labs (a new arm of our research process that will be open to any giving opportunity, no matter what form and what sector). This post further discusses the first two of these…
How tax deductions and processing fees make it harder to give well
We spent a lot of time last month dealing with headaches around tax deductions and processing fees. We thought we’d share our experiences with these headaches, and how they get in the way of donors’ abilities to give as effectively as possible. We’re thinking about how to better deal with these issues in 2012.
Update on GiveWell’s money moved and web traffic in 2011
GiveWell had strong growth in 2011 and our recommended charities received more than $5 million as a result of our research.