Of the money moved to our top charities through our website in 2010, 25% was on December 31st alone. We know that lots of people will be looking to make last-minute donations. If you only have five minutes but you want to take advantage of the thousands of hours of work we put into finding…
The GiveWell Blog
Month: December 2011
Mega-charities
We haven’t written much about mega-charities: extremely large international charities (budgets of $250+ million per year) carrying out a very wide range of activities, and commonly recognized as household names. We’re thinking of groups like UNICEF, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, World Vision, and CARE. The main reason we haven’t written…
The risks of giving
Elie recently highlighted his doubts about our top charities, and a commenter responded: Of course one ultimately never knows how much good a charity or any given donation will do. Bednets might end up saving the life of child who grows up to be the next Nelson Mandela – or the next Saddam Hussein. Everything…
Guest post from Cari Tuna
Cari Tuna is a member of GiveWell’s board of directors and president of Good Ventures, a foundation in the San Francisco Bay Area which she created with her partner Dustin Moskovitz earlier this year. Previously, Cari was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Today, I’m writing to share that Good Ventures is donating $500,000…
Please don’t give me a goat for the holidays
There’s no question that “giving a goat” has caught on, as a way of getting people to support charity – rather than consumer goods – for the holidays. I certainly don’t need an iPad or a new TV, and I encourage friends and family to make donations in my name rather than sending me gifts….
My favorite cause for individual donors: Global health and nutrition
My favorite cause used to be U.S. equality of opportunity. But over the years since we started GiveWell, I’ve become more and more convinced that the best giving opportunities for individual donors lie in the area of global health and nutrition. Fundamentally, this area stands out because it involves a lot of interventions that have…