The GiveWell Blog

Differential technological development: Some early thinking

Note: this post aims to help a particular subset of our audience understand the assumptions behind our work on science philanthropy and global catastrophic risks. Throughout, “we” refers to positions taken by the Open Philanthropy Project as an entity rather than to a consensus of all staff. Two priorities for the Open Philanthropy Project are…

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Open Philanthropy Project update

This post gives an overall update on progress and plans for the Open Philanthropy Project. Our last update was about six months ago, and the primary goals it laid out were six-month goals. Summary: U.S. policy (previous update): we have prioritized hiring and are ahead of the goal we set. We made a full-time hire…

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Donating to help with the Syrian refugee crisis

We’ve received a number of questions about where to donate to help with the Syrian refugee crisis. Millions of Syrians have fled the war in their country, risking their lives. Images of the immense suffering accompanying this journey have captured headlines in recent weeks. Although GiveWell hasn’t focused its work on disaster relief organizations, we…

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Journalists report on deworming program supported by Deworm the World Initiative in Kenya

Last year, Jacob Kushner, a journalist living in Kenya, reported on his observations from villages in which GiveDirectly had distributed some of its earliest cash transfers. This year, we funded him to report on the National School-Based Deworming Programme in Kenya, a program supported by Deworm the World. Mr. Kushner’s article follows. His colleague, Anthony…

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Incoming Program Officer: Lewis Bollard

We’re excited to announce that Lewis Bollard has accepted our offer to join the Open Philanthropy Project as a Program Officer, leading our work on treatment of animals in industrial agriculture. Lewis currently works as Policy Advisor & International Liaison to the CEO at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Prior to that,…

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September 2015 open thread

Following up on our open thread in April, we wanted to have another one. Our goal is to give blog readers an opportunity to publicly raise comments or questions about GiveWell or related topics (in the comments section below). As always, you’re also welcome to email us at info@givewell.org if there’s feedback or questions you’d…

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