We have published a more recent list of top charities. See our most recent list.
#1 Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) Preventing deaths from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa Tax deductibility: US, UK, CAN, and other countries | | __________________ __________________ |
#2 GiveDirectly Distributing cash to extremely poor individuals in Kenya Tax deductibility: US | | __________________ __________________ |
#3 Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) Treating children for parasite infections in sub-Saharan Africa Tax deductibility: US , UK | | __________________ __________________ |
Our charity evaluation process
For details, see our process for international charities and our process for U.S. charities. This page has all charities that we have considered.
GiveWell's process broadly consists of:
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- Examining hundreds of charities and relevant academic literature
- Deeply investigating the most promising charities by our criteria
- Publishing all the details of our charity recommendations and the full details of our reasoning on this website
Evaluation criteria
We primarily look for charities with strong documented track records, highly cost-effective activities, and concrete needs for more funds. Recommended charities must be highly transparent and accountable, i.e., willing to share enough in-depth information about their work that we can assess them on these criteria.
Identifying charities
We cast the net as wide as we can to consider as many charities as possible, reviewing hundreds of charities' websites and more deeply investigating the most promising ones. This page has all charities that we have considered.
We identify charities from sources, including:
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- Submissions to our website
- Grantees of other major funders
- Partners of research organizations
In-depth charity reviews
We perform in-depth reviews of charities that make it through the early stages of our process. These involve conversations with representatives; examination of internal documentation including monitoring and evaluation reports, budgets, and plans for using additional funding; reviewing independent literature and evidence of effectiveness of the charities' programs. For the strongest contenders, we conduct visits to their programs in the field.
We post the names of every charity we consider on our website. This page has all charities that we have considered.
Past recommendations
Archives of our past charity recommendations: