Published: June 2021; Last updated: September 2022 (April 2021 version)
The Top Charities Fund supports the highest-priority funding needs among our top charities
Donations to the Top Charities Fund are granted each quarter to support cost-effective funding opportunities at our top charities. We use our latest research to grant the funds to the recommended charity (or charities) where we believe they’ll do the most good.
The Top Charities Fund was previously called the Maximum Impact Fund. We changed the name of this fund in September 2022 (more information here).
How we make grant decisions
We grant funds from the Top Charities Fund to the recipient charity (or charities) at the end of each fiscal quarter. Our research team decides which of our top charities have the highest priority funding needs at that time. This decision takes into consideration factors such as:
For more detail on past decisions, see the table below.
What you can expect if you donate to the Top Charities Fund
When we receive a donation designated for the Top Charities Fund, we grant 100% of the value of the donation (minus any fees charged by payment processors) to the charity or charities that the research team recommends at the end of each quarter.
GiveWell does not take any fees from the donations and earns no interest on the funds accumulated each quarter before the distribution.
We send a follow-up email to all Top Charities Fund donors after each distribution that estimates the impact those donors had with their donation. You can view the template for our December 2020 impact email here.
The impact of Top Charities Fund grants
We estimate the impact of each grant we make from our Top Charities Fund.
For example, in November 2021 we granted $8.8 million to the Against Malaria Foundation. We estimate our funding will deliver 1.8 million nets to households (at around $5 per net) and will save about 1,600 lives at the cost of $5,500 per life (source). If that seems surprisingly expensive to save a life, you can learn more about the cost to save a life here.
View the impact of our grants from 2020 onward in this spreadsheet, which includes grants from our Top Charities Fund, grants we’ve recommended to Open Philanthropy, and most other grants we've made or recommended to our top charities.
For more information on how we share impact, see How We Produce Impact Estimates.
Past recipients of the Top Charities Fund
We list all of our grants from the Top Charities Fund (formerly known as “grants from the Maximum Impact Fund” or "grants to recommended charities at GiveWell's discretion") made starting in 2014 below.1 We began publishing reports with our reasoning for each of these grants in 2017, and will include these reports going forward. As of October 2020, we also include grants made with flexible funding provided to us (but not given to the Top Charities Fund), such as unrestricted gifts that were granted to our recommended charities. These are indicated separately below.
| Grant date | Using donations received in | Amount (rounded to nearest $0.1 M) | Recipient(s) | Write-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July and August 2022 | April to June 2022 | $8.4 million2 | Malaria Consortium | Malaria Consortium – Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (July and August 2022) |
| June 2022 | January to March 2022 | $1.8 million3 | Helen Keller International | Helen Keller International — Vitamin A Supplementation (January 2022) |
| May 2022 | January to March 2022 | $21.4 million | New Incentives | New Incentives — Nigeria Expansion (May 2022) |
| May 2022 | January to March 2022 | $8.2 million | Against Malaria Foundation | Against Malaria Foundation — Support for LLIN Campaign in South Sudan |
| February 2022 | October to December 2021 | $7.8 million | Sightsavers | Sightsavers — Deworming in Nigeria and Cameroon (February 2022) |
| February 2022 | October to December 2021 | $4.8 million | Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative — Pakistan, Nigeria, and Kenya (February 2022) |
| January 2022 | October to December 2021 | $9.4 million | New Incentives | New Incentives — Nigeria (January 2022) |
| January 2022 | October to December 2021 | $22.2 million4 | Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program | Malaria Consortium — SMC Renewal in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Togo (January 2022) |
| January 2022 | October to December 2021 | $3.4 million5 | Against Malaria Foundation | Against Malaria Foundation — PMI-supported states in Nigeria, 2023 (January 2022) |
| January 2022 | January to December 2021 | $1.4 million6 | Helen Keller International | Helen Keller International — Vitamin A Supplementation (January 2022) |
| October 2021 | July to September 2021 | $8.7 million7 | Against Malaria Foundation | Against Malaria Foundation – Support for LLIN Campaigns in Nigeria (2022) and Two Other Countries (2023) |
| August 2021 | April to June 2021 | $14 million | $9.4 million to New Incentives, $2.3 million to the Against Malaria Foundation, and $2.3 million to Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program | December 2, 2021: Allocation of Funds Donated to the Maximum Impact Fund in Q2 2021 |
| June 2021 | January to March 2021 | $13.5 million | $11 million to Helen Keller International, $1.5 million to Sightsavers, and $1 million to the Against Malaria Foundation | August 31, 2021: Allocation of Funds Donated to the Maximum Impact Fund in Q1 2021 |
| March 2021 | October to December 2020 | $25.9 million | Against Malaria Foundation | June 24, 2021: Grants and Funding Recommendations in January and February 2021 |
| December 2020 | July to September 2020 | $3.8 million | Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention program | November 19, 2020: Our recommendations for giving in 2020 |
| September 2020 | January to June 2020 | $23.3 million | $15.3 million to the Against Malaria Foundation (including $3.6 million from an unrestricted donation). We also granted $8 million from a donor who gave us flexible funding to Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program. | October 13, 2020: Maximum Impact Fund update: Q1 and Q2 2020 |
| March 2020 | October to December 2019 | $13.4 million | $11.9 million to Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention program and $1.5 million to Helen Keller International’s vitamin A supplementation program | March 17, 2020: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q4 2019 |
| December 2019 | July to September 2019 | $2.6 million | Helen Keller International's vitamin A supplementation program | December 19, 2019: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q3 2019 |
| August 2019 | April to June 2019 | $2.3 million | Against Malaria Foundation | August 21, 2019: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q2 2019 |
| June 2019 | January to March 2019 | $4.7 million | Against Malaria Foundation | June 12, 2019: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q1 2019 |
| March 2019 | October to December 2018 | $7.6 million | Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program | March 29, 2019: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q4 2018 |
| November 2018 | July to September 2018 | $1.1 million | Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program | November 26, 2018: Our updated top charities for giving season 2018 |
| August 2018 | April to June 2018 | $4.1 million | 70% to Against Malaria Foundation and 30% to Schistosomiasis Control Initiative | August 28, 2018: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q2 2018 |
| May 2018 | January to March 2018 | $3.0 million | 70% to Against Malaria Foundation and 30% to Schistosomiasis Control Initiative | June 4, 2018: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q1 2018 |
| March 2018 | October to December 2017 | $5.6 million | Schistosomiasis Control Initiative | April 6, 2018: Allocation of discretionary funds from Q4 2017 |
| November 2017 | July to September 2017 | $0.7 million | Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | November 27, 2017: Our top charities for giving season 2017 |
| August and September 2017 | March to June 2017 | $2.3 million | Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | August 30, 2017: Why we’re allocating discretionary funds to the Deworm the World Initiative |
| August 2017 | January to February 2017 | $2.5 million | Against Malaria Foundation | April 3, 2017: Allocation of discretionary funds and new recommendation for donors |
| April 2017 | October to December 2016 | $2.6 million | $2.1 million to Against Malaria Foundation and $0.5 million to Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | April 3, 2017: Allocation of discretionary funds and new recommendation for donors |
| December 2016 | July to September 2016 | $0.5 million | Against Malaria Foundation | |
| September 2016 | May to June 2016 | $0.3 million | Against Malaria Foundation | |
| June 2016 | March to April 2016 | $0.2 million | Against Malaria Foundation | |
| April 2016 | January to February 2016 | $1.0 million | Against Malaria Foundation | |
| February 2016 | December 2015 | $1.6 million | Against Malaria Foundation | |
| January 2016 | October to November 2015 | $0.8 million | Against Malaria Foundation | |
| December 2015 | June to September 2015 | $0.6 million | Against Malaria Foundation | |
| July 2015 | January to May 2015 | $1.0 million | 66.7% to the Against Malaria Foundation, 13.3% each to GiveDirectly and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, and 6.7% to Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | |
| March 2015 | November to December 2014 | $2.2 million | 66.7% to the Against Malaria Foundation, 13.3% each to GiveDirectly and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, and 6.7% to Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | |
| December 2014 | July to October 2014 | $0.1 million | 66.7% to the Against Malaria Foundation, 13.3% each to GiveDirectly and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, and 6.7% to Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | |
| August 2014 | April to June 2014 | $0.1 million | 60% to GiveDirectly, 20% to the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, and 20% to Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative | |
| May 2014 | January to March 2014 | $0.2 million | 55% to GiveDirectly, 40% to the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, and 5% to Evidence Action's Deworm the World Initiative |
We also made these grants prior to 2014 and would be happy to provide information about those grants upon request.
For a complete table of all grants made or recommended by GiveWell, see this page.
- 1
This includes grants to both current and former top charities.
- 2
This was part of a $13.5 million grant, $8.4 million of which was funded by donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund.
- 3
This was part of a $46.7 million grant funded from a variety of sources, $1.4 million of which was from donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund from January to December 2021 and an additional $1.8 million of which was from donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund from January to March 2022 to make up for a gap in funding because we had overestimated the amount a donor we were advising would give.
- 4
This was part of a $79.9 million grant, $22.2 million of which was funded by donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund.
- 5
This was part of an $8.2 million grant, $3.4 million of which was funded by donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund.
- 6
This was part of a $46.7 million grant funded from a variety of sources, $1.4 million of which was from donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund from January to December 2021, and an additional $1.8 million of which was from donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund from January to March 2022.
- 7
This was part of a $52.8 million grant, $8.7 million of which was funded by donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund.