The Story and Work of GiveWell

Discussion with Elie Hassenfeld, GiveWell
How much good will a charity do with the money it receives from a donor? Some years back, Elie Hassenfeld and Holden Karnofsky asked themselves that question. They had decided to donate a significant part of their income to charity, but they wanted to make sure that their money would do the most good it possibly could. They quickly realized, however, that it was difficult to get reliable information about the effectiveness of charities. To remedy this they founded GiveWell, which develops criteria for effectiveness in the charity sector and studies charities based on these. GiveWell also makes recommendations for how you can get the most value for your charitable dollars.

In this conversation Elie and I talk about GiveWell’s work. We discuss how GiveWell tries to measure the impact of particular charities, and which ones they currently recommend. We also discuss questions of comparisons: How does GiveWell go about comparing the effectiveness of one type of charity to another? And, how do they compare different types of causes to each other, for instance, a charity that tries to limit exposure to the malaria mosquito to a charity that gives cash grants to the poor. Elie also talks about GiveWell’s recent efforts to evaluate advocacy organizations and how he judges GiveWell’s own effectiveness.

Key Concepts and Questions
As you read and watch the videos this week, keep an eye out for the following key concepts:
- Comparable impact
- Saving lives vs. improving quality of life
- Research transparency
- Programs with demonstrable track record & strong evidence base
- Room for more funding
- GiveWell’s open philanthropy project

[chazlewis]

It's really disappointing that this video has so few views. Thanks for trying to bring more attention to this topic.