Training Example: GiveWell – Review the Data, Give Your Score & Compare to the Real AI Evaluation

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[H1] We search for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar.
Our goal is to produce the world’s top research on where to give. Free, for everyone. We recommend a small number of charities that do an incredible amount of good.Explore our Top Charities
Photo credit to: Malaria Consortium/Sophie Garcia
Photo credit to: Malaria Consortium/Sophie Garcia
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[H4] Backed by 70,000+ hours of research each year
We’ve been researching and funding charities since 2007. Our work aims to understand how charities work and how much they help the people they serve.
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[H4] Only the best, according to our high standards
We’ve reviewed hundreds of charities. Very few meet our high bar for funding.
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[H4] GiveWell takes zero fees
Our operations are funded by donors who choose to support us. 100% of all other donations (minus standard bank and credit card fees) will go to the fund or organization of your choice.

[H4] Responding to foreign aid funding cuts

As we navigate the implications of significant cuts to foreign assistance, we are balancing a targeted, near-term response to urgent needs with a broad, long-term perspective of likely future ones. We’ve also launched a podcast to share timely snapshots of this rapidly evolving situation.

Read the blog post

[H4] A closer look at GiveWell’s research

Listen in as the Planet Money team follows along as GiveWell evaluated and then approved a grant to ALIMA so healthcare support and malnutrition treatment could continue in two subdistricts of northern Cameroon. This grant is one of more than 100 grants we approved this year.

Listen to the episode

[H2] The gold standard for giving.
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[H4] As seen in

[H3] 3 ways to donate.
[H6] Most common
[H4] Top Charities Fund
[H5] How will my donation be used?
Your donation will be granted to one of our Top Charities. These are the most reliably high-impact and cost-effective charities we’ve identified. We’ve evaluated them extensively and have high confidence that donations to them will do a lot of good.
[H5] Is there a downside?
We have a high bar for the evidence and scalability of these opportunities. This may limit the cost-effectiveness ceiling for these grants.
[H5] Best for
If you want high confidence in the effectiveness of your donation, donate to the Top Charities Fund.
View our Top Charities
[H4] All Grants Fund
[H5] How will my donation be used?
Your donation will be granted to the highest-impact programs across all our grantmaking in global health and well-being. Some programs may be much more cost-effective than our Top Charities, but we may also be much more uncertain about their impact.
[H5] Is there a downside?
It’s riskier than our Top Charities Fund. For example, we may not have as much confidence in the evidence base or may not have the same extensive history working with the grantee.
[H5] Best for
If you want the highest possible expected impact and are comfortable with higher risk, donate to the All Grants Fund.
View the all grants fund
[H4] Direct to charities
[H5] How will my donation be used?
You can make a donation to any of our Top Charities through the GiveWell site, and your donation will be allocated to the next highly cost-effective grant for that program.
[H5] Is there a downside?
Because your donation will be allocated to a grant for the Top Charity you chose, the funds may not be allocated as quickly as donations via the Top Charities Fund, which are allocated within six months to grants at any of our Top Charities.
[H5] Best for
If you’d like to choose the specific charity that will receive your gift, any of our Top Charities are great options for making an impact.
View our Top Charities
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[H6] Gather independent evidence
We look at independent studies, such as randomized controlled trials, of charity programs to understand if they achieve their goals. We also consult experts to gain practical and context-specific insights.
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[H6] Model cost-effectiveness
We build in-depth models to analyze programs’ cost-effectiveness. We refine these throughout our evaluation process, based on budgets and monitoring data, to estimate impact per dollar spent.
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[H6] Conduct interviews and site visits
We conduct extensive interviews with staff from potential grantee organizations. We may visit them to see their work in action.
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[H6] Review budgets
We review potential grantees’ past spending and forecast their future spending to better understand their track record and expected impact.
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[H6] Ask for program data
We ask organizations to share data so we can better understand how successful the programs have been.
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[H6] Follow up on progress
We continually assess the work, progress, and future plans of the programs we fund. We will stop funding a program if we no longer believe it meets our criteria.

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More than 150,000 donorsiBased on our records of donors who’ve contributed either to GiveWell or to our recommended charities.— Learn more have trusted GiveWell to direct their donations. Together, they have given over $2.6 billioniBased on our records of the money we’ve directed to organizations and grants we’ve recommended since 2011.— Learn more to the organizations we recommend.
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These donations will save over 340,000 lives.iBased on our cost-effectiveness analysis and our records of money we’ve directed to our Top Charities since 2009.— Learn more

[H4] What is GiveWell?
GiveWell is an independent nonprofit focused on helping people do as much good as possible with their donations. We recommend a short list of top charities that we update annually. All of our research is free and available to the public.
[H4] Who works at GiveWell?
GiveWell was founded by two individuals working in the finance industry in 2007. Our team has grown quite a bit since then! For more, see our story and meet our team.
[H4] How does GiveWell make money?
GiveWell is a nonprofit that is funded by donors who choose to support our mission. We don’t take any fees from donations directed to charities we recommend, nor do we receive any fees from charities for being featured on our site.
[H4] Will my donation be tax-deductible?
GiveWell (a.k.a. The Clear Fund) is a federally-recognized tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization in the U.S. GiveWell is also a registered charity in the Netherlands with tax-deductible status (a Public Benefit Organization), and GiveWell UK is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) in the UK. GiveWell can accept donations on behalf of our recommended charities. Donors based in the U.S., UK, or Netherlands can donate to GiveWell to support our operations or our recommended charities and take tax deductions to the extent permitted by law. More information is available here on the tax-deductibility of donations to GiveWell and our recommended charities for donors worldwide.
[H4] Does GiveWell recommend charities for every cause?
We do not. GiveWell's mission is to recommend charities that we believe can save or improve the greatest number of lives per dollar donated. We focus on the areas that we believe are most promising to achieve this aim. This has led us to research and recommend charities working in global health and poverty alleviation because your dollar can go further overseas.

[H2] Donate to high-impact, cost-effective programs—backed by evidence and analysis
Last updated: September 2025
[H4] Give Effectively
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[H5] Give to cost-effective, evidence-backed programs
We search for programs that save or improve lives the most per dollar. These are the best we’ve found. Supported by 70,000+ hours of research annually.(1)
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[H5] Donate based on evidence—not marketing
Even well-meaning organizations can fail to have impact. We provide evidence-backed analysis of effectiveness.
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[H5] Pick a charity or give to our Top Charities Fund
We grant from our Top Charities Fund to the programs where we believe donations will help the most. Either way, we take zero fees.
[H4] Skip to
Medicine to prevent malaria
Nets to prevent malaria
Supplements to prevent vitamin A deficiency
Cash incentives for routine childhood vaccines
GiveWell’s Top Charities Fund

[H6] Overview
Malaria kills around 600,000 people annually, mostly children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.(2) Seasonal malaria chemoprevention is preventive medicine that saves children’s lives. It is given during the four months of the year when malaria infection rates are especially high.
[H6] COST-EFFECTIVENESS
About $7 to protect a child from malaria.(3) In 2022-2024, we directed funding to the Malaria Consortium to support this program at an estimated average cost-effectiveness of $4,000 per life saved.(4)
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] EVIDENCE OF IMPACT
Exceptionally strong. Many high-quality studies of seasonal malaria chemoprevention have consistently found strong impact. Malaria Consortium conducts valuable, high-quality ongoing monitoring.
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] TOP ORGANIZATION IN THIS AREA

[IMG: African child being given medicine]
[IMG: African child being given medicine]

An SMC Community Distributor in Burkina Faso shows an infant a strip for measuring malnutrition, which may be done alongside delivery of the antimalarial medicine. Photo credit: Malaria Consortium/Sophie Garcia

[H6] OVERVIEW
Malaria kills around 600,000 people annually, mostly children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa.(5) Nets save lives. Recipients of nets hang and sleep under them so they are not bitten by malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
[H6] COST-EFFECTIVENESS
About $6 to provide one net.(6) In 2022-2024, we directed funding to the Against Malaria Foundation to support this program at an estimated average cost-effectiveness of $5,500 per life saved.(7)
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] EVIDENCE OF IMPACT
Exceptionally strong. Many high-quality studies of nets have consistently found strong impact. The Against Malaria Foundation conducts valuable ongoing monitoring.
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] TOP ORGANIZATION IN THIS AREA

[IMG: Mosquito net]
[IMG: Mosquito net]

Photo credit: Against Malaria Foundation

[H6] OVERVIEW
Vitamin A deficiency leaves children vulnerable to infections and can lead to death. We estimate that approximately 28% of children in areas where we’ve modeled Helen Keller Intl’s programs have vitamin A deficiency.(8) This program saves lives by providing vitamin A supplements to children under 5 years old.
[H6] COST-EFFECTIVENESS
About $2 to provide vitamin A supplements to a child for one year.(9) In 2022-2024, we directed funding to Helen Keller Intl to support this program at an estimated average cost-effectiveness of $3,500 per life saved.(10)
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] EVIDENCE OF IMPACT
Very strong. Many high-quality studies of vitamin A supplementation show strong impact, though results vary by study. Helen Keller Intl conducts valuable ongoing monitoring.
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] TOP ORGANIZATION IN THIS AREA

[IMG: Baby being given vitamin A]
[IMG: Baby being given vitamin A]

Photo credit: Helen Keller Intl

[H6] OVERVIEW
In Nigeria, 33% of infants did not receive all recommended childhood vaccines in 2021.(11) This program provides cash transfers to incentivize caregivers to bring babies to clinics for routine childhood vaccinations, which prevent disease and reduce child mortality. It operates in Northern Nigeria.
[H6] COST-EFFECTIVENESS
About $146 to vaccinate an infant.(12) In 2022-2024, we directed funding to New Incentives to support this program at an estimated average cost-effectiveness of $4,500 per life saved.(13)
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] EVIDENCE OF IMPACT
Exceptionally strong. A high-quality study of New Incentives’ program found strong impact. New Incentives conducts valuable, high-quality ongoing monitoring.
Compare to most charities’ programs
[H6] TOP ORGANIZATION IN THIS AREA

[IMG: A mother and child wait at a clinic in Jigawa while a Routine Immunization Provider prepares paperwork before administering the infant]
[IMG: A mother and child wait at a clinic in Jigawa while a Routine Immunization Provider prepares paperwork before administering the infant]

A mother and child wait at a clinic in Jigawa while a Routine Immunization Provider prepares paperwork before administering the infant's routine childhood immunizations. Photo credit: New Incentives
Photo credit: Malaria Consortium/Sophie Garcia

[IMG: Man feeding a child which a woman is holding]
[IMG: Man feeding a child which a woman is holding]
[H1] GiveWell’s Top Charities Fund
This is the best fit for donors who prioritize cost-effectiveness and desire a high level of confidence in their impact. We take zero fees and use our most up-to-date research to grant your gift where we believe it will help the most.
We commit Top Charities Fund donations to specific Top Charities programs no more than six months after being donated. Once we grant your donation, we’ll email you to let you know which program or programs we selected and what we expect your donation will accomplish.
You can find more information about the Top Charities Fund, including a list of past distributions, here.
donate

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[H2] About GiveWell
[H3] What does GiveWell do?
GiveWell's mission is to help people in need as much as we can by researching the most cost‑effective ways to save and improve lives, sharing our work openly, and directing donations to the programs we believe will do the most good.
We recommend a list of Top Charities to donors. We also offer donors the option to give to our giving funds. GiveWell is focused on finding a small number of outstanding giving opportunities, not on reviewing as many organizations—or as many causes—as possible.
[H3] How does GiveWell support itself?
GiveWell is supported by donors who explicitly choose to direct funding to GiveWell’s operations (by giving to our unrestricted fund). We do not take a percentage of donations made to recommended organizations through GiveWell’s website, nor do we receive any fees from organizations for being featured on our site.
We generally use unrestricted funding for operating expenses (which includes staff salaries, travel expenses, website maintenance, and other routine operational costs). However, we have an "excess assets" policy, which provides that once we surpass a certain level of unrestricted assets, we earmark the excess for grantmaking rather than continuing to hold it ourselves. You can read more about our excess assets policy here.
To avoid relying too much on a single source of support, we cap the amount of funding any individual or entity may provide to our operations at 20 percent.
For details on our revenues and expenses, see our financial statements.
[H3] What types of donors use GiveWell's research?
GiveWell serves donors who want to accomplish as much good as possible with their donations. These donors rely on GiveWell's research to help them support outstanding organizations that have a significant impact on people's lives.
GiveWell does not serve donors who want to know whether a particular organization is legitimate or are interested in a charitable cause that isn't already on our research agenda.
[H3] Who can access GiveWell's research?
Everything we publish is available freely on our website.
GiveWell is committed to extreme transparency. We aim to publish all of the research we do, and we also publish:
The rationale behind all grants we make and recommend
A blog with ongoing, detailed updates on our research
Records of meetings of our Board of Directors
Notes from interviews with nonprofit representatives and experts
Transcripts and recordings of research events we've hosted
Major mistakes we've made as an organization
In some cases, researchers or organizations share information with us on the condition that we keep it confidential, and we honor confidentiality in these cases.
[H3] What is GiveWell's impact? How is GiveWell's success evaluated?
Broadly, GiveWell's impact is a result of the following:
How many donations we influence, directly or indirectly, with our research.
How much value our research adds (i.e., how much more effective a donation is when informed by our research).
The extent to which our work generates broader interest in maximizing impact and valuing transparency in giving decisions.
How many donations we influence is relatively straightforward to measure. We track donations to the organizations we recommend through a variety of methods, including the donation links on our site and by asking donors to submit a donation report when they give through another channel. We report the results on our impact page and in our annual metrics report.
Measuring how much value our research adds is more difficult, as assessing this requires determining what the organizations we recommend can be expected to accomplish, and how that compares to what other organizations accomplish. There is often a great deal of uncertainty in this comparison because most nonprofits do not conduct high-quality monitoring or have rigorous evidence about their programs.
Our role in generating broader interest in effective giving is the hardest to measure because the reasons for the spread of ideas are wide-ranging. Although we can track changes in interest, attributing them to our specific activities is difficult.
These metrics are complex and cannot be precisely quantified. However, we believe we can evaluate ourselves using a combination of empirical data, analysis, and judgment calls, and that we should do so as transparently as possible. We conduct internal reviews of our progress and actively solicit external assessments of the quality of our research.
[H2] GiveWell's research
[H3] What is GiveWell's research process?
Our focus is on finding the best giving opportunities for individual donors. To do this, we:
Focus on areas that we feel offer donors outstanding opportunities to do good. We focus primarily on international aid and, in particular, global health (more on why we focus on these areas).
Start by identifying promising programs, then identify organizations that effectively implement those progress.
Conduct short, shallow reviews of a large number of programs, then prioritize programs that seem promising, focusing on strength of evidence, cost-effectiveness, and room for more funding.
Conduct in-depth evaluations of implementing organizations we believe are strong contenders for funding, which may include interviews with staff, reviews of publicly available and internal documents about the organization's work and plans, and site visits.
For more details about this process, please see this page.
[H3] Why should I consider GiveWell's recommendations to be credible?
Reputation: GiveWell is respected by the media, scholars, nonprofit professionals, and donors. See what others are saying about GiveWell.
Transparency: We publish the full details of our research process, analysis, and reasoning so that our audience can come to its own conclusions. See more about our approach to transparency here.
Rigor: We research each program extensively before recommending it, and assess what the program will accomplish with additional funding. Our researchers spend over 70,000 hours each year investigating programs and building in-depth models to analyze their cost-effectiveness.
Impact: Donors have given more than $2.6 billion to GiveWell's recommended organizations based on our research, which we estimate will save over 340,000 lives. More on GiveWell's impact here.
[H3] What criteria does GiveWell use for making grants?
We focus on:
Evidence of effectiveness. We seek out programs that have been studied rigorously and ideally repeatedly, and whose benefits we can reasonably expect to generalize to large populations, though there are limits to the generalizability of any study results. We also look at organization-specific data to compare the organization's real-world results with the results found in academic studies.
Cost-effectiveness. The core question we try to answer in our research is: How much good can you do by giving money to a certain program? Assessing cost-effectiveness generally involves looking at the cost per person reached, the overall burden of a problem, and the effect a program has. We've written in more detail about our approach here.
Room for more funding. When we consider directing funding to a program, we ask, "What will additional funds—beyond what an organization would raise without our recommendation—enable, and what is the value of these activities?" We've written in more detail about our approach here.
Transparency. We examine potential funding opportunities thoroughly and skeptically, and publish detailed reviews discussing strengths of these programs as well as concerns related to their work or room for more funding. Organizations must be open to our intensive investigation process. We also believe that good giving decisions require judgment calls, and we aim to put all of our reasoning out in the open where others can assess and critique it.
For more information about our grantmaking criteria, see this page. We also have additional criteria for the organizations that we designate as Top Charities.
[H3] Do you look at how much an organization spends on program expenses compared to its overhead costs when assessing its cost-effectiveness?
We do check this figure, but we do not place much emphasis on it. The core question we try to answer in our research is: How much good can you do by giving money to a certain program? Knowing the breakdown of costs within an organization's budget is only a small piece of answering that question. At a very high level, assessing cost-effectiveness generally involves looking at the cost per person reached, the overall burden of a problem, and the effect a program has on addressing the problem. We've written in more detail about our approach here.
[H3] How much does it cost to save someone's life?
GiveWell makes grants to fund some of the most cost-effective programs we’ve found at saving lives. Because the initial outputs of these grants are so inexpensive (for example, on average, it costs about $7 to distribute preventive malaria treatment to a child), many people are surprised at how expensive it can be to save a life, even for the most cost-effective programs. Our cost-effectiveness models for grants to our Top Charities during 2022–2024 estimated an average cost around $4,500, though the same program can vary widely in cost-effectiveness across locations. See this page for an example that illustrates the discrepancy in cost between the initial outputs and the cost to save a life.
[H3] How reliable are figures like "$X per life saved"? How important are these in your recommendations?
Accomplishing as much good as possible per dollar spent is an important value to us, and we put substantial work into cost-effectiveness estimates. We publish cost-effectiveness figures that represent our best estimates, given all available information. We publish the full details behind these figures, describing the key parameters in our estimate and how we might be wrong. See here in our report on insecticide-treated nets for an example.
However, estimating the cost to save a life involves simplification, guesswork, and subjective judgment. As a result, our estimates are very uncertain. We analyze the cost-effectiveness of programs primarily because doing so helps us see large, clear differences in good accomplished per dollar spent and because working on the models helps us ensure that we are thinking through as many of the relevant issues as possible. For more on how we use cost-effectiveness estimates in our grantmaking, see this page.
[H2] GiveWell's giving recommendations
[H3] What are "Top Charities" and how have they been selected?
GiveWell makes recommendations for grants to a range of programs to improve global health and well-being. We identify the programs we have the highest confidence in as "Top Charities." In addition to meeting the criteria we use for all of our grantmaking, our Top Charities must meet additional criteria.
A program is only designated as a Top Charity after we've directed a significant amount of money to it and seen it operate effectively. We only designate a program as a Top Charity if we think there's a high likelihood of substantial direct impact from funding this program (as opposed to lower likelihood of enormous impact or where the primary value of the program is the information we learn).
We examine potential Top Charities thoroughly and skeptically, and publish thorough reviews discussing both strengths of these programs and our concerns (see this page for links to our Top Charity reviews). We also follow their progress over time and report on it publicly, including any negative developments. Organizations must be open to our intensive investigation process—and public discussion of their track record and progress, both the good and the bad—in order to earn "Top Charity" status.
[H3] How can I support the organizations GiveWell recommends?
You can support the organizations GiveWell recommends by donating to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund or All Grants Fund. We offer these giving funds for donors with different preferences and strongly believe each of these options is a very impactful way to give.
If you want to give to the programs we have the highest confidence in, we recommend giving to the Top Charities Fund. We are in ongoing conversation with our Top Charities about their plans and funding needs, and we review funding opportunities on a rolling basis. We then make grants to high-priority funding opportunities, committing Top Charities Fund donations to specific Top Charities programs no more than six months after being donated. Because it’s more restricted, the Top Charities Fund may go to opportunities with lower expected value than the All Grants Fund.
Our All Grants Fund is our top recommendation for donors who have a high level of trust in GiveWell and are open to programs that might be substantially more uncertain, experimental, or less likely to achieve their expected impact than our Top Charities. While we are often less certain about the individual grants we make via our All Grants Fund, we believe that—in aggregate—these grants represent the highest-impact use of marginal funding. When you give to the All Grants Fund, your donation might go to support research or scoping opportunities rather than straightforward delivery of programs. For more information about the types of grants the fund supports, see here.
You can also donate to our Top Charities directly through our donation portal (we take no fees) or through the organizations' own websites.
[H3] What are the advantages and disadvantages of GiveWell’s approach?
Advantages of GiveWell's approach
Our research attempts to draw a clear link between donations and outcomes, along the lines of "$X per life saved" or "$Y per person enabled to get a job paying 20% more than they could have gotten otherwise."
Our researchers spend over 70,000 hours each year carefully reviewing programs and recommend programs that are highly cost-effective. Our recommendations represent the best opportunities we're aware of to help low-income people with relatively high confidence and relatively short time horizons.
Due to the emphasis on thorough vetting, transparency, and follow-up, our recommendations represent excellent learning opportunities. Supporting our recommendations helps GiveWell demonstrate impact and improves our ability to learn, and we are dedicated to sharing what we learn publicly.
Disadvantages of GiveWell's approach
We have strict criteria for the organizations we recommend. These criteria help others have high confidence in our recommendations and ensure that the programs we recommend are highly impactful. However, seeking strong evidence and a straightforward, documented case for impact can be in tension with maximizing impact, as argued in this post by Open Philanthropy. (Open Philanthropy was incubated at GiveWell and looks for giving opportunities t

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Published: July 2019; Updated September 2025

[H3] Table of Contents

Number of donors

Funds directed to recommended programs

Lives saved

[H2] Number of donors
According to our records, as of February 2025, over 150,000 people have donated to GiveWell or our recommended programs, either by donating through GiveWell or by reporting that a direct-to-charity donation was influenced by GiveWell. This represents individual donors who have given to one of GiveWell’s Giving Funds or our Top Charities as a direct result of our research. It does not include anonymous donors. See our 2024 metrics report (and the spreadsheet here).
[H2] Funds directed to recommended programs
As of July 2025, we have directed more than $2.6 billion to organizations and grants we’ve recommended, according to the historical metrics listed in our 2024 metrics report (in the spreadsheet here), and internal records from 2025.
[H2] Lives saved
We estimate that GiveWell-directed donations to our Top Charities between 2009 and 2024 will avert over 340,000 deaths. This figure is based on our estimates of impact of our four current Top Charities: the Against Malaria Foundation, Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention program, Helen Keller Intl’s vitamin A supplementation program, and New Incentives. We use our estimate of the average cost per death averted to calculate the impact of grants we made or recommended to these programs in 2020 through 2024 and the impact of the total amount of funding GiveWell has directed to them since 2009. We calculate this estimate in our impact analysis of grants to Top Charities. This analysis doesn’t include deaths averted by grants or donations that were given to other organizations.