8. GiveWell's data-driven approach to giving
GiveWell sizes up nonprofits by gauging how effective each dollar spent is at saving or improving a life, Jennifer reports.
Why it matters: Donors who crave cost-effectiveness and bang-for-the-buck gravitate to GiveWell's annual recommendation list, which this year includes nine charities that support life-saving or income-generating measures in the developing world.
Details: GiveWell's top picks are the Malaria Consortium, which gives prophylactic medicine to children in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Against Malaria Foundation, which supplies insecticidal nets to at-risk populations.
- A $5-$7 donation to the Malaria Consortium or Against Malaria Foundation will protect a child from the disease, GiveWell says, while $3,000-$5,000 will save a life.
Other charities on GiveWell's list include Helen Keller International, which spends about $1 to give a Vitamin A supplement to a child at risk of deficiency, and GiveDirectly, which "gives cash to very poor families, mostly in Africa, to spend as they like," as GiveWell puts it.
- The one new charity on GiveWell's list this year is New Incentives, which pays cash to caregivers in Nigeria to coax them to bring children to medical clinics for routine vaccinations.
Background: GiveWell was founded in 2007 by a pair of hedge funders who were seeking to apply the same rigorous financial analysis and performance metrics to charities as they did to the fund they were managing.
The bottom line: "Our starting point is zooming all the way back and saying, 'If we care about all human lives equally, what are the most cost-effective ways to improve people's lives?" GiveWell managing director Neil Buddy Shah tells Axios.
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