GiveWell Reviews and Details

Social recommendations and mentions

• GiveDirectly – Send money directly to people who need it most

  GiveDirectly is a great org that’s working in data driven experimental way to identify effective ways to donate. I’ve donated to them for years. In a similar vein is GiveWell, https://givewell.org/, who research and identify the top charities to donate to to maximize dollar impact. Their mission is to simplify giving by just telling you a very small number of orgs, removing any need for analysis or choice.... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago

• Sam Bankman-Fried and the effective altruism delusion

  When I donate to http://givewell.org , I don't care about the relative value they place on arms and legs. What I care about is avoiding pseudo-charities. You know, the ones that pop up in exposé articles every now and then where most of the money goes to marketing and admin, a tiny sliver goes to the actual cause, and then a clown car pulls up full of people who try to rationalize how this is actually a good... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago

• What life changing thing can you buy for less than $100?

  Givewell.org. It is a charity evaluator which uses extensive research to investigate the best, most cost-effective ways to help people in the world today. They have their Top Charities Fund which supports the highest-priority funding needs among their Top Charities. They also have their All Grants Fund to fill the highest-impact funding opportunities they can find, whether those opportunities are top charities or... Source: about 3 years ago

• Why does a 13 and 14 year old has a gun?

  You should definitely help random strangers! Do it by contributing money to stop malaria, or whatever the current top charity on http://givewell.org is. That helps far more people with far more efficiency than giving money directly to someone you pass on the street (and if you want to give money directly to people who need it, there’s also http://givedirectly.org, which does exactly that (and was also in... Source: about 3 years ago

• I have a contract to be cryopreserved after my legal death for the chance of future revival AMA

  I unfortunately don't think that the 45€ per month that I spend on my cryonics contract would be able to save the poor. Also, it's not an either or. I regularly donate to charities with good rating from givewell.org. I'm not giving every possible penny I have, but my guess is that neither are you buddy. Source: over 3 years ago

• If you could kill a random stranger of any age by a press of a button, receive a prize of $1 billion, and get away with it, would you accept the offer?

  You already in some sense 'allow' one person to die for every $4500 you have that isn't being spent to purchase mosquito nets, according to givewell.org. Source: over 3 years ago

• My kids aren't getting any of my money when i die

  This is absolutely true, but that's why you do not donate to most charities. You don't even donate to the ones with a cause you're partial to (if everyone did that, then charitable funds would be most allocated to the ones rich people are exposed to, rather than those most effective). There are orgs such as GiveWell that investigate charities to find exactly which ones are most effective. I recommend checking out... Source: over 3 years ago

• Never Give Money to Charity

  The article argues that charity can be counterproductive, but we don't have to give to random charities where no one is paying attention to whether they're making things better. Instead of "never give money to charity" what about "always check charity reviews first"? As the article does eventually get to, the reviews on https://givewell.org can help you avoid the kind of disasters they open with. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago

• Why should we donate to charity? What are the reasons we should spend money on people who are seeking handouts?

  Givewell.org evaluates charities for effectiveness. Source: over 3 years ago

• Conservative-Libertarian-AnCap-Anarchist pipeline - vs - Liberal-DemSoc-Tankie-Anarchist pipeline

  Literally everything outside of that is donated to charities that operate more efficiently than the leaky-bucket of the state (PLEASE CHECK OUT givewell.org !!!). Source: over 3 years ago

• If you had a spare £250k what would you invest it in?

  To take in a slightly different direction, if you feel you have a comfortable amount already and are interested in possible charitable giving, see the website givewell.org for how to get the most bang for your buck in terms of cost effective charities. Source: over 3 years ago

• How do I pursued my dad?

  This can be an effective long term philanthropy strategy, investing and then donating the proceeds after many years of compounding, like Warren Buffet who has pledged to donate 99% of the over 100 billion he has made over his lifetime. But giving to charity immediately has its own compounding effects because the benefits are realized immediately and the ripple effects start earlier. So there is also a strong... Source: over 3 years ago

• Thoughts on child sponsorship like world vision?

  Givewell.org is also one I use to check out a charity's background. Source: over 3 years ago

• OFTW Exec Board

  I am creating a student chapter for UTK on behalf of 1fortheworld, which focuses on effective altruism (donating to charities based on effectiveness researched by GiveWell. Part of this includes outreach on campus to take the 1% pledge post-graduation. Source: almost 4 years ago

• Donating to charity - best ways

  If it's the latter, check out givewell.org. They focus on how cost-effective the charities' interventions are, rather than looking at proxy facts like percentage of overhead. The recommendations for their top charities are based on thorough research, often including randomized controlled trials. Source: almost 4 years ago

• Repeat after me: SBF doesn't make EA bad anymore than Elizabeth Holmes makes the medical device bad

  One of the core tenants of EA is opportunity cost, it is the reason you are supposed to give to the most effective charity possible. The opportunity cost of giving millions of dollars to politicians and media is that you could have given those millions to givewell.org. So in that sense, in hindsight his motivations were obvious. But for sure he did a masterful job playing the media, including EA community. And... Source: almost 4 years ago

• Updating our confidence in our ability to forecast

  As far as forecasting, I think the lesson here is to keep it simple and not take unnecessary risks. Take profits and give it to givewell.org asap. SBF showed that 16B can go to less than 1B in a day, so give it to givewell before you risk losing it. And if you are going to take the long term compounding approach then ffs diversify your assets. Source: almost 4 years ago

• Thoughts on DEMZ ETF? It positions itself as an an ethical index fund.

  If you want to be ethical get the highest return possible and donate it to effective charities like givewell.org . Don't mess around with ESG investing its all fugazy virtue signaling. Source: almost 4 years ago

• I want to be more charitable but I'm incredibly paranoid and risk-averse about my own future.

  As for where to donate, I'm a huge fan of givewell.org. Open Philanthropy could also be worth looking at if you want similar "effective altruism" but on a longer timetable. Source: about 4 years ago

• CMV: People who are against an extensive welfare/social program because they won’t benefit from it are selfish and not very bright.

  The problem with the charity in most cases is that for charities it's beauty contest. It doesn't matter how good you are relieving the world suffering as long as you're good at marketing that what you do is to fix the most important bad thing in the world. People generally don't have time to research what is the most efficient things to do, but just usually give to charities that make them feel good. That's why... Source: about 4 years ago

• I won the game

  According to givewell.org, this is slightly more than the cost to save a human life. Source: about 4 years ago