Charities GiveWell Considered in 2009 But Has Not Reconsidered Since

Published: November 28, 2011

This page discusses organizations that we evaluated in our 2009 report of all international charities, and that we did not flag as promising and have not reconsidered since. If you have additional information about an organization in this category that you think indicates it as a strong contender to be listed among our top charities, please contact us.

Overview of our 2009 process

We reviewed each charity's website to determine whether it met either of the following two criteria, which we believe indicate whether a charity is likely to eventually be able to meet our full criteria for a recommendation: (Why do we rely on information found on a charity's website?)

  • Does the charity publish high-quality monitoring and evaluation reports on its website? A charity meets this criterion if it freely publishes - on its website - substantial evidence regarding impact that (a) discusses how the impacts of projects or programs were evaluated, including what information was collected and how it was collected; (b) discusses the actual impact of the evaluated projects. (Why is monitoring and evaluation so important?) We seek enough evidence to be confident that a charity changed lives for the better - not simply that it carried out its activities as intended. Different programs aim for different sorts of life change, and must be assessed on different terms. We do not hold to a single universal rule for determining what "impact" we're looking for; rather, what we look for varies by program type. (For more, see, What constitutes impact?)
  • Does the charity stand out for program selection? A charity meets this criterion if it focuses primarily on (or publishes enough financial information to make it clear that 75% of its recent funding is devoted to) what we consider "priority programs." These programs have particularly strong evidence bases, enough to lower the burden of proof on a charity running them. (Why do we look for charities implementing proven programs?) Such programs include administering vaccinations, distributing insecticide-treated nets, and treating tuberculosis, among many others. (For more, see our full list of priority programs.)

Charities that did not meet any of these criteria were not flagged for further investigation. If you have additional information about an organization in this category that you think indicates it as a strong contender to be listed among our top charities, please contact us.

In addition, some charities were marked as ineligible for review in 2009 for one or more of the following reasons:

  • Scope - the charity's program was outside the scope of areas we planned to cover (e.g., slavery, refugees, orphans and other abandoned children) or focused on research or advocacy as opposed to direct provision of services.
  • Cannot donate - the charity does not accept donations from individual donors. This applied also to organizations that had existed, but no longer do or initiatives run by for-profit companies.
  • No website - the charity has no active website. This includes organizations whose only website was non-English.
  • Too small - the charity's previous year's expenses were less than $200,000.





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