Making a Check Donation to GiveWell

Thanks for your interest in donating to GiveWell!

Due to an increase in mail fraud and potential mail delays, we encourage you to consider instead making a donation via bank transfer (ACH), which is fast, secure, and has a negligible transaction fee, or one of our other donation methods.

Please complete our donation form below prior to making your donation. Doing so will:

• enable us to match your contact information with the checks we receive and send you a receipt;
• allow you to specify your preference for how we allocate your donation; and
• reduce the administrative cost associated with processing your donation.

Donations received without an accompanying donation form submission or identifying information on the physical check will be treated as anonymous donations to our unrestricted fund, which we may use to either support our operating expenses (most likely) or grant out to charities at our discretion.

In order for your donation to be tax-deductible in 2026, your check must be postmarked on or before December 31, 2026. See more about charitable donation tax deadlines here.

Please note that donations to GiveWell are irrevocable in most cases. If a refund is approved, the full donation amount will be returned after it has cleared in our bank account. GiveWell does not issue partial refunds for check donations. Donor requests to grant donations to our recommended charities are subject to our approval (more details on GiveWell's approval process here).

If you have any questions about how to donate via check, please email us at donations@givewell.org before making your donation.

Donation form

If you would prefer to print and mail our check donation form, you can use
this donation form (Microsoft Word version here).