For charities

This page is for nonprofits. It provides basic information on:

  • GiveWell: our mission and focus
  • Our process: what you should expect
  • The potential benefit to your organization
  • Our focus on transparency and how it affects you

Table of Contents

Who is this page for?

This page is intended for nonprofits we believe are promising and have a reasonable chance at being recommended in our process. If we've contacted your organization, we are excited about what you're doing and would like to learn more.

If we haven't contacted you, please:

What is GiveWell?

GiveWell is an independent, nonprofit charity evaluator. We find outstanding giving opportunities and publish the full details of our analysis to help donors decide where to give.

In 2011, our recommended charities received over $5 million as a direct result of our research and recommendations.

For more information, see:

What is GiveWell's process?

We aim to ask you to spend as little time as possible creating new documents for us; instead we try to rely on existing documentation.

  • We begin our process by reviewing all publicly available information about your organization including your website, external evaluations, and other relevant information.
  • We then schedule a 1-2 hour phone call where we ask questions and create a list of follow up items (i.e., items we are seeking that were not publicly available).
    • If you don't have the items we request, it is unlikely we'll recommend you, and the process stops there.
    • If you do have the items we request, we'll review what you send and likely have 2-3 rounds of follow up emails and calls. Note: only organizations that we think are extremely promising reach this stage.
    • At any point in the process, we are happy to discuss the likelihood that we ultimately recommend your organization.

What is the potential benefit to my organization?

There are significant benefits to being a GiveWell-recommended organization. In 2011, the Against Malaria Foundation, our top-rated charity, received over $2 million in unrestricted donations directly as a result of our recommendation. The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative received over $750,000, and two other organizations received more than $100,000, all in unrestricted funding. (More information is available on our page summarizing the impact of our research in 2011.)

In addition, our recommendation may lead to increased media attention. For example, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof highlighted our top-rated charity in his column in December 2011. (For more information about GiveWell mentions in the media, see our press page.)

Yes. We believe in maximum transparency about the process that went into our recommendations. Therefore, we list every charity considered, and when a charity is not recommended we explain why not.

We do this for every organization we consider, whether or not the organization sends us additional information or talks to us. Working with us will not have an adverse effect on what we write about your organization (see below).

We also do not believe that non-recommended organizations are harmed by being listed on our site. We recommend only a tiny fraction of the charities we review, and our audience is generally looking for a suggestion of where to give - not using us to "check" a specific charity. We have designed our site to discourage the latter. Donors looking to "check" a charity generally use other resources.

Since we focus on highlighting the organizations we deem outstanding, we do not give "negative" ratings. Instead, we provide a brief statement of why an organization did not qualify for our awards. For examples, see our full list of all the charities we have considered, with links to their pages.

Are all communications with GiveWell on the record? Will GiveWell publish the documents we send?

We will only publish documents and conclusions from phone calls with you if you give us express permission to do so.

We do believe transparency is important and hope that you'll agree to share your information with donors. We believe that information about how to help people should never be secret. However, we respect all confidentiality requests and are willing to sign appropriate nondisclosure agreements.