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We complete two types of evaluations:
- Internal reviews of our progress over the past year, focusing on the research we’ve completed, growth in the organization, and key metrics such as donations influenced and web traffic.
- In the past, we have conducted external assessments of the quality of our research, focusing on the quality of our methodology, the usefulness of our recommendations, and the accuracy of our findings. We have asked two types of individuals to complete these assessments: subject matter experts (often academics who work in relevant fields) and individual donors (the types of people likely to use our research to decide where to give).
Table of Contents
Last Updated: December 2021
Internal Reviews and Plans
GiveWell’s mission is to find outstanding giving opportunities and publish the full details of our analysis to help donors decide where to give. The ultimate goal is to have significant impact on the flow of donations, moving toward a world in which donors reward effectiveness in improving lives.
Each year we complete an internal review of our progress over the previous year and publish a plan of our goals for the coming year.
Note: As of June 2017, the Open Philanthropy Project is no longer a part of GiveWell. As of March 2021, we are no longer including summary links.
External Reviews
We began the process of soliciting external reviews in July 2010. As of this writing (August 2013), we are no longer actively soliciting external reviews. More on this decision in this blog post.
We created five separate external vetting assignments, each evaluating a separate piece of our process:
- Issue overview: The purpose of this assignment is to assess the conclusions we've come to (and the sources we've used) regarding key issues (from an individual donor standpoint) in international aid.
- Criteria and heuristics: The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate and reflect on (a) the criteria we use to evaluate charities; (b) the heuristics we use to identify charities most likely to meet these criteria.
- Narrowing the field: The purpose of this assignment is to vet our process for narrowing the field from a large number of "charities to be examined" to a smaller number of "charities for futher investigation." It consists of "spot checking" different categories of charities, determining whether we have applied our criteria consistently and appropriately, and reflecting on the appropriateness of our criteria.
- Charity review: The purpose of this assignment is to assess the conclusions we've come to about a particular charity that passed our heuristics (or that we reviewed in depth for another reason).
- Finding the Best Charity: The purpose of this assignment is to gauge the usefulness of GiveWell's research in a real-world context: deciding what charity to give to in a limited amount of time.
Completed Reviews
| Assignment | Person | Review topic | Completed assignment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issue overview | Matthew Bonds1 | HIV/AIDS | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Issue overview | Matthew Collin2 | Developing-world education | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Issue overview | Andy Beckingham3 | Maternal mortality | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Issue overview | Pierre Thompson4 | Combination deworming | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Criteria and heuristics | Laura Freschi5 | Our criteria and heuristics | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Criteria and heuristics | David Jinkins6 | Our criteria and heuristics | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Narrowing the field | Jonah Sinick7 | Our process for narrowing the field | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Narrowing the field | Ju Min Kim8 | Our process for narrowing the field | Summary | Full assessment (PDF) |
| Charity review | Robert Mundy9 | VillageReach (July 2010 review) | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Robert Mundy10 | Against Malaria Foundation | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Robert Mundy11 | Small Enterprise Foundation | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Jonah Sinick12 | Stop TB Partnership | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Wendy Knight13 | Nurse-Family Partnership | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Joshua Rosenberg14 | Village Enterprise Fund | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Kate Lang15 | Schistosomiasis Control Initiative | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Ju Min Kim16 | Chamroeun | Summary | Full assessment (PDF) |
| Charity review | Rachel Gross17 | KIPP | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Lim Kwangjin18 | Stop TB Partnership | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Rachel Gross19 | Invest in Kids | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Charity review | Ju Min Kim20 | VillageReach | Summary | Full assessment (PDF) |
| Finding the Best Charity | Stephanie Wykstra21 | Deciding where to give | Summary | Full assessment (ZIP) |
| Finding the Best Charity | Robert Mundy22 | Deciding where to give | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Finding the Best Charity | Timothy Moreland23 | Deciding where to give | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
| Finding the Best Charity | Tobias Pfutze24 | Deciding where to give | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) | Follow up conversation |
| Finding the Best Charity | Rachael Stephens25 | Deciding where to give | Summary | Full assessment (DOC) |
- 1About: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/matthew-bonds/ (accessed October 7, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5tJnzR9Jr.
- 2About: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sant1981/ (accessed October 19, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5tcN1VaLe.
- 3Andy Beckingham FFPH is a Consultant in Public Health who has worked in the UK and India. He has over 23 years of experience in health care and is currently (as of January 2011) working with a range of agencies in Andhra Pradesh on joint efforts to improve the quality of maternal care in the state.
- 4Pierre Thompson is a 2011 graduate of Georgetown University. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 5 About: http://dri.fas.nyu.edu/object/laura_freschi.html (accessed October 7, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5tJoWl6oT.
- 6 About: http://personal.psu.edu/dcj138/about_me/aboutme.html (accessed July 14, 2011). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/60AgizdC5.
- 7 About: http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~jsinick2/ (accessed October 7, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5tJpWmZbH.
- 8Ju Min Kim is a postdoctoral research fellow in theoretical physics currently working in Germany. She completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 9Robert Mundy is a 2010 graduate from Rutgers University. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 10Robert Mundy is a 2010 graduate from Rutgers University. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 11Robert Mundy is a 2010 graduate from Rutgers University. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 12 About: http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~jsinick2/ (accessed October 7, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5tJpWmZbH.
- 13Wendy Knight completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell. Subsequent to completing this assignment, she joined GiveWell as a full-time staff member in February 2011.
- 14Joshua Rosenberg is a student at Pomona College. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 15Kate Lang is a MBA student at Drexel University. She completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 16Ju Min Kim is a postdoctoral research fellow in theoretical physics currently working in Germany. She completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 17Rachel Gross holds a master's degree in plant biology from Northwestern and is currently a graduate student. She completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 18Lim Kwangjin is a philosophy undergraduate student at New York University. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 19Rachel Gross holds a master's degree in plant biology from Northwestern and is currently a graduate student. She completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 20Ju Min Kim is a postdoctoral research fellow in theoretical physics currently working in Germany. She completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 21 About: http://www.stonehill.edu/x17928.xml (accessed October 7, 2010). Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5tJpWP9JQ.
- 22Robert Mundy is a 2010 graduate of Rutgers University. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 23Timothy Moreland is a 2009 graduate of University of Pittsburgh. He completed this assignment as part of his volunteer work for GiveWell.
- 24About: http://new.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/departments/economics/faculty_… (accessed March 2, 2011. Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5wstBQ7HS.
- 25Rachael Stephens is a 2011 graduate of Bryn Mawr College. She completed this assignment as part of her volunteer work for GiveWell.