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GiveWell's mission is to find outstanding charities and to publish the full details of our analysis to help donors decide where to give. We focus on the most promising charities we identify rather than on completing an in-depth investigation for each organization we consider. We look for top charities that meet our criteria of being evidence-backed, cost-effective, transparent, and in need of additional funding.
The first step in our research process is to identify programs with strong evidence behind them. We publish write-ups of these investigations.
We thoroughly vet promising charities working in these areas and assess whether they meet our criteria by speaking with charity staff, reviewing financial documents, and conducting site visits.
We publish a shortlist of top charities based on these research investigations. A list of all charities GiveWell has investigated is available here. A separate process for identifying and supporting potential future top charities is described here.
We aim to share a substantial amount of information about our investigations, in line with our value of transparency, including sharing recordings and transcripts of research discussions held by GiveWell staff members and published notes from conversations with charity representatives and experts.