Author Archives: Alice Mei

Designing Effective Volunteering Appeals: Results of Choice-Based Conjoint and Latent Class Segmentation Analyses

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Volunteers represent an important resource for nonprofit organizations. The competition for volunteers is rising, increasing the pressure to optimize volunteer recruiting. One way to recruit volunteers is the use of volunteering appeals. To help optimize such volunteering appeals, we conducted two conjoint studies to identify the importance of design attributes of volunteering appeals as well as the utilities of the different attribute levels for potential volunteers by using choice-based conjoint analysis. The conjoint analyses are based on two student samples. We provide a segmentation of volunteers, allowing nonprofit organizations to design volunteering appeals according to specific target groups.

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly | https://journals.sagepub.com/action/showFeed?ui=0&mi=ehikzz&ai=2b4&jc=nvsb&type=etoc&feed=rss  

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The Relation Between Perceived Racial Discrimination and Civic Engagement Among People of Asian Descent

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Although people of Asian descent are the fastest-growing ethno-racial group in the United States, there has been limited research on how racialized experiences are related to their civic engagement behaviors. This study examines how perceived racial discrimination relates to political and community civic engagement among people of Asian descent living in California. Analyzing novel data from the 2021 California Health Interview Survey, we find that after the onset of COVID-19 people of Asian descent showed both the sharpest rise in perceived racial discrimination and the lowest level of civic engagement among all ethno-racial groups in California. Moreover, perceived racial discrimination was significantly associated with political engagement but not with community engagement among people of Asian descent. Finally, people of Asian descent showed some unique dynamics in comparison with other minoritized groups. We discuss the implications of these findings for nonprofit and voluntary sector research on the racialization of civic engagement.

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly | https://journals.sagepub.com/action/showFeed?ui=0&mi=ehikzz&ai=2b4&jc=nvsb&type=etoc&feed=rss  

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January 2024 updates

Every month we send an email newsletter to our supporters sharing recent updates from our work. We publish selected portions of the newsletter on our blog to make this news more accessible to people who visit our website. For key updates from the latest installment, please see below!
If you’d like to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox each month, you can subscribe here.
Recent GiveWell events
We ended 2023 with two in-person events, one in New York and one in San Francisco.
In San Francisco, GiveWell’s CEO Elie Hassenfeld was joined by Neil Buddy Shah, CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), to discuss the work of both organizations and their partnership via the CHAI Incubator. You can find the audio recording and transcript of this event here.
In New York, Elie spoke with journalist Matthew Yglesias, co-founder of Vox and creator of Slow Boring, about GiveWell’s top charities and latest research. You can check out the video recording and transcript of this event here.
Attending events is a great way to learn more about GiveWell! You can sign up here to be notified of in-person and virtual events, and you can catch up on our previous events here.
GiveWell in the Media
Teryn Mattox, Director of Research at GiveWell, wrote a guest essay for Emily Oster’s Substack, ParentData, on the effectiveness of kangaroo mother care (KMC). KMC is intended to be a low-cost alternative to conventional neonatal intensive care for low-birth-weight infants; it primarily involves skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby. In low- and middle-income countries, KMC can save babies’ lives, but implementation can be challenging. GiveWell’s research on and grantmaking to maternal and newborn health programs includes a grant to r.i.c.e., which operates a KMC program in India.
Research Updates
We’ve recently published a number of new research pages—below are a few highlights. If you’d like to sign up for email updates whenever we publish new research materials, you can do so here.

Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)

In September 2023, GiveWell recommended a $6.6 million grant to CHAI for a two-year diarrhea treatment program in Bauchi, Nigeria. This grant supports the distribution of oral rehydration solution (ORS) and zinc to households with children under the age of five. Diarrhea is a common cause of childhood mortality in Nigeria, and we roughly estimate that this

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Advancing Racial Equity Inside Foundations — Lessons from the Field

The post Advancing Racial Equity Inside Foundations — Lessons from the Field appeared first on The Center for Effective Philanthropy.

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Learning from Grantee Feedback: Policy, Process, and Cultural Changes That Make a Difference

The post Learning from Grantee Feedback: Policy, Process, and Cultural Changes That Make a Difference appeared first on The Center for Effective Philanthropy.

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A Year-Commencement List and a Note of Thanks

The post A Year-Commencement List and a Note of Thanks appeared first on The Center for Effective Philanthropy.

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Understanding Altruism of Nonprofit Workers: The Roles of Motivation Types

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. This paper studies the impact of motivation types on altruism levels among the nonprofit organization (NPO) workforces in Turkey. To measure altruism, we used a probabilistic dictator game with real stakes. In a sample of 228 NPO workers, 73% opted to donate an average of 50 out of approximately 100 USD instead of retaining the entire 100 USD for themselves in the case they might win. Our results show that the NPO workforce’s altruism levels vary greatly depending on their motivation type. Religiously motivated NPO workers show the highest levels of altruism, whereas career-oriented NPO workers show the lowest levels of altruism. Moreover, paid NPO workers show significantly lower levels of altruism compared to unpaid workers. In addition, motivation types partially explain the differences in altruism between unpaid and paid workers.

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly | https://journals.sagepub.com/action/showFeed?ui=0&mi=ehikzz&ai=2b4&jc=nvsb&type=etoc&feed=rss  

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Spaciousness, Trust, and Collaboration: Reflections on the Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Funding

The post Spaciousness, Trust, and Collaboration: Reflections on the Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Funding appeared first on The Center for Effective Philanthropy.

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What We Learn When We Listen: Student Feedback and Foundation Strategy

The post What We Learn When We Listen: Student Feedback and Foundation Strategy appeared first on The Center for Effective Philanthropy.

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10 (Additional) Lessons Learned for Funders Considering the Grantee Perception Report

The post 10 (Additional) Lessons Learned for Funders Considering the Grantee Perception Report appeared first on The Center for Effective Philanthropy.

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December 2023 updates

Every month we send an email newsletter to our supporters sharing recent updates from our work. We publish selected portions of the newsletter on our blog to make this news more accessible to people who visit our website. For key updates from the latest installment, please see below!
If you’d like to receive the complete newsletter in your inbox each month, you can subscribe here.
The year 2023 has been one of growth at GiveWell. Our team has expanded, giving us the ability to take on more internal projects, reach out to more supporters, and conduct research into new interventions and funding areas. Since our metrics year started on February 1, we have directed over $100 million to funding opportunities in more than 10 countries, with more grantmaking expected in the coming months—we expect the programs these grants support will save tens of thousands of lives. We are proud of the impact that our supporters have made with their giving in 2023, and look forward to finding new opportunities and directing more funding in 2024.
Recent panel discussion on maternal health
GiveWell recently hosted a virtual event focusing on maternal and reproductive health, a new and growing area of GiveWell’s grantmaking. Economist and author Emily Oster moderated a panel with Svetha Janumpalli, Founder and CEO of New Incentives, and Erin Crossett, a Program Officer at GiveWell. During the hour, they discussed GiveWell’s research and grants to maternal and newborn health, including a recent grant to r.i.c.e. to operate a program for low-birthweight babies focused on kangaroo mother care. Elie Hassenfeld, GiveWell’s CEO and Co-Founder, also joined to answer audience questions. If you missed this engaging conversation, you can catch up on the recording here.
We’re continuing to investigate a number of programs in this area and would be excited to direct funding to them, if they meet our cost-effectiveness bar.
GiveWell in the media
The How To Money podcast recently interviewed Elie to discuss effective altruism, GiveWell’s founding, and making the greatest impact with your giving.
Highlights from our grantees
Nutrition International
Nutrition International shared a photo essay on their vitamin A supplementation (VAS) work in hard-to-reach areas in Nigeria. This story follows health workers during a maternal, newborn, and child health week in Kwanda town, as they deliver VAS to children under five.
Although GiveWell did not fund the

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GiveWell from A to Z

To celebrate the end of 2023, we’re highlighting a few key things to know about GiveWell—from A to Z. These aren’t necessarily the 26 most important parts of our work (e.g., we could include only “transparency” or “top charities” for T) but they do fit the alphabet, and we’ve linked to other pages where you can learn more.
All Grants Fund. Our recommendation for donors who have a high level of trust in GiveWell and are open to programs that might be riskier than our top charities.
Bar. We set a cost-effectiveness bar, or threshold, such that we expect to be able to fully fund all the opportunities above that level of cost-effectiveness. This bar isn’t a hard limit; we consider qualitative factors in our recommendations, as discussed here. This post also discusses our bar in more detail.
Cost-effectiveness. The core question we try to answer in our research is: How much good can you do by giving money to a certain program? This blog post describes how we approach cost-effectiveness estimates and use them in our work.
Donors. Unlike a foundation, we don’t hold an endowment. Our impact comes from donors choosing to use our recommendations.
Effective giving organizations. Organizations like Effektiv Spenden fundraise for programs we recommend and provide tax-deductible donation options in a variety of countries. We’re grateful to these national effective giving organizations and groups like Giving What We Can that recommend our work.
Footnotes.1Our research materials wouldn’t be complete without footnotes; they support our commitment to transparency. Citing our sources and explaining our claims makes it possible for people to check our work for themselves and draw their own conclusions. jQuery(‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_14668_1_1’).tooltip({ tip: ‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_14668_1_1’, tipClass: ‘footnote_tooltip’, effect: ‘fade’, predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: ‘top right’, relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });
Generalizability. How well evidence generalizes to different settings, including variations in program implementation and the contexts where a program is delivered. Also called “external validity.”
Health workers and community distributors. The people who deliver many of the programs we support; includes both professional health workers and distributors who receive stipends to deliver programs in their local communities. For example, community distributors go from household to household to provide seasonal malaria chemoprevention to millions of children.
Incubating new programs. We partner with the Evidence Action Accelerator and Clinton Health Access

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GiveWell’s 2022 metrics report

In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available and analyzed, GiveWell raised the largest amount of money in our history, over $600 million. We thank our donors for continuing to trust us to find and recommend highly cost-effective giving opportunities. The following table summarizes our funds raised and our funds directed to programs in metrics year 2021 and 2022.1GiveWell’s metrics year runs from February 1 through January 31 of the following year; the 2022 metrics year ran from February 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023. jQuery(‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_14651_1_1’).tooltip({ tip: ‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_14651_1_1’, tipClass: ‘footnote_tooltip’, effect: ‘fade’, predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: ‘top right’, relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });

2021
2022
Y/Y Growth

Funds Raised
$595,489,935
$602,889,435
1%

Funds Directed2In 2022, as in 2021, we raised more funds than we directed. For more on this, see the funds directed section below. jQuery(‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_14651_1_2’).tooltip({ tip: ‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_14651_1_2’, tipClass: ‘footnote_tooltip’, effect: ‘fade’, predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: ‘top right’, relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });
$529,426,944
$439,391,294
-17%

For more information on our 2022 funds raised, funds directed, operational expenses, and donor metrics, see our impact page and our full metrics report.
A note on timing
This post covers funds raised and directed in our metrics year 2022 (spanning February 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023). Our metrics report is typically published at least six months after the close of the metrics year because we need to collect data on donations we influence from third parties and then cross-check that data to ensure we aren’t double-counting any funds. This year we were additionally delayed by competing internal priorities.
Funds raised
In 2022, we raised slightly more funding than during 2021, and substantially more than prior years.3Note that the chart refers to our historical funds raised. The figures for 2020 and earlier refer to our “money moved,” which tracked the funding that was both raised and directed in a given year. We are now reporting on funds raised and funds directed separately, which we believe is simpler and clearer. jQuery(‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_14651_1_3’).tooltip({ tip: ‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_14651_1_3’, tipClass: ‘footnote_tooltip’, effect: ‘fade’, predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: ‘top right’, relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });

We are excited by a continuing trend of donors trusting GiveWell to allocate their donation (e.g., by giving to one of our Giving Funds) instead of choosing to restrict their donation

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Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 2023

For this post, a number of GiveWell staff members volunteered to share the thinking behind their personal donations for the year. We’ve published similar posts in previous years.1See our staff giving posts from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013. jQuery(‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_14589_1_1’).tooltip({ tip: ‘#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_14589_1_1’, tipClass: ‘footnote_tooltip’, effect: ‘fade’, predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: ‘top right’, relative: true, offset: [10, 10], }); Staff are listed alphabetically by first name.
You can click the below links to jump to a staff member’s entry: Alex Singal, Audrey Cooper, Carley Moor, Charlotte Fisken, Dilhan Perera, Elie Hassenfeld, Isabel Arjmand, Kameron Smith, Kaymin Martin-Burnett, Lauren Imholte, Maggie Lloydhauser, Olivia Larsen, Paige Henchen, Steph Stojanovic, Teryn Mattox, Vicky Yu, Victoria N Krauss.
Alex Singal (Philanthropy Associate)
I am still working out the exact amounts and timing of my giving this year (I may need to wait until January to make the actual donations for tax reasons), but I am planning to direct the majority of my giving (60-80%) to GiveWell’s Top Charities Fund.
Even though GiveWell’s top giving recommendation for donors with a high degree of trust in GiveWell and willingness to take on more risk is our All Grants Fund, my personal preference (for now) is to maximize near-term impact. I trust GiveWell’s incredible team of researchers that the long-run expected value of the All Grants Fund is higher than that of the Top Charities Fund, but I take comfort in knowing that my donation is guaranteed to be used by one or more of our excellent top charities to provide life-saving health interventions in the immediate future.
That said, I will also be giving a smaller amount to the All Grants Fund, which covers the full range of our grantmaking, as there are many amazing programs outside of our top charities that I want to support.
The remainder of my giving will go to GiveDirectly. While I am confident the programs GiveWell supports are ultimately more impactful (and likely significantly so) than unconditional cash transfers, I have immense respect for GiveDirectly and the simplicity of its mission to reduce suffering by sending money directly to those living in extreme poverty, and I want to support that effort.
Audrey Cooper (Philanthropy Advisor)
My husband and I give 10% of our income each year—we chose this number

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December 2023 open thread

Our goal with hosting quarterly open threads is to give blog readers an opportunity to publicly raise comments or questions about GiveWell or related topics (in the comments section below). As always, you’re also welcome to email us at info@givewell.org or to request a call with GiveWell staff if you have feedback or questions you’d prefer to discuss privately. We’ll try to respond promptly to questions or comments.
You can view previous open threads here.
The post December 2023 open thread appeared first on The GiveWell Blog.

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