Author: GiveWell Staff
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Apples, Oranges, and Outcomes
Imagine you are planning to make a charitable donation and want your gift to make a real difference. You’ve done your research and found three very effective programs: one provides cash transfers to increase the incomes of very poor households; one provides treatment to correct clubfoot, a congenital condition that causes pain and mobility loss;…
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The Capacity of Polish NGOs in the Refugee Crisis Caused by the Ongoing Russian Federation Aggression Against Ukraine
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Based on data from a survey among non-governmental organizations, we examined the impact of Polish non-governmental organizations’ capacity on the scale of assistance provided to Ukrainian refugees. It was observed that the number of Ukrainian refugees … Goto full post >>
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Hiding in Plain Sight: Are foundation website changes masking their values, or pulling off their masks?
Hiding in Plain Sight: Are foundation website changes masking their values, or pulling off their masks? CONTACT(S): Russell Roybal rroybal@ncrp.org Jennifer Amuzie jamuzie@ncrp.org WASHINGTON, DC – With rising threats of Congressional scrutiny of the groups that support marginalized communities, NCRP’s researchers analyzed the stances of…
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Relation, Exploitation, or Function? Developing a Measurement Scale and Assessing Perceptions of Non-Profit/Business Partnerships
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. This research examines non-profit organizations’ (NPOs) attitudes and intentions for engaging in business partnerships for their first time. A randomly selected, nationally representative survey of NPOs in the United States (N= 533), Canada (N= 399), … Goto full post >>
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Board Capture in the Nonprofit Sector? An Exploration of a Possible Cause and Solution
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Responsibilities of nonprofit boards of directors include financial oversight and supervision of the CEO. Lack of expertise and the nature of supervision may contribute to board capture, characterized by longer executive tenure despite poor financial … Goto full post >>
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Broadening the Definition of Philanthropy: Understanding U.S. Citizen’s Embrace of Muslim Philanthropic Traditions
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Today, philanthropy in the United States is operationalized as formal philanthropic giving and financial donations to charitable organizations. This definition contrasts with other traditions, such as the Muslim tradition, which embraces a broader … Goto full post >>
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Podcast Episode 7: Deepening GiveWell’s Focus on Livelihoods Programs
GiveWell has long grappled with fundamental questions about how to value different positive impacts and make funding decisions across diverse programs. In particular, how much more valuable it is to save a life than to substantially improve it? And how can we prioritize between programs that achieve those outcomes in different measures when there’s no…
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What We’ve Learned from Our First Lookbacks
At GiveWell, we’re committed to understanding the impact of our grantmaking and improving our decisions over time. That’s why we’ve begun conducting “lookbacks”—reviews of past grants, typically two to three years after making them, that assess how well they’ve met our initial expectations and what we can learn from them. We conduct lookbacks for two…
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Unemployment and Prosocial Engagement: Behavior Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Successive social shocks have reinforced unemployment as a persistent issue, yet its impact on prosocial engagement remains underexplored. This study examines the relationship between job loss and prosocial behaviors, specifically volunteering and … Goto full post >>
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In Discussion: ‘Partnering for Progress,’ a New Report on European Philanthropy
In the following conversation, Natalia Kiryttopoulou, lead for global assessment and advisory services at CEP, discusses just-released research on European foundation practices with Sevda Kilicalp, head of research and learning […] The post In Discussion: ‘Partnering for Progress,’ a New Report on European Philanthropy appeared first on The Center for Effective Philanthropy. Goto full post…
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Marking Dobbs with Action, Not Optics
Three years (yes, only three) have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, unraveling nearly 50 years of precedent and stripping away the constitutional right to abortion care and services. In those three years, abortion access has not just been diminished; it has been criminalized, surveilled, disincentivized, and twisted…
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Measuring Charitable Giving: How to Capture Charitable Behavior in Philanthropy Research
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Charitable giving is a socially desirable behavior, and therefore prone to misreporting. In this article, we survey two decades of published research to understand the extent to which objective measures, capturing observed behavior, are used in … Goto full post >>
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June 2025 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…
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Podcast Episode 6: Forecasting the Future of Global Health Funding
In the face of potential major cuts to foreign aid, how can we anticipate the impact on global health and effectively direct resources to the areas of greatest need? In this episode, GiveWell’s CEO and co-founder, Elie Hassenfeld, speaks with Principal Researcher Alex Cohen to discuss the forecasting work GiveWell has undertaken to better understand…