GiveWell: Difference between revisions
Undid revision 450156987 by Tesseract2 (talk) Controversy section is not about GiveWell's shortcoming page. See discussion. |
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===Controversy=== |
===Controversy=== |
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In late 2007, GiveWell was |
In late 2007, GiveWell was caught self-promoting using [[astroturfing]] on the internet. Givewell founders Mr. Karnofsky and Mr. Hassenfeld also used fake identities to criticize other charity rating agencies, principally Charity Navigator.<ref>http://mssv.net/wiki/index.php/Givewell</ref> GiveWell's board of directors investigated and found that an "inappropriate promotion"<ref>[http://www.givewell.org/about/official-records/board-meeting-3/FAQ-on-inappropriate-marketing#WhatweretheastroturfingeventsinvolvingGiveWellinJanuary2008andtheresponsestothoseactivities], GiveWell website</ref> had occurred involving the founders Mr. Karnofsky and Mr. Hassenfeld; as a result, both were fined $5000, and Mr. Karnofsky was relieved of his Executive Director role.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/us/08givewell.html], New York Times</ref><ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/us/15givewell.html], New York Times</ref> GiveWell issued a public apology<ref>[http://blog.givewell.net/?p=212 Statement from the GiveWell Board of Directors], GiveWell Blog.</ref> and maintains a detailed FAQ on its website about the incident.<ref>[http://www.givewell.org/about/official-records/board-meeting-3/FAQ-on-inappropriate-marketing#WhatweretheastroturfingeventsinvolvingGiveWellinJanuary2008andtheresponsestothoseactivities], GiveWell website</ref> In September 2008, Karnofsky was reinstated as Board Secretary.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} |
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GiveWell also maintains a page on its website called `Shortcomings` <ref name=short>[http://www.givewell.net/about/shortcomings GiveWell shortcomings], GiveWell website</ref> with the stated purpose: "This page logs mistakes we've made, strategies we should have planned and executed differently, and lessons we've learned."<ref name=short/> |
GiveWell also maintains a page on its website called `Shortcomings` <ref name=short>[http://www.givewell.net/about/shortcomings GiveWell shortcomings], GiveWell website</ref> with the stated purpose: "This page logs mistakes we've made, strategies we should have planned and executed differently, and lessons we've learned."<ref name=short/> |
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Revision as of 05:42, 13 September 2011
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| Company type | Non-profit |
|---|---|
| Genre | Charity evaluator |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld |
| Website | givewell |
GiveWell is an American non-profit charity evaluator created in 2006 by two former finance industry workers, Holden Karnofsky and Elie Hassenfeld.[1][2][3] GiveWell's goal is to use an evidence based approach by examining results empirically and avoiding anecdotes and appeals to stories.[1][4] They investigate charities in a variety of ways, from checking publicly available information (e.g. websites, government statistics, etc.) to directly communicating with the charity leaders.[1]
Givewell states that individual donors give more than six times as much as all philanthropic organizations combined, and the organization's focus is on directing individual donors to the charities best suited to their purposes.[1] GiveWell's website goes into detail about their research and rating logic for each charity they evaluate.[1] GiveWell is also dedicated to transparency, and their website explains their research and rating logic.[5]
Overview
GiveWell investigates charities empirically, under the assumption that different charities face different burdens of proof, depending on the amount of data available.[6] They consider many financial issues (e.g. operating costs) in the process of attempting to sort charities by their overall utility based on each charity's reach and impact.[1] GiveWell claims that it is simply more effective to donate to international charities. [5] GiveWell then offers potential donors a few 'basics of giving', based on their investigations and the available data about existing charities. [5]
Operating costs are not funded by the individual donors GiveWell seeks to direct, but rather by private donor groups including The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.[7]
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Methods of investigation
GiveWell identifies top charities in many domains, including education, health, and economic empowerment.[8]
A charity must be a few things to rank highly with GiveWell: Proven, not by anecdotes and stories, but by systematic and representative data (with domain-specific metrics); Cost-effective for their domain, although these estimations are necessarily rough, and cross-comparison for this criteria is difficult; Scalable and able to use increased funding effectively, since charities can become overfunded; and finally Transparent, since charity organizations must be trustworthy, and willing to demonstrate their effectiveness to donors that do not want to waste their money.[8]
GiveWell ascribes a large amount of weight to the idea that a charity should publish 'monitoring and evaluation reports', based on the belief that this means that the charity is committed to actually testing its own impact and effectiveness. Similarly, it is considered promising if the charity has chosen a sort of program that has been proven to be effective.[8]
GiveWell provides a regularly updated list of top-rated charities in each of these areas.[9]
Recommendations
GiveWell has concentrated on categories of impact: Developing-world health, developing-world poverty, U.S. early childhood care and education, U.S. K-12 Education, and employment assistance in NYC. It provides a regularly updated list of top-rated charities in each of these areas.[9]
GiveWell recommends international-health causes because the problems to be addressed are more straightforward and very cheap.[10] As of December 2010, the top four charities in GiveWell's rankings are in the area of international health.
As of April 2011, GiveWell's top rated recommended international charity, and one of only two getting a "Gold" rating, is VillageReach.[9] Meanwhile, the top rated recommended United States charity, also getting a "Gold" rating, is Nurse-Family Partnership.[9][11]
In addition to providing rankings for charities overall, GiveWell also provides a list of top charities by cause,[9] detailed reviews of each of its top-rated charities, a list of Giving 101 basics[5] and suggestions for individuals on how to do research and what questions to ask when evaluating charities.[12]
In the media
Praise
Givewell has been acclaimed by various notable sources including NPR, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CNBC, CBS MoneyWatch, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes and even New Scientist.[13] Both USA Today[14] and the Wall Street Journal[15] each mentioned Givewell as one the organizations that can help donors research and chose charities. The New York Times also sought the opinion of Givewell founder Holden Karnofsky on the topic of unorganized giving following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[16]
Controversy
In late 2007, GiveWell was caught self-promoting using astroturfing on the internet. Givewell founders Mr. Karnofsky and Mr. Hassenfeld also used fake identities to criticize other charity rating agencies, principally Charity Navigator.[17] GiveWell's board of directors investigated and found that an "inappropriate promotion"[18] had occurred involving the founders Mr. Karnofsky and Mr. Hassenfeld; as a result, both were fined $5000, and Mr. Karnofsky was relieved of his Executive Director role.[19][20] GiveWell issued a public apology[21] and maintains a detailed FAQ on its website about the incident.[22] In September 2008, Karnofsky was reinstated as Board Secretary.[citation needed]
GiveWell also maintains a page on its website called `Shortcomings` [23] with the stated purpose: "This page logs mistakes we've made, strategies we should have planned and executed differently, and lessons we've learned."[23]
Organisation with similar name
A charity review organisation called GiveWell also exists in Australia, but is not affiliated with the US organisation. It was founded in 1997.[24]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f GiveWell About, GiveWell website. Cite error: The named reference "AboutGivewell" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Patricia Illingworth, Thomas Pogge, Leif Wenar. Giving Well: The Ethics of Philanthropy, Oxford University Press US, 2011. Pg. 124
- ^ Peter Singer. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty, Random House, 2009. Ch. 6, Pg. 81-104
- ^ New Scientist, Volume 204, Issue 2739.
- ^ a b c d GiveWell Giving 101, GiveWell website.
- ^ Jason Saul (2011). The End of Fundraising: Raise More Money by Selling Your Impact, John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Pg. 130
- ^ GiveWell Story, GiveWell website.
- ^ a b c GiveWell Criteria, GiveWell website.
- ^ a b c d e GiveWell's top rated charities, GiveWell website.
- ^ "Want to Change People's Lives? Give Internationally" by Holden Karnofsky
- ^ Nurse-Family Partnership, official website.
- ^ Researching charities on your own, GiveWell website.
- ^ Givewell.com, their list under Credibility - Press
- ^ USA Today, "How to research a charity before donating your money", by Sandra Block
- ^ Wall Streen Journal Online, "Check Out Charities", by Shelly Banjo
- ^ The New York Times, "A Charitable Rush, With Little Direction", by Stephanie Strom
- ^ http://mssv.net/wiki/index.php/Givewell
- ^ [1], GiveWell website
- ^ [2], New York Times
- ^ [3], New York Times
- ^ Statement from the GiveWell Board of Directors, GiveWell Blog.
- ^ [4], GiveWell website
- ^ a b GiveWell shortcomings, GiveWell website
- ^ GiveWell.com.au, Australia organization unaffiliated with GiveWell in the USA.
External links
- GiveWell, official website