Donor question · Nutrition
What's the best charity for child nutrition?
What the independent evaluators who rate nutrition charities have published, with every figure linked to its source.
The short answer
Helen Keller Intl is a GiveWell Top Charity. Taimaka is a Happier Lives Institute Promising Charity.
They're measured differently: GiveWell measures lives saved and the Happier Lives Institute measures wellbeing. Weighing a life saved against wellbeing is a moral choice, so we show both and leave that choice to you.
Helen Keller Intl
Gives children under five regular vitamin A supplements, which help prevent deaths from common childhood infections.
Evidence Very strong, rated by GiveWell
Taimaka
Treats children with acute malnutrition in north-east Nigeria using ready-to-use therapeutic food.
Evidence No published rating we can quote
Happier Lives Institute's estimate
66 WELLBYs per $1,000 donated
Happier Lives Institute, published table (opens in a new tab)
A WELLBY is the Happier Lives Institute's unit of wellbeing: one point of life satisfaction, on a scale from 0 to 10, for one person for one year.
Modeled, not guaranteed. This is the evaluator's best estimate of the average, built from studies and assumptions. Your gift could do more or less. How to read these figures
If you can’t decide
GiveWell Top Charities Fund
Pools donations and grants them to GiveWell's Top Charities wherever GiveWell judges the money is needed most.
It covers all of GiveWell's recommended charities, not only those working on nutrition.
Happier Lives Fund
Pools donations for the Happier Lives Institute's recommended wellbeing charities, with a smaller share supporting the Institute's research.
It covers all of the Happier Lives Institute's recommended charities, not only those working on nutrition.
What to weigh before you give
- Strength of evidence. Evaluators also rate how sure they are. It’s shown next to each charity above when they publish a rating.
- Whether more money helps now. Each charity’s profile shows the evaluator’s funding-gap figure when one is published.
- Estimates, not prices. Each figure is an average from the evaluator’s model. A modest gap between two estimates may not reflect a real difference.
- Different kinds of good. Lives saved and wellbeing are measured in different units, so the figures above can’t be compared directly.
Everything we track for nutrition
The full picture, including the approaches that work and other organizations in this area: Nutrition.
Questions donors ask
- What's the best charity for child nutrition?
Helen Keller Intl is a GiveWell Top Charity. Taimaka is a Happier Lives Institute Promising Charity. They're measured differently: GiveWell measures lives saved and the Happier Lives Institute measures wellbeing. Weighing a life saved against wellbeing is a moral choice, so we show both and leave that choice to you. Each charity's page shows the figures, the source and how strong the evidence is.
- How do you choose which charities to list?
We list the charities that independent evaluators (GiveWell and the Happier Lives Institute) give their top or promising designation, in the same order as our cause pages. We don't re-score them, and no one can pay to appear or to move up.
- Why aren't these charities ranked against each other?
They are measured in different units by different evaluators: lives saved and wellbeing. Weighing one against the other is a moral judgment, so we show both and leave the choice to you.
- Should I give to one charity or a fund?
Both are reasonable. A fund run by an evaluator lets them direct your gift to where they judge the need is greatest; giving to one charity lets you choose the program yourself.
- Are these figures guaranteed?
No. They are modeled, not guaranteed: the evaluator's best estimate of the average, built from studies and assumptions. Your gift could do more or less.