Donor question · Saving lives
What's the most effective charity for saving lives?
What the independent evaluators who estimate what it costs charities to save a life have published, with every figure linked to its source.
The short answer
Against Malaria Foundation, Helen Keller Intl, Malaria Consortium and New Incentives are GiveWell Top Charities.
We don't pick a winner. GiveWell measures all four the same way, so you can compare any two side by side.
Against Malaria Foundation
Buys long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets and works with local partners to hand them out in places where malaria is common, then checks the nets are still in use.
Evidence Exceptionally strong, rated by GiveWell
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
Malaria Consortium
Gives young children preventive malaria medicine during the rainy months, when malaria spreads most.
Evidence Exceptionally strong, rated by GiveWell
New Incentives
Gives families in Northern Nigeria small cash incentives to complete their babies' routine vaccinations.
Evidence Exceptionally strong, rated by GiveWell
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
Side by side
Two charities at a time, measured the same way by the same evaluator.
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 saving lives.
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.
Everything we track for saving lives
The full picture, including the approaches that work and other organizations in this area: Saving lives.
Questions donors ask
- What's the most effective charity for saving lives?
Against Malaria Foundation, Helen Keller Intl, Malaria Consortium and New Incentives are GiveWell Top Charities. We don't pick a winner. GiveWell measures all four the same way, so you can compare any two side by side. 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.
- Which of them is better?
We don't pick a winner. GiveWell measures them the same way, so their figures can be read side by side, together with the strength of the evidence and each charity's funding needs.
- 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.