✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Where I'm coming from - The GiveWell Blog

blog.givewell.org · 319 words · saved by 1 readers

Last August, I decided that I wanted to give to charity, and I started working with Holden and a few other friends researching non-profits. We thought that with a little legwork, we’d be able to find the best organization in a given cause (clean water, say) by asking each organization two very basic questions: 1) what are you trying to accomplish? and 2) what’s your evidence that you can accomplish it? Last fall, I asked those two questions to about 20 different non-profits working in the generic “clean-water for Africa” cause, and got three types of responses: 1) Hostile: why are you asking these questions? who do you work for? why would you want to know this? do you work for our competitors? 2) Dumbfounded: do you work for a giant foundation – they’re the only ones that ask these questions? I’ve never heard these questions from any private donor before – why do you want to know this? 3) Grateful: These are great questions. I met with the board today, and told them that we need to be

This post is more than 19 years old Last August, I decided that I wanted to give to charity, and I started working with Holden and a few other friends researching non-profits. We thought that with a little legwork, we’d be able to find the best organization in a given cause (clean water, say) by asking each organization two very basic questions: 1) what are you trying to accomplish? and 2) what’s your evidence that you can accomplish it? Last fall, I asked those two questions to about 20 different non-profits working in the generic “clean-water for Africa” cause, and go

Explore this link on the map →

related reading