blog.givewell.orgThe GiveWell Blog - Exploring how to get real change for your

dollar. Top Charities Our Top Charities Our Giving Funds Top Charities Fund All Grants Fund Unrestricted Fund List of Grants Research How Much Does It Cost To Save a Life? Research Overview Research on Programs Our Criteria Cost-Effectiveness Analyses How We Produce Impact Estimates All GiveWell Grants Our Mistakes About About GiveWell Our People Information About Donating General FAQ Values Official Records Jobs Contact Us What Others Are Saying Stay Updated Blog Ways To Give Tax Deductibility of Donations Overview of Giving Options View and Manage Your Giving Credit Card Check Wire Transfer ACH (Automatic Clearing House) Cryptocurrency Securities/Stock PayPal Wills and Bequests Qualified Charitable Distributions Donor Advised Fund (DAF) Donate to GiveWell UK Enter search terms here. This search returns results from both GiveWell’s main site and from the GiveWell Blog. Search form Search Donate Donate The GiveWell Blog Consider the eggplant May 10, 2024 (updated on: May 16, 2024 ) | by Chandler Brotak Norman Borlaug, the father of the green revolution,” transformed agriculture (and won a Nobel Peace Prize) for developing new wheat varietals that resisted diseases and greatly increased yields. You might well wonder: if it’s possible for wheat, is it possible for other crops? Consider the eggplant: a popular purple fruit/vegetable that can be made into everything from hongshao qiezi to baba ghanoush . It’s beloved by many people worldwide, and also by a cute but destructive moth larva. The eggplant fruit and shoot borer,” as the name suggests, bores into the shoots and fruit of eggplants, damaging the crops. A new varietal, Bt eggplants , was developed by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco), and later supported by partnerships with USAID, Cornell University, and local partners. This varietal is genetically modified to create proteins which are toxic to these little menaces, but safe for humans and the environment. So: could encouraging the adoption of Bt eggplants create a purple revolution that meets GiveWell’s bar for outstanding programs? Read more Posted in Agriculture Charity , Cost-effectiveness analysis | Permalink | Leave a comment A major initiative to scale up water chlorination in India April 30, 2024 | by Isabel Arjmand We recommended a $38.8 million grant to Evidence Action to support the Indian government in providing clean water by setting up in-line chlorination in two states, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. This isn’t a grant designed to directly deliver a service or commodity; instead, Evidence Action will use the funding to work in close partnership with state and local governments, providing technical assistance to support the delivery of the program. Providing all rural households with access to clean, piped water is a major priority for the Indian government. In-line chlorination, which uses a device to automatically disinfect water by adding chlorine as the water passes through a pipe, is a way to make drinking water safe. We believe this grant may not only increase access to chlorinated water in the states it directly supports, but also inspire other states to adopt similar practices. A core part of the program’s theory of change is that governments in locations outside the grant area may take up a program they might not otherwise adopt. This is the first very large grant we’ve made where that’s been an important consideration. We think the upside is unusually high—if successful, this grant could eventually lead to tens or even hundreds of millions of additional people receiving safe water—but it’s also riskier than most of our grants, as there are a number of ways the program could fail to have the desired impact. Our hope is that this grant will reduce mortality and improve health at a very large scale. Read more Posted in Evidence Action , GiveWell’s grantmaking , Water quality interventions | Permalink | Leave a comment April 2024 updates April 30, 2024 | by Chandler Brotak 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 newsletter in your inbox each month, you can subscribe here . Read more Posted in Updates | Permalink | Leave a comment Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally April 18, 2024 | by Isabel Arjmand GiveWell recently recommended a grant of up to $750,000 to Malengo, an educational migration program. Malengo supports students from low-income countries in moving to high-income countries for university. The goal is to enable them to earn a higher income over time, benefiting both the students and their families. This post shares why we think Malengo’s program could be cost-effective, how filling this specific funding gap might enable Malengo’s program to become more financially sustainable, and what we hope to learn next. Read more Posted in All Grants Fund , GiveWell’s grantmaking , Malengo | Permalink | 6 Comments March 2024 open thread March 29, 2024 | by Jeremy Rehwaldt Our goal with hosting quarterly open threads is to give blog readers an opportunity to publicly raise comments or questions about GiveWell or related topics (in the comments section below). As always, you’re also welcome to email us at info@givewell.org or to request a call with GiveWell staff if you have feedback or questions you’d prefer to discuss privately. We’ll try to respond promptly to questions or comments. You can view previous open threads here . Read more Posted in Open thread | Permalink | 13 Comments March 2024 updates March 29, 2024 | by Chandler Brotak 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 newsletter in your inbox each month, you can subscribe here . Read more Posted in Updates | Permalink | Leave a comment Older posts facebook twitter print email Recent Blog Posts Want to stay updated on GiveWell’s research? Read our blog or follow us by email , Facebook , Twitter , or RSS . Consider the eggplant A major initiative to scale up water chlorination in India April 2024 updates Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally March 2024 open thread March 2024 updates What we fund, #1: We fund many opportunities outside our top charities February 2024 updates January 2024 updates December 2023 updates Follow us: Recent Comments Ananthi Al Ramiah commented on Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally Chandler Brotak commented on March 2024 open thread Ofir commented on Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally RODOLFO J NOVARINI commented on Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally Ben commented on Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally Mary S Sheridan commented on Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally PeteR commented on Malengo: Supporting students to pursue education internationally Tom Delaney commented on March 2024 open thread Chandler Brotak commented on March 2024 open thread Michael commented on March 2024 open thread Full archive All posts Archives 2024 May April March February 2023 December November October September July June May April March 2022 December November October September August July June April March January 2021 December November October September June May April March January 2020 December November October September August July June May April March February January 2019 December November October September August July June May March February 2018 December November October September...