🎁 NEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GIVING SEASON
What are the best charities to support in 2024?
Our recommended charities are highly reputable and remarkably effective. They have been rigorously evaluated and vetted by impact-focused charity evaluators — and those evaluators themselves have been investigated by our research team. We believe these charities represent some of the best opportunities to donate to, as they do substantially more good per dollar than average.
(in a charity)
Extreme effectiveness
Charities that demonstrably maximise the good they do with each dollar donated.
Research based
Charities that operate evidence-backed programs or that experts estimate have very high expected impact.
Third-party evaluated
Charities that have been vetted by the research of industry-leading charity evaluators.
(for the best charities)
Trusted, transparent, third-party evaluators play a critical role in our recommendations. And we don’t just rely on any evaluator — we research which evaluators can best help donors maximise their impact.
(to have the biggest impact)
Global health and wellbeing
Animal welfare
Reducing global catastrophic risks
What do we mean by “effective”?
Not all charities are equal. Your choice of where to donate can lead to significant differences in impact.
Our research team estimates that you can often do 100x more good with your dollar by donating to the best charities, and sometimes this multiplier is even greater.
If this comes as a surprise, you’re not alone. Many donors vastly underestimate the difference between “good” and “great” charities, which explains why many of the best charities to donate to remain underfunded.
3 steps to donate effectively
Just like triaging in an emergency room, it’s important to be smart about what we work on when. If we don’t prioritise, we won’t help as well as we could have.
Donating $100 to one of the best charities can do more than giving $10,000 to a typical one. Give to charities backed by the best available research and reasoning.
Automating your giving is easier than an ad-hoc approach. Create a personalised, recurring donation that automatically gives to multiple high-impact programs at once.
Best charities for global health and wellbeing (6)
Millions of people die each year from preventable and curable diseases, including approximately 15,000 children every single day. These deaths (and the considerable suffering caused by these types of disease) can be prevented with proven treatments and techniques — that’s why we’ve eradicated these diseases in higher-income countries. The organisations implementing these interventions in lower-income countries, however, are perpetually underfunded.
The best charities for global health and wellbeing tend to operate programmes with a strong evidence base behind them and a proven track record of success. They — quite literally — save and improve lives.
by GiveWell
GiveWell's All Grants Fund supports the full range of GiveWell’s grantmaking to high-impact opportunities, including at organisations outside of its top charities.
by GiveWell
The Top Charities Fund supports the highest-priority funding needs among GiveWell’s top charities, which are evidence-backed, high-impact, and highly cost-effective opportunities to save and improve the lives of people living in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention
Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) programme distributes preventative antimalarial drugs to young children during times of peak malaria transmission.
Bednets To Prevent Malaria
Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) works to prevent malaria-caused deaths and illness by distributing long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets in at-risk, low-income communities. The organisation also consistently monitors its impact through surveys and case rate data.
Vitamin A Supplementation
Helen Keller Intl partners with governments across Africa and Asia to provide millions of children every year with lifesaving vitamin A supplements and other nutrients.
Childhood Immunisation Incentives
New Incentives distributes conditional cash transfers to encourage caregivers to immunise their infants in rural Nigeria, helping them overcome barriers like the cost of transportation to a clinic and the loss of earnings from missing work.
More options in global health and wellbeing
We don’t currently include these programmes on our recommendations list but think they may be interesting for donors to investigate further.
Best charities for animal welfare (2)
Despite widespread awareness of animal suffering, only about 3% of US charitable contributions support animals and the environment. Farmed animals are even more neglected, receiving only 0.03% of all US charitable donations. Yet farmed animals experience the overwhelming majority of human-inflicted animal suffering. They live lives filled with extreme physical and emotional distress — and in the US alone, over one million land animals are slaughtered every hour.
The best charities for animal welfare tend to operate programmes that are large in scale and tractable — they could reduce or eliminate the suffering of many, many animals through changes in policy, legislation, and consumer choices.
by Effective Altruism Funds
The Animal Welfare Fund aims to effectively improve the wellbeing of nonhuman animals by making grants that focus on one or more best-in-class opportunities.
by Animal Charity Evaluators
The Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) Movement Grants fund promising advocacy projects around the globe working to reduce animal suffering. Applications are accepted annually and grants are determined by a review committee.
More options in animal welfare
We don’t currently include these programmes on our recommendations list but think they may be interesting for donors to investigate further.
Best charities for reducing global catastrophic risks (2)
Pandemics. Rogue AI. Nuclear catastrophe. Some of these threats may be more likely than we imagine — and with the wrong dice roll, could endanger the future of not only everyone alive today, but everyone who could ever live. Despite the enormous scale of these threats, research and initiatives to prevent them are still relatively limited. While interventions in this area aren’t always as tractable as in other areas, the threats are so large that it could be incredibly impactful to fund projects that give us a better chance at preventing them.
The best giving options for reducing global catastrophic risks are funds that support promising projects to improve nuclear and biosecurity, prevent pandemics, and promote beneficial AI. (Because the field is developing so rapidly and the impact of interventions is harder to measure than in other areas, the expertise and context of specialised grantmakers are even more valuable when supporting this type of work.)
by Longview Philanthropy
The Longtermism Fund — managed by Longview Philanthropy — directs funding to highly effective organisations working to safeguard the long-term future of humanity.
by Effective Altruism Funds
The Long-Term Future Fund aims to positively influence the long-term trajectory of civilisation by making grants that address global catastrophic risks, especially potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence and pandemics.
More options in global catastrophic risks
We don’t currently include these programmes on our recommendations list but think they may be interesting for donors to investigate further.
More impact with funds
A fund pools donations from many donors, which expert grantmakers then direct as effectively as possible — typically taking into account the current funding needs of high-impact charities working within the cause area the fund aims to support.
In other words, donating to a charitable fund is similar to using an actively managed investment fund instead of trying to pick individual stocks to invest in — but with charitable funds, you don’t typically pay a fee for the expertise you gain!
by Giving What We Can
The Global Health and Wellbeing Fund directs funding to highly effective organisations working to improve human wellbeing. When you donate to this fund, the Giving What We Can research team will pool your money with other donors’ contributions and allocate quarterly, working with the evaluators and grantmakers they think are best suited to maximise impact. Currently, the research team consults with GiveWell when determining where to allocate funds.
by Giving What We Can
The Effective Animal Advocacy Fund directs funding to highly effective organisations working to improve animal welfare. When you donate to this fund, the Giving What We Can research team will pool your money with other donors’ contributions and allocate quarterly, working with the evaluators and grantmakers they think are best suited to maximise impact. Currently, the research team plans to allocate half of this fund to the Animal Welfare Fund (EA Funds) and half to The Humane League’s corporate campaign work.
by Giving What We Can
The Risks and Resilience Fund directs funding to highly effective organisations working to reduce global catastrophic risks. When you donate to this fund, the Giving What We Can research team will pool your money with other donors’ contributions and allocate quarterly, working with the evaluators and grantmakers they think are best suited to maximise impact. Currently, the research team plans to allocate half of the fund's budget to the Long-Term Future Fund (EA Funds) and half to the Longtermism Fund (Longview Philanthropy).
by GiveWell
GiveWell's All Grants Fund supports the full range of GiveWell’s grantmaking to high-impact opportunities, including at organisations outside of its top charities.
by GiveWell
The Top Charities Fund supports the highest-priority funding needs among GiveWell’s top charities, which are evidence-backed, high-impact, and highly cost-effective opportunities to save and improve the lives of people living in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
by Effective Altruism Funds
The Animal Welfare Fund aims to effectively improve the wellbeing of nonhuman animals by making grants that focus on one or more best-in-class opportunities.
by Longview Philanthropy
The Longtermism Fund — managed by Longview Philanthropy — directs funding to highly effective organisations working to safeguard the long-term future of humanity.
by Effective Altruism Funds
The Long-Term Future Fund aims to positively influence the long-term trajectory of civilisation by making grants that address global catastrophic risks, especially potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence and pandemics.
All Causes Bundle
Can’t decide? This bundle allows you to split your donation across all three of our GWWC-managed cause area funds.
Promising charities in other areas
We haven’t (yet) included areas like climate change or effective giving outreach/education on our recommendations list, but we think these areas (and the charities working in them) may be interesting for donors to investigate further.
by Founders Pledge
The Founders Pledge Climate Change Fund supports highly impactful, evidence-based solutions to the “triple challenge” of carbon emissions, air pollution, and energy poverty.
by Giving Green
Giving Green is a team of climate scientists, economists, and impact evaluation experts with decades of experience working at the intersection of evidence-based policy and the environment. The Giving Green Fund strategically supports its recommended high-impact giving opportunities.
by Effective Altruism Funds
The Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund aims to increase the impact of projects that use the principles of effective altruism, by increasing their access to talent, capital, and knowledge.
by Charity Entrepreneurship
Charity Entrepreneurship is a research and training programme that incubates multiple effective charities annually. Its Incubated Charities Fund provides seed grant funding for its most promising charities.
Effective Giving Research & Advocacy
The Life You Can Save works to end extreme global poverty through the power of effective giving.
Giving Confidence
Let's address your questions
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Don’t see what you're looking for?
The recommendations above have been thoroughly researched and vetted as exceptional opportunities for impact. However, our donation platform also supports a number of other programmes that broadly align with our principles — in other words, they are addressing a pressing problem and taking a reasonably promising approach. We’ve highlighted a few of these that we think may be of particular interest to donors in each cause area (see why), but you can also see all of our supported programmes here.
About Giving What We Can
Co-founded in 2009 by moral philosophers Toby Ord and William MacAskill, Giving What We Can is a global community of effective givers and a resource hub for people who want to help. We curate a carefully vetted list of charity recommendations, offer resources and guides so you can make a bigger difference on the problems you care about, and work to change the norms around charitable giving to inspire people to give more, and more effectively.
We believe the scale of global income inequality is so vast that most people living in high-income countries have significant power to affect the lives of others. (See where you stack up here.) To that end, we also help people support high-impact charitable programmes and projects via our donation platform and invite you to join the 3,306 people who have taken a giving pledge.
Donor advising
Donors who plan to make substantial donations can benefit from working with a philanthropic advisor. Please reach out to us and we’ll connect you with an appropriate person or organisation.
Recommendations FAQ
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We don’t accept funding from the evaluators and programmes we recommend.
Giving What We Can does not take any fees from the charities and programmes listed on our platform. We are independently funded to promote our mission of making giving effectively and significantly a cultural norm.
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