Identifying and updating research priorities on a changing landscape is critically important and deserves dedicated expertise and investigation.

Nuclear weapons are an existential risk to humanity's forward progress. 

The Top Charities Fund supports the highest-priority funding needs among our top charities.

We find and recommend outstanding giving opportunities and publish our research to help donors give more effectively and with greater confidence.

All donations here support our Top Charities Fund. Donations to the Top Charities Fund are granted on a rolling basis to support cost-effective funding opportunities at our top charities. We use our latest research to grant the funds to the top charity (or charities) where we believe they’ll do the most good.

Learn more and view past grants at https://www.givewell.org/top-charities-fund


Photo caption: At health centers in Sierra Leone supported by Helen Keller Intl, mothers who bring their children in for twice-yearly vitamin A supplemention can also receive comprehensive counseling about birth control options that are available to them free of charge. Combining family planning and children's healthcare services benefits both mother and child. 2019.

Top Charities Fund

NTI designs innovative threat-reduction projects that show governments the way and build momentum and support for action.

We work with presidents and prime ministers, scientists and technicians, educators and students, and people from around the world. We collaborate with partners worldwide. And we use our voice to raise awareness and advocate for creative solutions.

Nuclear Threat Initiative

We provide cash incentives for childhood vaccinations. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways known to save lives.


Childhood vaccines prevent an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths every year. They are recognized as one of the most cost-effective child health interventions in low-income countries. Yet, an estimated 25 million children missed out on vaccination in 2021, 5.9 million more than in 2019 and the highest number since 2009. 

In Nigeria, 40% of under-five deaths are from vaccine-preventable diseases – low immunisation rates are a significant contributor to its high under-five mortality rate (111 deaths per 1,000 live births). 

See RCT findings here: https://www.newincentives.org/evidence

New Incentives

Prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases  among vulnerable populations.

Our mission is to improve lives in Africa and Asia through sustainable, evidence-based programs  that combat targeted diseases and promote child and maternal health. 

We will accomplish this together with partners and all levels of government, by:

designing and implementing cutting edge research, surveillance and monitoring and evaluation;
selectively scaling up and delivering sustainable evidence-based health programmes;
providing technical assistance and consulting services that shape and strengthen national and international health policies, strategies and systems and build local capacity;
seeking to ensure that our experience, thought leadership, practical findings and research results are effectively communicated and contribute to the coordinated improvement of access to and quality of healthcare. 
Our areas of expertise include: 
disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment
disease control and elimination
health systems strengthening
research, monitoring and evaluation leading to best practice
behavior  change communication
national and international advocacy, and policy development


Malaria Consortium

Delivering unconditional cash directly to the world's poorest households via secure mobile transfers. 

Since 2009, GiveDirectly has delivered more than $580 million in unconditional cash transfers to families in need. These one-time cash transfers allow recipients to invest in what they need most and have been shown to improve their earnings, children’s school attendance, health, nutrition, and mental well-being.
 
GiveDirectly uses government data to target villages where most or all residents are living in extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as earning under $2.15/day. In-country GiveDirectly staff enroll one member of each household in the entire village to receive a one-time transfer of about $1,000 USD sent in two installments using mobile money. Recipients can then withdraw the mobile funds as cash with local agents and use the funds to invest in what they need – whether it’s on starting a business, education, making their home safer/sturdier, healthcare, or livestock.
 
GiveDirectly uses rigorous experimental research (randomized controlled trials) to measure the impact of their unconditional cash programs and answer public policy questions, generating evidence on key design and implementation questions across varied contexts. You can find over 300 studies on the positive impacts of cash transfers in GiveDirectly’s Cash Research Explorer.

GiveDirectly

International nonprofit ending the abuse of animals raised for food.

The mission of The Humane League, why we exist, is to end the abuse of animals raised for food. This sense of purpose drives every action in our unrelenting march forward for animals.

The Humane League

Catalyzing resilient solutions, scaled to meet the climate challenge.

CATF is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing atmospheric pollution through research, advocacy, and private sector collaboration.

Clean Air Task Force

The END Fund is the only private philanthropic initiative solely dedicated to ending the most common neglected tropical diseases.

Our Mission: To control and eliminate the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) among the world's most vulnerable communities and people by 2030. 


NTDs are a group of parasitic and bacterial diseases largely prevalent in tropical regions that currently receive little attention on the global health agenda yet have a significant impact hampering the potential of individuals and communities at large. The devastating effects of NTDs include irreversible blindness, severe disfigurement, stunted cognitive and physical development, especially in children, malnutrition, social isolation, and more. NTDs also cause 170,000 deaths per year. Their comprehensive impact on all aspects of daily life means that the presence of NTDs costs affected countries billions of dollars per year in lost productivity, out-of-pocket expenses, and reduced socioeconomic and educational attainment. 

Currently, 1.7b individuals are affected by such diseases. However, the treatments and knowledge required to eliminate these diseases are readily available, with the annual cost of treatment per individual averaging 50 cents per year. Demonstrating the uniquely cost-effective impact of NTD treatment, studies have shown treatment is the single most efficient means of improving children’s school attendance and capacity to learn. A recent report by Deloitte on Nigeria showcases the significant gains affected economies stand to make should NTDs be eliminated, with Nigeria’s economy estimated to receive an $18.9b boost from now until 2030. The report is available to view here - https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/nigeria/pages/strategy/articles/Ending_The_Neglect.html

The END Fund helps ensure those at risk of NTDs need not experience such preventable suffering but can live healthy and prosperous lives instead. We do so by working in close partnership with stakeholders across the global NTD community to identify and fulfill gaps and needs in NTD funding, design programs, strengthen the capacity of local actors, provide technical support, and assist with monitoring and evaluation, amongst various additional activities. Our work helps children stay healthy and in school, prevents advanced cases that cause disability and restrain individuals' productive potential, and alleviates the disproportionate disease burden faced by women and girls, as well as the economic burden of disease on families. We have distributed more than 1.2b treatments since our founding in 2012, with 118m individuals treated in 2021 alone.

We envision living in a world in which all have the opportunity to achieve their full potential, with these diseases that have plagued humans for millennia confined to history once and for all.

The END Fund

Evidence Action scales evidence-based and cost-effective programs to reduce the burden of poverty. 

Our organization was founded in 2013 to address a big gap in the fight against global poverty--many of the most promising interventions are either implemented at a very small scale, or not at all. We set out to address this gap by building programs that would scale evidence-based and cost-effective interventions, leading to significant improvements in quality of life for hundreds of millions of people. 

Our model worked. In less than a decade, our two flagship programs, the Deworm the World Initiative and Dispensers for Safe Water, have grown to measurably impact over 280 million people each year. This success is achieved through the dedication and talent of our staff, the hard work of our partners, and the commitment of our supporters.

By 2024, we seek to double our impact. We are strengthening and expanding our existing programs, and working to identify a new generation of evidence-based and cost-effective interventions that we can scale to reach millions more. 

We currently operate three programs:

Dispensers for Safe Water 

Dispensers for Safe Water program delivers free and reliable access to safe water for 4 million people in rural Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi.
In rural parts of low-income countries, most water sources are untreated, meaning that water is not safe to drink directly from the source. Our uniquely-engineered chlorine dispensers are installed next to commonly-used water sources, enabling people to treat their water using a safe and pre-measured dose of chlorine. The chlorine stays active for 2-3 days, ensuring water doesn’t get recontaminated even when stored at home. Adding diluted chlorine to water is a WHO-endorsed approach to improving water quality. 
Dispensers for Safe Water is a cost-effective solution - just over $1.00 delivers safe water access to one person for an entire year. In 2019, our program averted over 380,000 cases of diarrhea among children, one of the main causes of childhood mortality in the countries where we operate.

Deworm the World Initiative

Deworm the World Initiative helps governments launch, scale, and sustain school-based deworming programs.

Over 868 million children globally are at risk of contracting parasitic worm infections. If left untreated, infections can lead to anemia, malnourishment, and impaired mental and physical development—ultimately affecting children’s educational outcomes and income as adults.Our program brings free treatment to children at their schools instead of placing the burden on the families to obtain it. We partner with governments to regularly treat all at-risk children in places where at least 20% are infected with worms, as recommended by the World Health Organization.  

Rigorous research shows that deworming leads to significant improvements to children’s health, education, and long-term wellbeing. In 2019, we helped governments treat over 280 million children in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Pakistan for less than US 50 cents per treatment.

Accelerator:  
 
Evidence Action Accelerator is our engine for new program development that selects, optimizes, and scales interventions with the highest potential to measurably improve the lives of millions of people in the world’s poorest places.  

Each intervention considered by the Accelerator must undergo a multi-stage process of program development, taking it from an evidence-based concept to a fully-developed solution that can be replicated in multiple geographies. We look for three critical aspects during the assessment process: rigorous evidence, cost-effectiveness, and potential for scale. 

We are currently accelerating two promising health solutions: working with the Liberian government to detect and treat maternal syphilis, with the aim of preventing thousands of child deaths and disabilities each year; and supporting the Indian government to improve the distribution of iron and folic acid supplementation to millions of children and adolescents —treating iron deficiency anemia, one of the main causes of disability in the country.





Evidence Action

We search for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar.

Our goal is to produce the world's top research on where to give. Free, for everyone.

We recommend a small number of charities that do an incredible amount of good. 

If you would like to donate to our giving funds or individual top charities, please see our projects below. You can donate here or on the Unrestricted Fund page below to make an unrestricted gift to GiveWell to support the full spectrum of our grantmaking and underwrite our ability to continue doing what we do.