We do the research to make sure your donation has the highest impact.

We are a community of people who believe in taking action. Our role is to help you make the most effective donations possible in the fight against extreme poverty. Since our founding in 2013, we have compiled a list of research-backed charities working on interventions against the multidimensional factors of poverty, resulting in over $100 million donated to high-impact charities.

The Life You Can Save

Global health organization striving to make health care a human right for all people, starting with those who need it most

Partners In Health is a social justice organization that responds to the moral imperative to provide high-quality health care globally to those who need it most. We strive to ease suffering by providing a comprehensive model of care that includes access to food, transportation, housing, and other key components of healing. We bring the benefits of modern medicine to those who have suffered from the overt and subtle injustices of the world, in the past and in the present. We refuse to accept that any life is worth less than another.

Our mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. By establishing long-term relationships with sister organizations based in settings of poverty, Partners In Health strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair.

We draw on the resources of the world’s leading medical and academic institutions and on the lived experience of the world’s poorest and sickest communities. At its root, our mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity alone.

When our patients are ill and have no access to care, our team of health professionals, scholars, and activists will do whatever it takes to make them well—just as we would do if a member of our own families or we ourselves were ill.

Our Core Beliefs:
-    All human lives have the same value, and every human being has the inalienable right to be healthy to fulfill their potential.
-    The right to health is not the only right held by our patients. Other fundamental human rights are interrelated and just as inalienable.
-    All people need to stand in solidarity with those who find themselves at the margins of modern society.
-    The playing field needs to be leveled for those individuals who are born at a disadvantage (equity vs equality).
-    Injustice is not accidental but a direct result of structural violence and oppression. We can fight injustice by changing those dynamics.
-    It is our moral call to action to expose social injustice and to work toward correcting those systemic forces that create inequalities, no matter how impossible or challenging this task might look.

Partners In Health

Directly fund life-changing surgeries for people around the world

We are 100% committed to being radically transparent, impact-focused, and patient-centered. 

Five billion people lack access to safe, basic, and affordable surgical care, yet this is an area that remains vastly underfunded. We are bringing people together around the world to change this and reach patients who are most likely to be left without access to safe surgery. 

The New York Times wrote that "Watsi represents the next generation of charities,” a generation that leverages technology to enable anyone everywhere to create meaningful, lasting impact for those most in need,  embraces 100% transparency, and focuses on our shared humanity by helping supporters create a direct connection with the patients they are helping. 

Watsi has also been recognized by CNN as one of its top 10 startups to watch and the White House as a "Champion of Change." Watsi’s innovative and effective approach drew the early attention of Y Combinator, which selected Watsi as their very first non-profit.


Watsi

IMS is a spiritual refuge for all who seek freedom of mind and heart. 

IMS is a spiritual refuge for all who seek freedom of mind and heart. We offer meditation retreats and online programs rooted in the Early Buddhist teachings of ethics, concentration, and wisdom. These practices help develop awareness and compassion in ourselves, giving rise to greater peace and happiness in the world.

Insight Meditation Society

Medical aid where it's needed most — independent, neutral, impartial.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a private international association founded in 1971. The association is made up mainly of doctors and health sector workers and is also open to other professions which might help in achieving its aims. Our mission is to provide lifesaving medical care to those most in need.

All MSF members agree to honor the following principles:

MSF provides assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters, and to victims of armed conflict. They do so irrespective of gender, race, religion, creed, or political convictions.

MSF observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics and the right to humanitarian assistance. MSF claims full and unhindered freedom in the exercise of its functions.

Members undertake to respect their professional code of ethics and to maintain complete independence from all political, economic, or religious powers.

As volunteers, members understand the risks and dangers of the assignments they carry out and make no claim for themselves or their assigns for any form of compensation other than that which the association might be able to afford them.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Camp Kinderland was established in 1923 by Jewish union activists in New York, who wanted to provide a summer escape from the city for working class families. The founders of Kinderland believed that Jewish culture includes a responsibility to social justice. The camp program focused on the labor movement, and other progressive causes. Over the years, we have honored and celebrated the International Brigades in Spain, anti-fascist efforts in the World War II era, economic reform and the civil rights and anti-war movements, among others. Since Kinderland has been around for over three-quarters of a century, camp and campers have been active participants in the history and events that have shaped who we are today.

Camp Kinderland

Accessible giving infrastructure for a more generous world.

Follow our realtime impact at https://www.every.org/metrics - people have donated over $50M!

We provide nonprofits with free tools to fundraise more effectively, including our all-in-one donate button and peer-to-peer fundraising solution. Our website encourages individuals to take action and spread generosity by giving monthly and giving out loud to help nonprofits get steady funding and grow awareness. Our open API for fundraising powers a collective research effort to transform fundraising with nonprofit, academic, corporate, and grassroots partners.

We envision a world where every person and organization has the best technology to help them do more good, increasing the global giving rate from 2% to 3% of GDP.

Every.org

A hot plate of food when it’s needed most. For people fighting or fleeing disasters, we are here. 

Ten years ago, my wife Patricia and I had a big dream to start World Central Kitchen. We envisioned an organization that would create smart solutions to hunger and poverty, and for many years we saw an amazing impact through our clean cookstoves initiative, culinary training programs, and social enterprise ventures that empower communities and strengthen economies. But we had no idea we would one day be answering the call in Puerto Rico and around the world – “Food First Responders” serving millions of meals each year. In the process, we learned that a small NGO can change the world through the power of food.

Last year, WCK activated in response to dozens of disasters — some of them natural, and some man-made. From serving children in the shelters on our border with Mexico to making deliveries by lamplight to those keeping watch over beaches in Indonesia, our fight to feed the hungry has taken us to more places than we ever expected.

At the same time, WCK continues planting roots in the communities where we work. Our Plow to Plate program is helping to create food resiliency in the face of future disasters. In Haiti, aspiring chefs are obtaining the skills and confidence they need to elevate their careers and the country’s tourism sector.

With your help, we have shown that there is no place too far or disaster too great for our chefs to be there with a hot plate of food when it’s needed most.

I hope you’ll dream with us as we envision a world where there is always a warm meal, an encouraging word, and a helping hand in hard times. Thank you for taking this journey with us.

Join me in fulfilling the inspiring words of John Steinbeck: Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people may eat, we will be there.

We must be there.
- Jose Andres, founder

World Central Kitchen

Support highly-impactful, evidence-based solutions to reduce animal suffering on a global scale. 

At least 75 billion farmed land animals and more than a trillion fish are slaughtered each year. That is more than 2000 land animals and 25,000 fish are killed every second. This is possible due to the mechanization and intensification of factory farming, driven by global increase in demand for meat.

Although this situation seems bleak - and the numbers almost too large to comprehend - there are reasons to be hopeful. Recent years have seen rapid progress in the animal welfare movement. Many large companies have pledged to phase out or drastically reduce some of their industry’s most harmful practices. Governments have banned some of these practices outright. And companies working to commercialize alternative proteins, such as plant-based meats, have raised billions of dollars from investors. Yet farm animal welfare remains highly neglected, with just 0.03% of US philanthropic funding going to this cause in 2017. 

By giving to the Founders Pledge Animal Welfare Index, you can spread your donation across several highly-impactful and neglected global initiatives to alleviate suffering and improve the conditions of factory-farmed animals. By pooling your donations, this Index fund allows you to make larger grants and thereby maximize your impact.

### Our Approach to Grantmaking
When evaluating potential grants, we consider several key points:

- **Counterfactual impact.** Our grants are designed to create a meaningful outcome that would not otherwise have happened. This means that you can rely on the Funds to create meaningful, real change, rather than just maintaining the status quo.
- **Impact-driven philanthropy.** The goal of this fund is maximal positive impact, irrespective of this impact being “sexy” or visible. This means we will focus on opportunities that others focused on clear attribution of their work or shiny outcomes might neglect.
- **The organization’s funding gap.** Not all organizations are set up to scale up their programming and many can’t productively absorb large amounts of unsolicited funding. We evaluate all potential grantees’ capacity for growth and consider how much money they could put to good use.
- **Organizational strength.** Particularly with unrestricted funding, it’s important to have trust in the leadership and capacity of the organizations we support. We look at their track record of success and their transparency about failures as well as successes, and we only support those organizations which are exceptionally well run.


To learn more about our approach to Animal Welfare as a cause area, please visit [www.founderspledge.com](https://www.founderspledge.com/research/topic/animal-welfare).

Founders Pledge: Animal Welfare Index

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

Founders Pledge is a global nonprofit empowering entrepreneurs to do the most good possible with their charitable giving. 

We equip members with everything needed to maximize their impact, from evidence-led research and advice on the world’s most pressing problems, to comprehensive infrastructure for global grant-making, alongside opportunities to learn and connect. We’re grateful to be funded by our members and other generous donors. 

Founders Pledge

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.

GiveWell

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Monthly donations help nonprofits focus on mission and long-term impact, not fundraising. Cancel anytime.