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

Science for a healthy planet and safer world

The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet's most pressing problems. Joining with people across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future. Become a member at http://www.ucsusa.org/about/ways_to_give/ and take action at http://www.ucsusa.org/action.

Union of Concerned Scientists

Using journalism & law to build free, fair & informed societies.

Accurate and balanced news coverage is critical to informing public opinion, revealing previously undocumented stories, exposing abuses of power and holding authority to account.

The law is fundamental to establishing and protecting the rights of individuals and to upholding free, fair and informed societies.

As the corporate foundation of Thomson Reuters, our unique expertise combines the power of journalism and the law to advance media freedom, foster more inclusive economies, and promote human rights.

We believe there is a symbiotic relationship between our three focus areas, and that one cannot thrive independently of the others.

Thomson Reuters Foundation (US)

The Pad Project makes washable, re-useable maxi pads for girls and women in third world countries.

THE ISSUE
Around the world, individuals face barriers to receiving a quality education because they lack access to affordable and hygienic menstrual products, adequate WASH facilities, and menstrual health education.

OUR MISSION
The Pad Project’s mission is to create and cultivate local and global partnerships to end period stigma and to empower women and all menstruators worldwide.

The Pad Project

The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental nonprofit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.

The Nature Conservancy

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

Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food – because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90%, and we won’t stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries we make, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Giving children in the U.S. and around the world a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Since our founding more than 100 years ago, we’ve changed the lives of more than 1 billion children. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Save the Children

A non-denominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.

Samaritan's Purse  is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan's Purse has helped meet needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God's love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Samaritan's Purse

Supports health and education programs in order to help children and families at home and abroad recover from disasters and endemic poverty.    Every day, we strive to meet the needs of under-served and overlooked populations, with a special focus on youth development programs so that future generations may have the tools they need to create meaningful change in their own communities and lives. Working with partners around the world, we empower communities to recover, build resiliency and thrive in the face of pervasive obstacles and during a time of unprecedented global need.

Operation USA supports health and education programs in order to help children and families at home and abroad recover from disasters and endemic poverty.    Every day, we strive to meet the needs of under-served and overlooked populations, with a special focus on youth development programs so that future generations may have the tools they need to create meaningful change in their own communities and lives. Working with partners around the world, we empower communities to recover, build resiliency and thrive in the face of pervasive obstacles and during a time of unprecedented global need.

Operation USA

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.

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