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

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

One of GiveWell's top charities for the past several years, AMF provides anti-malarial bednets to people in need. 

From Givewell: 
What do they do? AMF (againstmalaria.com) provides funding for long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN) distributions (for protection against malaria) in developing countries. (More)

Does it work? There is strong evidence that distributing LLINs reduces child mortality and malaria cases. AMF conducts post-distribution surveys of completed distributions to determine whether LLINs have reached their intended destinations and how long they remain in good condition. AMF's post-distribution surveys have generally found positive results but have some methodological limitations. (More)

What do you get for your dollar? We estimate that the cost to purchase and distribute an AMF-funded net is $4.95, or $4.65 excluding in-kind contributions from governments. The numbers of deaths averted and other benefits of distributing LLINs are a function of a number of difficult-to-estimate factors, which we discuss in detail below. (More)

Is there room for more funding? We believe that AMF is likely to be constrained by funding. We estimate that AMF could use up to an additional $37.8 million to support LLIN distributions that will occur between now and late 2023. 

AMF is recommended because of its:

Focus on a program with excellent evidence of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Processes for ensuring that nets reach their intended recipients and monitoring whether they remain in homes and in good condition over the long-term.
Room for more funding – we believe AMF will be able to use additional funds to deliver additional nets.
Transparency – AMF shares significant information about its work with us and we are able to closely follow and understand its work.

The Against Malaria Foundation

Support highly-impactful, evidence-based solutions to improve education for children around the world. 

## The Founders Pledge Perspective

In 2000, the UN set this Millennium Development goal for education: “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.” By 2015, 91% of primary-school-age children globally [were enrolled](https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml) in school. But access to education did not directly lead to improved learning outcomes. In 2018, more than half of children and adolescents worldwide [did not meet](https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/) minimum proficiency standards for math and reading. Many of these children live in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where average years of schooling is the [lowest in the world](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run?region=World). 

Unsurprisingly, poverty is a key factor in reduced learning outcomes. Children often start school underprepared due to malnutrition, lack of familial support, and unstable home environments. At school they encounter undertrained and underfunded teachers. These challenges are compounded by lack of educational resources in classrooms. Spending on education is 10-100x lower in low- and middle-income countries than in wealthy countries. In this challenging environment, resources are often focused on the most gifted students, leaving many others behind.

Our top charities work to ensure that students enter school prepared, with adequate nutrition, and attend schools where they can actually learn. By giving to the Founders Pledge Education Index, you can spread your donation across several highly-impactful and neglected global education initiatives to support improved learning outcomes. By pooling your donations, this Index 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. In particular, we aim to make grants that otherwise wouldn’t have been made, rather than those which just take the place of other philanthropists’ donations. This means that you can rely on the Funds to create meaningful, real change, rather than just maintaining the status quo.
- **The grant’s potential outcomes**. We focus on outcomes (e.g. how many lives were saved), rather than outputs (e.g. how many products were delivered). We review all the available evidence and take into account cost-effectiveness to assess whether the grant money could produce more good if donated elsewhere.
- **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. We also look for organizations that demonstrate a strong commitment to measuring outcomes and evaluating the impact of their programs.

Global Education Index

Supports highly-impactful, evidence-based solutions to the challenges of global poverty and inequality.

The Global Health & Development Fund addresses the vast inequalities in health, wealth, and opportunity.

While many people alive today can expect to have greater wealth than generations before us, millions of people live in poverty, and billions more struggle to get by. They may lack access to basic healthcare and vaccinations, making them far more vulnerable to deadly diseases, or to quality education, which strengthens their economic future. These are complex, but not unsolvable, problems. Researchers, advocates, and organizations around the world are working to scale up solutions to these problems. By taking a thoughtful, evidence-based approach to philanthropy that accelerates the best of these solutions, we can do immense good.

The Founders Pledge Global Health and Development Fund identifies and supports highly-impactful and neglected development initiatives. By pooling donations and collaborating with other funding and research organizations, this Fund allows individuals to make contributions when and where they will have the largest impact. We aim to:

- Significantly improve the lives of the world's most vulnerable people;
- Eliminate deaths from easily preventable disease;
- Support sustainable, systemic change.

### 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**. This fund prioritizes the highest-impact solutions to challenges. We assess where the gaps are, which opportunities may be neglected by other funders, and where the biggest wins are in terms of making the biggest difference.
-  **The organization’s funding gap**. Not all organizations are set up to scale up their programming and some may not be able to productively absorb large amounts of unsolicited funding at any given point. 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.
- **Time-critical opportunities and funding certainty**. While Founders Pledge members give to our top climate charities regularly, sometimes there are time-critical opportunities which require fast decisions. We will use the Fund to make grants that enable such short-term opportunities and stability for high-impact funding opportunities thereby increasing the impact compared to individual giving to specific organizations.

### Frequently-Asked Questions

**Can charities apply for money from the Fund?**

The Funds do not generally accept applications from charities, and we request that charities do not send unsolicited applications for funding. If the Fund Managers choose to open up an application round, this will be publicized. 

**How frequently will you make grants from the Fund?**

In general, Fund Managers will review grantmaking decisions on a quarterly basis. Decisions will be made based on the value of Funds and the available options for high-impact grantmaking. We may disburse funds outside of quarterly review dates if we become aware of a particularly promising and time-sensitive funding.

**How will my contribution be used?**

All funds are granted out. The Fund is not an investment vehicle. The Fund does not use any percentage of contributions to cover staff time or other overhead costs. Every dollar contributed to the Fund will be used to make grants directly to end-user organizations creating a real difference.

### More Questions?

To learn more about the Founders Pledge Global Health and Development Fund, please visit [founderspledge.com](https://founderspledge.com/funds/global-health-and-development-fund) or email the Fund Managers at [funds@founderspledge.com](mailto:funds@founderspledge.com).

Founders Pledge: Global Health & Development Fund

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