Part A (20 mins.)
In this exercise, we’ll imagine that you’re planning to donate to a charity to improve global health, and explore how much you could do with that donation.
GiveWell is an effective altruism-inspired organization which attempts to identify outstanding donation opportunities in global health and development. Using this tool to estimate your future income and Givewell’s reports on their top charities, try and work out what you could achieve if you donated 10% of your lifetime income to one of these charities.
If you’re short on time, here’s a sheet with information about three top GiveWell charities. If you’d like to explore further, check out GiveWell’s cost effectiveness models.
Complete this exercise for three GiveWell charities, writing down your answer like, e.g.:
Malaria Consortium: X cases of malaria prevented, with an estimate of N deaths averted
Part B (10 mins.)
In the last section, you ended up with a few different options. Now imagine you were given $1,000 to donate to only one of these charities.
There's a difficult judgment to be made now: since you have to pick, which charity would you donate to to do the most good?
Now write down your answer to the following questions:
Which charity do you pick to donate to? Why?
Part C (Optional, 10 mins.)
What are other decisions in your life that you might consider generating quantitative estimates and comparing outcomes for?
Part A
After looking into the numbers and impact, here’s what I found about donating 10% of a lifetime income to these charities:
Malaria Consortium
Impact: Around 11,425 children could be seasonally protected from malaria.
Lives Saved: 16 lives.
Why it stands out: It has exceptionally strong evidence of effectiveness and focuses on preventative care for vulnerable children.
Helen Keller International
Impact: Distributes about 79,977 vitamin A supplements.
Lives Saved: 23 lives.
Why it stands out: It’s incredibly cost-effective (just $2 per supplement) and addresses critical health issues like childhood blindness and mortality.
Against Malaria Foundation
Impact: Distributes roughly 15,995 insecticide-treated bed nets.
Lives Saved: 14.5 lives.
Why it stands out: It’s a well-known charity with strong evidence of effectiveness and focuses on preventing malaria through simple, long-lasting interventions.
Part B
If I had $1,000 to donate to just one charity, I’d choose Helen Keller International.
Why?
It saves the most lives (23) for the least cost.
Its vitamin A supplementation program has a huge reach (nearly 80,000 supplements provided).
I feel it’s slightly more neglected compared to the others, so my donation could make a bigger difference here.
Part C
I think using a numbers-driven approach could help in a few other areas of my life, like:
Career choices: Comparing the long-term impact of working in areas like AI governance, entrepreneurship, or media.
Personal growth: Deciding how much time and money to spend on things like courses or mentoring.
Everyday decisions: Figuring out the most efficient ways to live sustainably, like choosing foods or habits that align with my values.