February newsletter: US aid freeze – how to help & where to donate

It’s hard to believe the global health landscape has changed so significantly in just one month. We wanted to update our community on what we know so far and how this might impact your donation decisions. (There is a lot to cover, so this newsletter will be a bit longer than usual!)

A summary of the situation:

The US aid funding freeze has left millions without access to critical global health services. While a judicial order was issued to temporarily reverse the freeze, the government is unlikely to comply. USAID staff & access to systems have been gutted, and – despite the government’s stated waiver program for life-saving work – many qualifying programs aren’t able to obtain waivers, and many who have them aren’t able to actually get the funding the waivers promise.

Many are wondering: “Is there anything I can do?”

What’s being done & how you can help

The good news is that several folks within the effective giving ecosystem are stepping up to help fill the funding gaps created by the chaos and help affected high-impact organisations continue their programmes. We’ll provide some information below about how you can support this crucial work. But first, here are a few things to keep in mind as you think about what this means for your donation decisions:

The situation is highly uncertain. It’s important to note that there’s a lot we don’t know and that it’s been difficult for organisations working on this to get clarity. It’s unclear if/how much funding will eventually resume and if it does, to which programs. This makes cost-effectiveness calculations extremely difficult.

Cost-effectiveness is more important than ever. It is unlikely all affected programs will be able to restart work & rebuild operations. Prioritising the most cost-effective programs means we can essentially make money go further – restoring protection to more people.

GiveWell-supported programs are experiencing effects from the freeze, to varying degrees. While GiveWell’s top charity programs don't receive direct USAID funding, some GiveWell top charities are indirectly impacted by the freeze; for example, some may rely on USAID-funded programs or suppliers to carry out their operations. Additionally, some of GiveWell's other grantees beyond top charities do receive direct USAID funding.

We continue to recommend GiveWell programs. At this time, we do not recommend stopping support for GiveWell programs to instead support funds that have been explicitly set up to fill funding gaps. If you are donating to GiveWell programs, you are already supporting the type of work that has been cut – and doing so through highly cost-effective programs.

• That said, if you, like us, have confidence in GiveWell's ability to identify cost-effective opportunities, you might consider shifting funding from specific GiveWell Top Charities to their Top Charities Fund or their All Grants Fund, which can be more flexible in this rapidly changing funding landscape. GiveWell is considering the recent funding freeze in their grantmaking decisions and plans to make grants to fill urgent funding needs. At this moment, they are trying to make some time-sensitive grants while also saving funds for large, critical funding gaps that may appear in the next few months.
  • Donating to the All Grants Fund gives GiveWell the most flexibility to respond strategically, given funds aren’t restricted to only Top Charities, and the grantmaking timeline is more flexible, making it better suited to responding to emergency funding needs. That said, GiveWell is still advising donors who prioritise having the highest level of confidence to donate to the Top Charities Fund, given it knows these organisations best. Please note that – while GiveWell is considering the funding freeze in their grantmaking decisions – donations to the All Grants Fund or Top Charities Fund may or may not go to new grants GiveWell is specifically making as a result of the stop work order.

Supporting affected high-impact programs

As mentioned above, some of GiveWell’s All Grants Fund and Top Charities Fund may be used to support programs affected by the freeze. We also know of two funds that have been set up explicitly to attempt to fill funding gaps for affected organisations.

While our research team has not evaluated the grantmaking of either fund in detail, we currently expect the Rapid Response Fund to be the more cost-effective option of the two, given it specifically supports organisations that are included on Founders Pledge’s or The Life You Can Save’s list of recommended organisations or that otherwise meet their cost-effectiveness criteria.

We do not know how donating to this fund compares to donating to the All Grants Fund or Top Charities Fund. In such an uncertain situation, it’s difficult to know how the strategy of explicitly prioritising direct grants to affected organisations compares to the one GiveWell is taking, and some donors may prefer one approach over the other.

The Rapid Response Fund: Launched by Founders Pledge & The Life You Can Save, this fund aims to fill critical funding gaps for top recommendations & other high-impact organisations affected by the USAID freeze, so they can continue life-saving programs. Read more and donate here.

Unlock Aid’s Bridge Fund: This fund is not explicitly tied to the effective giving ecosystem; some of the coalition partners are recommended by impact-focused evaluators but many are not. While its stated criteria seem to prioritise cost-effective organisations, we have not looked into their cost-effectiveness bar and would expect (though we are not certain) that this fund is overall less cost-effective than supporting the Rapid Response Fund. Read more and donate here.

Another important way to help

Funding gaps for life-saving global health programs are not new. Even with the US responsible for 42% of the global humanitarian aid tracked by the UN, aid spending by the US accounts for a tiny fraction of its total budget, ranging from 0.7% – 1.4% from 2001 to 2025. Government aid has long fallen short of providing life-saving services for those who need them, leading to around 14,000 children dying daily from mostly preventable causes, and nonprofits have long had to step in to help fill the gap left by governments. Now this gap is much, much wider.

In other words, the current situation significantly worsens an ongoing crisis that is usually “silent” – bringing visibility to the hard fact that there are people in the world whose lives are ending simply because there isn’t enough funding and/or infrastructure for low-cost interventions like malaria nets, safe water, and essential nutrients to reach them.

Ordinary individuals have the power to help provide this funding and are often unaware of both the scale of the problem and the power they have to make a concrete difference. If people in your life are distressed over the USAID crisis, I hope you’ll help them feel less powerless by sharing the funding opportunities above. If you support GiveWell programs, share that as well – talk about why you’ve chosen to support these programs even before the aid freeze, and how much more important your support is now. Bring visibility to the ongoing “silent” crisis that will unfortunately persist even if USAID-funded programs can restart operations.

Effective giving is more important now than ever, and collective action can’t be underestimated. Let’s work together to deliver life-saving services to those in need by supporting (and spreading the word about) highly impactful programs – with the hope that this support will continue long after the headlines die down.

As usual, we’re sharing plenty of other news below.

With gratitude and hope,

Grace Adams & the Giving What We Can Team

Motivations for Pledging

Here are some of our favourite responses from people who took a pledge last month:

News & Updates

GWWC

• GWWC is hiring for two roles!
  • GWWC is hiring a Chief Operating Officer to build and lead our operations division during a critical organisational growth phase. The COO will build the systems, processes, and teams that will enable us to scale our impact while staying true to our core values and high standards. If you’re looking for a high-impact leadership role and have experience scaling operations and managing organisational growth, please apply by 16 March or sooner! We will be reviewing applicants on a rolling basis. Find key details, requirements, and the link to apply here. This role is critical to our success and we’re serious about finding the right person. Please help us spread the word!
  • GWWC is hiring a Community Engagement Coordinator to lead GWWC presence at 10+ Effective Altruism Global Conferences (EAG(x)s) and run four cohorts of our Pledge Advocacy Programme annually. This is a 12-month, travel-heavy contract position with the potential for a permanent role. See more details and apply here by March 16th.
• We published a spotlight on two unique approaches to pledging: one that fits the Pledge into the Financial Independence timeline and one that focuses on scaling up a 5% Pledge by re-donating tax benefits. Read it here.
• James Rayton, GWWC Head of Community and Partnerships and former UN contractor, shared his thoughts on the WHO withdrawal in a new blog post Trump's WHO Withdrawal: Head in the Sand, or Time to Act? James writes, "While it’s not a substitute for government, I strongly believe ordinary individuals can play a vital role in filling aid gaps. This is especially important when governments can't – or won't – act." Read more.

Community

• 10% Pledger Jacob Bauer's book Effective Altruism: An Introduction has launched in the US and worldwide! Read Jacob's December blog post about how writing his book inspired him to take the 10% Pledge, and check out his book here.

Cause areas

Animal Welfare

• The Animal Welfare Fund (one of our recommended funds) published its grant payout report from October to December 2024. The fund recommended USD $1,328,106 in funding during this period and has paid out 11 grants.
• Faunalytics published Exploring the Impacts of Food System Education: A Case Study, which summarises research investigating the long-term effects of New Roots Institute’s food systems education program. The study suggests that education programs can play a role in shaping students’ ethical views, dietary choices, and career trajectories, and can contribute to the broader animal protection movement.
• Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) published its 2024 Year in Review, which highlights a focus on R&D and the investigation of scalable strategies. FWI estimates that even with this R&D focus, its 2024 work improved the lives of around 1.2 million fish, mainly through water quality improvements.
• Wild Animal Initiative (WAI) has posted a research roundup that links to all the peer-reviewed natural science papers published by WAI and its grantees in 2024. You can find the list of publications here and learn about Wild Animal Initiative's research priorities here.
• FarmKind has released a Compassion Calculator that helps people offset the animal welfare impact of their diet through donations to highly effective animal welfare charities (kind of like carbon offsetting, but for your diet!). Try it here.

Global Health and Wellbeing

• The Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) (one of our recommended charities) is hiring a Senior Operations Manager. Early applications are encouraged as AMF will review applications on an ongoing basis. Find the details and apply here.
• GiveDirectly published its 2024 annual report. 217,219 people in eleven countries received a total of $126M USD in cash from GiveDirectly in 2024. You can read about GiveDirectly’s impact on these people’s and communities’ lives in the report.
• Unlimit Health has published an interactive storymap about how good data is integral to the sustainable control and elimination of parasitic diseases, and about its work to close data gaps across sub-Saharan Africa.
• Teaching at the Right Level Africa
  • Launched a pilot program in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Zanzibar, Tanzania. This program will reach 25 government schools and support around 10,500 children in strengthening their literacy skills.
  • Will be present at the CIES Conference in Chicago from 22-26 March. The TaRL team will make a presentation on scaling and systems change, teacher effectiveness and enhancing mathematics instruction.

Global Catastrophic Risk Reduction

• The Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence (CHAI) published an article about AI systems’ influence in the political sphere and the need to define what “political neutrality” would mean for AI systems.
• NTI-Bio
  • Attended the 2025 Munich Security Conference where it ran several biosecurity-focused events – details here.
  • Published an article about the virtual Track II biosecurity dialogue it convened with US & Chinese experts, in collaboration with the Chinese Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA).
• Two biosecurity researchers published a post on the EA Forum: Five Tractable Biosecurity Projects You Could Start Tomorrow, which outlines five project ideas they believe are particularly high-impact and that could be started without too much context.

Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators

• GiveWell
  • Published the results from its first grantee survey.
  • Is hiring for two new Program Officer positions to lead their nutrition and malaria chemoprevention grantmaking portfolios. GiveWell is looking for senior leaders to increase its impact by expanding into new areas, increasing the size of the portfolios, and improving the cost-effectiveness of the opportunities it funds:
    • Program Officer - Nutrition
    • Program Officer - Malaria Chemoprevention
• Ambitious Impact’s research team has identified fresh high-impact charity ideas that have been rigorously researched and are ready to be launched – they just need people to launch them! If you’re a driven, altruistic, and fast-moving talent passionate about launching high-impact organisations, apply here to the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program (CEIP) August 2025 or February 2026 cohort by 24 March.
• Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE)
  • Will be running two rounds of the Movement Grants Program this year. Applications for the first round are now open. Submit an Expression of Interest form to be invited to apply for a grant.
  • Recently launched a marketing campaign targeting a new audience, guided by a market research survey. See key insights and learnings here.
  • Shared takeaways from Pro-Animal Future’s ballot initiative to ban slaughterhouses, which ACE supported via a $50,000 Movement Grant in 2024. While the proposed ballot measure did not succeed, this campaign (and other similar initiatives) offer valuable lessons for advocates working to improve the lives of animals. Learn more here.
• Founders Pledge published a new report on how to act on climate under a new Trump administration: All In: Strategies for Climate Philanthropists in a New Political Landscape. The report presents a systematic mapping of climate philanthropy priorities in a changed world, examining the implications of the new political landscape and what this suggests about priorities for philanthropic action within the effective giving context.
• Open Philanthropy released a Request for Proposals for grants for AI safety research. The goal is to mitigate risks of AIs becoming misaligned and plan for the possibility of transformative AI now, during this phase of rapid development. You can find out more and apply here. The first step is a 300-word expression of interest and applications will be open until 15 April.

This month's featured social post from our community

We love seeing our community sharing stories about what pledging means to them and spreading the word about effective giving. We are stronger together!

Thank you Céline for informing your audience about Giving What We Can. In Céline’s words: “No need to be rich, just convinced that our choices matter.”View the full post here.

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