What are impact-focused charity evaluators?
An impact-focused charity evaluator is an organisation that conducts research into the impact of a charity's program. This includes evaluating factors like how well the program works, how much good a donation to the program would accomplish, and how these two factors compare to other programs.
Evaluating how well the program works is important because sometimes a program sounds good in theory but doesn’t actually accomplish what it intends to (or even accomplishes the opposite – have you heard of Scared Straight?) Examining how much good a donation to the program would accomplish is also important because if a Program A and Program B both accomplish what they’re trying to, but Program A is doing so for only $10 a person while Program B is doing it for $20, choosing Program B would reduce your impact by a full 50%!
Impact-focused charity evaluation is a relatively new field — previously, there were very few organisations evaluating charities and these organisations tended to focus on measures like overhead spending, transparency, and the financial health of an organisation. While these measures are important, they don't take into account differences in the impact of a program, which is arguably the most important factor to consider!
(Think about it: even if 100% of your donation goes directly to a charity's program, if that program isn't accomplishing a lot compared to others, then your money won't be either! Read more about why factors like overhead don't give us the full picture of a charity's impact.)
For this reason, we do not recommend using sites like Charity Navigator or GuideStar to determine where your donations will have the greatest impact, since — while Charity Navigator has recently added some impact calculations to their ratings — these have significant limitations. In short, comparing impact is not the primary focus of these organisations. (Read more about this here.)
The research team at Giving What We Can believes that — since impact often varies greatly depending on where you choose to donate — it's important to rely on impact-focused research when making donation decisions. Since our key focus is helping ordinary people maximise their charitable impact, we research impact-focused evaluators, provide reports on their focus areas and methodology, and then identify the evaluators whose donation recommendations we're particularly confident in. Read more about how and why we do this here.
Which charity evaluators focus primarily on impact?
We thought it would be helpful to list evaluators we know of that focus on impact, in case donors wish to visit the websites of these organisations to learn more about them. Note that appearing on this list does not necessarily mean the work of these evaluators has been "vetted" by Giving What We Can — for information on which evaluators we've looked into so far and the results of that investigation, please see the page on our evaluator research project.
Throughout our research and website, we use the term "evaluator" to refer to an organisation that conducts evaluations into charities and other projects soliciting funding. This includes:
- Organisations that conduct these evaluations to help donors make informed decisions about where to give — typically by publishing a list of charity recommendations on their website.
- Organisations that conduct these evaluations in order to identify the best projects/charities to grant to ("grantmakers"). These organisations grant directly to the funding opportunities they've evaluated to be highest impact within their area, and often donors can contribute to the "pool" of funds to be granted.
Both types of organisations seek to find the best available funding opportunities, so relying on their research and expertise is a great way to maximise impact.
Impact-focused charity evaluators
Focus area: Animal welfare
"We use evidence and reason to identify the animal organizations and initiatives that will help the most animals with your donations."
Focus area: Several focus areas
"We fund outstanding projects focused on social impact"
Note: EA Funds is a grantmaking organisation that allows ordinary donors to pool their money to be allocated by experts within a particular cause area
Focus area: Several focus areas
"We research the world’s biggest problems and identify the most effective solutions, so that your donations can go as far as possible."
Focus area: Global health
"We search for the charities that save or improve lives the most per dollar."
Focus area: Climate change
"We help you find evidence-based, cost-effective, and high-leverage organizations that maximize the impact of your climate donations."
Focus area: Global wellbeing
"Using the latest subjective wellbeing data, we identify the problems that matter most to people and find evidence-based ways to solve them."
Focus area: The long-run future
"We focus on global challenges that could transform our future for many generations to come, including safely navigating emerging technologies."
Note: Longview offers bespoke donation advice and grantmaking services to donors giving over 1 million per year. However, Longview is also a grantmaker; any donor can contribute to Longview's Emerging Challenges Fund or Nuclear Weapons Policy Fund.
Focus area: Works across many cause areas.
"SoGive helps donors clarify their values and find the most cost-effective charities through evidence based research."
Focus area: Global health & wellbeing
"With our theory and your action, we can strategically work together to end extreme poverty."