A New Concept Makes Charity Giving Easy And Efficient

This tends to be the season for giving.  Moved either by the spirit of the holidays or the desire to get a tax deduction, people tend to reach for their wallets before the calendar turns.  The site GiveWell is trying to help steer dollars to where they will have the most effect.   As described by Cass Sunstein:

In terms of evidence-based analysis of charities, the best current resource is probably Give Well, a nonprofit organization founded by people in the hedge-fund industry who wanted to find out how people can do the most good with their money. Give Well focuses on the relationship between aid activities and improved outcomes (for example, better health).

Give Well finds that three kinds of programs tend to work well: direct cash transfers to the poor, treating children for parasites and distributing insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria.

Check the site out, you might find a good way to get a lot of bang out of your bucks.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.