As we develop our philanthropic strategy, we’re eager to learn from the work of our predecessors. However, we’ve found little in the way of detailed, independent analysis of philanthropy’s track record — how philanthropy has succeeded (or failed) to achieve its goals in the past.
We’d like to help fill that gap. As a first step, we’re making a grant of $50,000 to the Center for Global Development (CGD) to support a refresh of its Millions Saved series, a compilation of case studies on large-scale success stories in global health. CGD is a think tank focused on reducing global poverty whose work we respect and has influenced our thinking on a number of development-related topics.
This grant is based on a recommendation by GiveWell and is part of GiveWell’s effort to better understand the causal impact of past philanthropy. In addition to signaling our appreciation for CGD’s work, this grant aims to put GiveWell in a position to give feedback on the Millions Saved refresh.
To learn more about the rationale for this grant, read GiveWell’s report on the Millions Saved project.