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 Estimating the Impact of Donating 10% of My Lifetime Income
I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that a single decision, like where to donate money, could have an impact that stretches across communities and even generations. If I were to donate 10% of my lifetime income, say $100,000, I’d want to ensure it goes somewhere it can do the most good. I explored three top charities recommended by GiveWell the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), Malaria Consortium, and Helen Keller International. And here is what i would go for.
AMF distributes insecticide-treated bed nets to protect people from malaria, one of the world’s deadliest diseases. According to GiveWell, it costs around $3,000 to $5,500 to save one life through AMF’s programs.
This organization runs a program called Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), which provides preventive medication to children during peak malaria seasons. Studies suggest that SMC significantly reduces malaria cases and deaths.
This charity focuses on fighting vitamin A deficiency, which causes blindness and weakens immune systems in children. Their supplementation programs are cost-effective and have been linked to significant reductions in child mortality.
Part B Where Would I Donate $1,000?
If I had to choose just one of these organizations to donate $1,000 to, I would pick the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF).
Why? Because AMF has a well-documented track record, and the cost-effectiveness of their work is clear. Knowing that a simple bed net could mean the difference between life and death for a child makes this an easy decision for me. Even with just $1,000, I could contribute to protecting dozens of people from malaria, and that’s a tangible impact I’d feel good about.
Part C Applying This Approach to Other Life Decisions
This exercise made me think about how I can use a similar approach in my own life, beyond charitable giving. Here are some decisions I will be using a cost benefit analysis to