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Allocation of Discretionary Funds from Q2 2019 - GiveWell Blog

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This GiveWell blog post details allocation of $2.3M in discretionary donor funds to the Against Malaria Foundation in Q2 2019. It is not directly related to AI safety but represents effective altruism funding decision-making methodology, which overlaps with EA-adjacent AI safety funding communities.

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Importance: 10/100blog postnews

Summary

GiveWell allocated $2.3 million in Q2 2019 discretionary donor funds entirely to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF), citing a highly cost-effective and time-sensitive opportunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. GiveWell estimates AMF's DRC work costs approximately $2,072 per death averted, compared to $3,554 for AMF's overall work. The post outlines GiveWell's process for quarterly fund allocation among top charities.

Key Points

  • •GiveWell allocated all $2.3M in Q2 2019 discretionary funds to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF).
  • •AMF's work in DRC is estimated to be ~1.7x more cost-effective than its average, at ~$2,072 per death averted.
  • •Funds will support a 2020 net distribution in DRC, a country with a higher malaria burden than most AMF operating regions.
  • •GiveWell recommends donors use the discretionary granting option to allow optimal fund allocation each quarter.
  • •The post provides transparency into GiveWell's cost-effectiveness modeling and decision-making process.

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The GiveWell Blog


 

 

 
 
 

 
 
This post is more than 6 years old In the second quarter of 2019, donors gave a combined $2.3 million to GiveWell for granting to recommended charities at our discretion. We greatly appreciate this support, which enables us to direct funding where we believe it can be used most effectively. We grant this funding to one or more of our top charities each quarter.

 We decided to allocate all $2.3 million to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) . AMF is a GiveWell top charity that provides support for the distribution of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria. AMF has been named a GiveWell top charity seven times. We chose to allocate the second-quarter funding to AMF because we believe AMF has a highly cost-effective and time-sensitive opportunity to spend it.

 Our bottom line

 We continue to recommend that donors giving to GiveWell choose the option on our donation form for “ grants to recommended charities at GiveWell’s discretion ” so that we can direct the funding to the top charity or charities with the most pressing funding needs. For donors who prefer to give to a specific charity, we note that if we had additional funds to allocate at this time, we would very likely allocate them to AMF, which we believe could use additional funding for highly cost-effective work, even after receiving the $2.3 million in funding mentioned above.

 Summary

 In this post, we discuss:

 
 what AMF will do with additional funding. ( More )

 other possibilities we considered. ( More )

 our process for deciding where to allocate funds. ( More )

 
 What will AMF do with additional funding?

 AMF told us that it will use additional funding to support a distribution of nets scheduled for 2020 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Distributions are often delayed by a few months. Our best guess is that these nets will be delivered in late 2020 or in 2021.

 DRC has a higher malaria burden than most of the other countries where AMF supports distributions. We model AMF’s work in DRC to be more than 1.5 times as cost-effective as AMF’s past work, on average—we estimate that a donation of roughly $2,000 to support work in DRC will avert a death, compared to $3,600 for AMF’s work overall. 1 You can see our calculations by making a copy of our 2019 version 4 cost-effectiveness model ; this will enable you to edit the sheet and change the values in the drop-down menu as described below:

1. Our estimate of the cost-effectiveness of AMF’s work in general : Go to the “Nets” tab. In cell B125, you’ll see the “Median cost per death averted (after accounting for leverage and funging)” for AMF. The value is $3,554.

2. Go to the “Country selection” tab, change the value for the Against Malaria Foundation in cell B7 from “Overall” (which includes all countries AMF works in) to “DRC” on the drop-down menu.

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