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We estimate GiveWell donors' $15.3 million to the Against Malaria Foundation will save over 3,000 lives

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This is a GiveWell funding allocation report about malaria prevention, not directly related to AI safety. It documents a $15.3M grant to the Against Malaria Foundation, estimating 3,000+ lives saved. It is tangential to AI safety but relevant to effective altruism communities that overlap with AI safety discourse.

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Importance: 8/100blog postnews

Summary

GiveWell allocated $15.3 million in flexible donor funding to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) in 2020, estimating this will save over 3,000 lives primarily in the DRC and Guinea. The grant was delayed from Q1 2020 to assess COVID-19 impacts on top charities before committing funds. AMF was selected based on high estimated impact per dollar and confirmed funding need.

Key Points

  • •GiveWell disbursed $23.3M in flexible funding to top charities in 2020, with $15.3M going to AMF for insecticide-treated net distributions.
  • •The grant is estimated to save over 3,000 lives, mostly young children in DRC and Guinea.
  • •Allocation was delayed from Q1 2020 to assess COVID-19 pandemic impacts on charity operations and funding needs.
  • •AMF had only ~$4M in uncommitted funds as of June 2020, making additional funding critical to avoid distribution delays.
  • •GiveWell confirmed AMF had strong monitoring processes before finalizing the grant.

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# We estimate GiveWell donors’ $15.3 million to the Against Malaria Foundation will save over 3,000 lives
By GiveWell
Published: 2020-10-16
Thanks to our donors, we have disbursed $23.3 million in flexible funding to our [top charities](https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities) this year. This generous, flexible support is worthy of celebration!

This post focuses on our decision to grant $15.3 million to the [Against Malaria Foundation](http://www.givewell.org/charities/amf) (AMF), which includes the $11.7 million that donors gave to “[Grants to recommended charities at GiveWell’s discretion](https://www.givewell.org/maximum-impact-fund)” in the first half of 2020.[\[1\]](http://www.givewell.org/sources/blog-post/q1-q2-2020-discretionary-funding-allocation#1)

AMF supports the distribution of [insecticide-treated nets](https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/insecticide-treated-nets) in areas with [high rates of malaria](https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf#Are_LLINs_targeted_at_areas_with_high_rates_of_malaria). The nets stop mosquitoes from biting and spreading the disease. **We estimate our donors’ support for AMF will collectively save over 3,000 lives, mostly of young children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Guinea.**[\[2\]](http://www.givewell.org/sources/blog-post/q1-q2-2020-discretionary-funding-allocation#2) Without this grant, we think net distributions in DRC and Guinea would have been delayed.

We believe that AMF was the highest-impact choice for this grant. We chose AMF after assessing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on our [top charities](http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities), the urgency of our top charities’ funding needs, and our estimates of their impact per dollar. We’re grateful for GiveWell donors’ trust in providing flexible funding to fill this need.

Why we chose AMF
----------------

We typically allocate flexible donations to our top charities every quarter. However, we delayed allocating the donations we received to “Grants to recommended charities at GiveWell’s discretion” in the first quarter of 2020. We wanted to better understand the impact of the growing COVID-19 pandemic on charities’ budgets and plans before making a decision about where funding would have the greatest impact.

AMF was a top contender for receiving this grant because of its high estimated impact per dollar. It is continuing its work during the pandemic, with some delays and modifications.[\[3\]](http://www.givewell.org/sources/blog-post/q1-q2-2020-discretionary-funding-allocation#3) However, we wanted to resolve a couple open questions about its work before making a grant.[\[4\]](http://www.givewell.org/sources/blog-post/q1-q2-2020-discretionary-funding-allocation#4)

First, we wanted to make sure that AMF needed additional funding. At the end of 2019, it held around $70 million that was earmarked for specific distributions, but we were unsure how much of this funding would be formall

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