“we may use these funds for operating expenses or grants to charities, at our discretion” (source: http://www.givewell.org/about/donate )
This does not imply “we will treat the charities fairly” at all. It implies nothing about the numerical split.
My quick attempt to find charity navigator’s favorite charities: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten.detail&listid=100
There are several universities drowning in money on this list. That does not sound very efficient. Looking for an explanation, they seem to care too much about % operating expenses and so on, and not enough about real impact.
Doing the same for GiveWell (looking at US to make it more comparable): http://www.givewell.org/united-states/top-charities We have two charities. Both are evaluated based on marginal impact and measured effectiveness. The second, KIPP, is an extremely “cool” program.
Conclusion: It appears as though GiveWell recommends more efficient charities with better criteria. GiveWell also seems to behave in a manner that sounds better to Internet geeks, for example with their mistake list. This is sufficient explanation for their Internet popularity.
“we may use these funds for operating expenses or grants to charities, at our discretion” (source: http://www.givewell.org/about/donate ) This does not imply “we will treat the charities fairly” at all. It implies nothing about the numerical split.
My quick attempt to find charity navigator’s favorite charities: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten.detail&listid=100 There are several universities drowning in money on this list. That does not sound very efficient. Looking for an explanation, they seem to care too much about % operating expenses and so on, and not enough about real impact.
Doing the same for GiveWell (looking at US to make it more comparable): http://www.givewell.org/united-states/top-charities We have two charities. Both are evaluated based on marginal impact and measured effectiveness. The second, KIPP, is an extremely “cool” program.
Conclusion: It appears as though GiveWell recommends more efficient charities with better criteria. GiveWell also seems to behave in a manner that sounds better to Internet geeks, for example with their mistake list. This is sufficient explanation for their Internet popularity.