Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference

by William MacAskill

GiveDirectly What does it do? Provides direct unconditional cash transfers to poor households in Kenya and Uganda. Estimated cost-effectiveness? Fairly cost-effective. $1 in donations results in 90¢ delivered to the poorest households in Kenya and Uganda; this leads to increases in investment, consumption, education spending, and subjective wellbeing. Robustness of evidence? Extremely robust. There have been a large number of studies of cash transfers proving efficacy, and GiveDirectly has collaborated with independent evaluators to conduct a randomised controlled trial of its own programme. Implementation? Extremely well implemented. The charity is run in part by a leading development economist. It is very open, transparent and self-sceptical. Room for more funding? Extremely large. It estimates it could productively use an additional $35 million in 2015, and expects to receive about $15 million in that time. The potential for GiveDirectly to scale up beyond that in future years is very great.