ClaimsGiveWell

“We make our analyses publicly available because transparency enables people to evaluate our work and conclusions.”

GiveWell, unsigned organisational page 6 April 2022 GiveWell's Change Our Mind Contest (GiveWell) archived copy

Factual Science and research methods

GiveWell makes its cost-effectiveness analyses publicly available.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2022-04-06. True: GiveWell publicly posted its cost-effectiveness analyses, such as its CEA spreadsheets for top charities, on its website as of that date. Mostly true: most analyses were public but some notable ones were not. Mixed: only around half were public. Mostly false: only a few were public. False: the analyses were generally not publicly available.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (4)

  1. E1 GiveWell's Cost-Effectiveness Analyses GiveWell Own record

    “Cost-effectiveness models for GiveWell's Top Charities can be accessed via the links below: - Malaria Consortium's Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Program - Against Malaria Foundation - Helen Keller Intl's Vitamin A Supplementation Program - New Incentives”
  2. E2 2021 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Changelog GiveWell · 5 May 2021 Own record

    “Our leverage and funging adjustments for AMF are calculated on a non-public spreadsheet. We have not made this spreadsheet publicly available because we have not received permission to publish country-specific cost estimates we received from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which our calculations rely on.”
  3. E3 2021 Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Changelog GiveWell · 28 September 2021 Own record

    “Link to the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) file: 2021 CEA — version 3”
  4. E4 Process for Identifying Top Charities GiveWell · July 2025 Own record

    “we publish the details of our analysis, spell out our major assumptions and allow readers to fill in their own.”

Reasoning

GiveWell's 2021 changelog links to a published CEA workbook (version 3, dated 28 September 2021), which shows its top-charity cost-effectiveness analyses were posted on its website before April 2022 [E3]. The same changelog states that the leverage and funging adjustments for the Against Malaria Foundation were calculated on a non-public spreadsheet because of third-party data restrictions, so at least one component was not public [E2]. E1 and E4 describe the practice of publication, but they reflect later page versions and come from the subject itself. All the evidence comes from GiveWell, but E3 is the published output itself; on that basis, most analyses were public with a notable exception.

Cite this claim

GiveWell, “GiveWell makes its cost-effectiveness analyses publicly available.” (said 6 April 2022). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_ee7179b0c845, method 0.1.0+7831dd9d, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_ee7179b0c845

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For GiveWell, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by GiveWell

  1. Resolved false Factual 6 April 2022
    “GiveWell is launching a contest for critiques of our cost-effectiveness analyses.”

    GiveWell is launching a contest for critiques of its cost-effectiveness analyses.

  2. Mostly true Factual 30 September 2026
    “GiveWell’s Cross-Cutting research subteam focuses on improving our grantmaking over time—it investigates the impact of the programs we fund, works to resolve our largest uncertainties, and…”

    GiveWell's Cross-Cutting research subteam investigates the impact of funded programs, works to resolve the largest uncertainties, and strengthens data collection and analysis.

  3. Mostly true Factual 30 September 2026
    “More than four million young children die in low- and middle-income countries every year, and most of those deaths are preventable.”

    More than four million children under five die each year in low- and middle-income countries, and most of those deaths are preventable.

  4. Resolved true Factual 30 September 2026
    “That was our largest fundraising year to date, and we’re now preparing for the potential of a future at a substantially larger scale.”

    GiveWell's 2025 fundraising of $616 million was its largest fundraising year to date.

  5. Resolved true Factual 31 August 2026
    “We responded to urgent needs generated by foreign aid cuts”

    GiveWell responded in 2025 to urgent needs generated by foreign aid cuts.

All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.