Brigid Slipka

This title is a bit of a fib. There’s actually two guides. Neither written by me.

Easiest blog post ever.

The gang at GiveWell released it’s recommendations for the very bestestest charities to give to this holiday season. The top two are:

 (1) the Against Malaria Foundation, which fights malaria using insecticide-treated bednets, and (2) the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, which treats children for intestinal worms.

Plus!

We also have identified five other standout organizations for donors interested in other causes. These are GiveDirectly (cash grants to poor households in Kenya), Innovations for Poverty Action(research on how to fight poverty and promote development), Nyaya Health (healthcare in rural Nepal), Pratham (primary education in India), and Small Enterprise Foundation (microfinance in South Africa).

If you are giving because you are a super-generous sweet kind of dude (though the tax break doesn’t hurt) but don’t know where, just pick one of these places and you’re set.

(And to be helpful to the folk who freely give away this research, do it through their site so they know how many people take their recommendations.)

(And also to be helpful to them, make a contribution to GiveWell too so they can keep providing this info to us, which in itself is a gift.)

But this time of year isn’t just always just about punching in your credit card number. We are asked to participate in food drives/non-perishables drives/work-related drives/school-related drives/looking-at–Christmas-lights drives. Perhaps the last one isn’t important. (Important sidenote: Best. Christmas. Lights. Ever. h/t @geneweingarten). But the others are. And doing them in a way that isn’t unintentially hurtful or harmful is Absolutely Manditorially Crucial. 

Thankfully, Saundra at Good Intentions Are Not Enough has published an extraordinantabulous guide to all these quandries and questions. It is available to you for less cash than a Starbucks grande gingerbread latte. Also you can get it on Amazon or via PayPal. Remember when you set up your PayPal account just to sell those old tea light holders on eBay and you got 4 bucks and the money’s been sitting in that account ever since? Well. Here’s you’re opportunity to spend it.

You’re welcome.

Thanks for being here, thanks for being part of the giving conversation, and above all, thanks for being generous.