Back of the Envelope Guide to Philanthropy
Quantitative charity evaluation. This website aims to serve as a
resource for assessing the impact of different charitable
organizations and endeavors. The phrase
Back of
the Envelope comes from the sciences where it refers to rough
calculations that while not precise tend to support a line of
reasoning.
The leverage factor measures how effective each charitable
organization is. A leverage factor of 10 means that for each
$1 invested in the organization it delivers $10 worth of public
value. Not all charitable endeavors lend themselves to
quantitative assessment (what is the value of religious salvation?),
but for those that do we attempt to assess them here.
Don't get too hung up by the precise leverage factors reported. They
are bound to be wrong by at least a factor of 2. The key take away
though is that Charitable effectiveness spans a 100,000 fold
range. Give wisely.
| Charitable organization or endeavor
| leverage factor
|
| 2006
| 2007
| 2008
| 2009
| 2010
|
| HIV prevention (sex workers in the absence of treatment)
| -
| -
| 150,000 - 250,000
| -
| -
|
| RESULTS Educational Fund
| -
| 15,000 - 90,000
| 90,000 - 150,000
| 11,000 - 20,000
| -
|
| STD treatment
| -
| -
| 20,000 - 90,000
| -
| -
|
| OneWorld Health
| 20,000 - 250,000
| -
| 0 (had 30-80% chance of 25,000 - 250,000)
| -
| -
|
| Knowledge Ecology International
| -
| 10,000 - 100,000
| -
| -
| -
|
| Health GAP
| -
| 4,000 - 70,000
| -
| -
| -
|
| Nothing But Nets
| -
| 2,500 - 20,000
| -
| -
| -
|
| Tuberculosis treatment
| -
| -
| 2,000 - 20,000
| -
| -
|
| Hypothetical malaria research
| -
| 4,000 - 9,000
| -
| -
| -
|
| GAVI Alliance
| 2,500 - 12,000
| -
| -
| -
| -
|
| HIV prevention (general population in the absence of treatment)
| -
| -
| 1,500 - 12,000
| -
| -
|
| Hypothetical tuberculosis research
| -
| 3,000 - 6,000
| -
| -
| -
|
| Generic microcredit
| -
| 3,000
| -
| -
| -
|
| Gates Decade of Vaccines
| -
| -
| -
| -
| 2,000
|
| Heart attack treatment
| -
| -
| 2,000
| -
| -
|
| Iron fortification
| -
| -
| 2,000
| -
| -
|
| WaterAid
| -
| 1,500 - 2,000?
| -
| -
| -
|
| pneumoADIP
| -
| 1,000 - 2,000
| -
| -
| -
|
| Hypothetical cancer research
| -
| 800 - 1,500
| -
| -
| -
|
| MSF
| 250 - 2,000
| -
| -
| -
| -
|
| HIV prevention (sex workers in the presence of treatment)
| -
| -
| 500 - 800
| -
| -
|
| Iodine fortification
| -
| -
| 600
| -
| -
|
| HIV treatment
| -
| -
| 300
| -
| -
|
| Hospice and palliative care (developing world)
| -
| -
| 300
| -
| -
|
| Vitamin A supplementation
| -
| -
| 50 - 1,500
| -
| -
|
| Indoor air pollution
| -
| -
| 150
| -
| -
|
| Nuclear non-proliferation
| -
| -
| 20 - 300
| -
| -
|
| Environmental Defense Fund
| -
| -
| 40 - 90
| -
| -
|
| Water and sanitation
| -
| -
| 50?
| -
| -
|
| Generic international development NGO
| -
| 30 - 40
| -
| -
| -
|
| Generic carbon credit purchase
| -
| -
| 13 - 25
| -
| -
|
| HIV prevention (general population in the presence of treatment)
| -
| -
| 5 - 30
| -
| -
|
| Generic college scholarship
| -
| 1.5 - 2
| -
| -
| -
|
In making our rough calculations we consistently use a
common Valuation of outcomes.
Key to our valuations is that we perform all calculations in rich
country terms, and that we consider a life equally valuable whether it
be that of a person from a poor country or a rich
country. This makes our estimates of leverage factors
substantially larger than those of the prevailing economic literature
which values a life solely based on its economic output. You
don't have to agree with our valuation of outcomes. We maintain
a Google
spreadsheet (last update 2007) that anyone can play with to see
how changes in valuations and effectiveness assessments affects the
rankings. For permission to update this spreadsheet please contact
us.
Anyone is free to contribute to this project. We welcome both
improvements to existing evaluations and the evaluation of additional
organizations and
endeavors. Contact
us.