https://charitology.org/ Charitology studies charity as a system: where generosity flows, why it flows there, and how to route it from the symptoms of the world’s problems to their sources. en-us https://charitology.org/record/journal/ten-dollars/ https://charitology.org/record/journal/ten-dollars/ Journal The founding poem uses a ten-dollar domain registration as an image for Charitology’s invitation to study how generosity is aimed. Mon, 26 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://charitology.org/diagnosis/fragmentation/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/fragmentation/ Diagnosis Separate organizations can duplicate costs or miss chances to coordinate. The size of this problem, and when coordination helps, are open questions. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/measurement-gap/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/measurement-gap/ Diagnosis Counting activity does not establish what changed because of it. Measuring that change can require resources and methods beyond routine reporting. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/missing-feedback-loop/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/missing-feedback-loop/ Diagnosis When donors pay for services used by others, they may struggle to judge quality. Feedback and evaluation can help close that information gap. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/missing-profession/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/missing-profession/ Diagnosis Charitology proposes a shared craft for studying how generosity is aimed across causes and moral frameworks, building on existing philanthropy and evaluation professions. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/missing-voice/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/missing-voice/ Diagnosis Funding decisions can leave the people served with little say. Listening and sharing decisions are documented responses; their effects depend on context. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/overhead-myth/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/overhead-myth/ Diagnosis Donors judge charities by how little they spend on staff, systems and fundraising, which starves organizations of what good work depends on. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/prestige-economy/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/prestige-economy/ Diagnosis Charitology hypothesizes that public recognition can favor a gift’s size and visibility over its results. The size of that effect is not established here. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/parked-money/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/parked-money/ Diagnosis Donor-advised funds hold assets already under charitable control. How quickly those assets should reach operating work is debated. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/restriction-reflex/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/restriction-reflex/ Diagnosis Project restrictions and short grants can limit flexibility. Survey evidence documents the concern; the effects of different grant designs need comparison. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/proximity-pull/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/proximity-pull/ Diagnosis Local ties and distant needs can point giving in different directions. Comparing them requires evidence about outcomes and an account of special obligations. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/short-horizon/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/short-horizon/ Diagnosis Charitology hypothesizes that short funding and reporting cycles can work against goals whose benefits take much longer to appear. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/silence-about-failure/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/silence-about-failure/ Diagnosis Charitology hypothesizes that fear of losing support discourages failure reporting. Published failure reports show a response, but do not measure the prevalence or funding cost of silence. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/single-lens/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/single-lens/ Diagnosis Charitology hypothesizes that considering several moral frameworks can reveal choices a single framework misses. It has not measured how many givers use only one. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/symptom-trap/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/symptom-trap/ Diagnosis Money flows most easily to visible, immediate relief and least easily to the slow work on sources that would stop problems coming back. https://charitology.org/diagnosis/story-bias/ https://charitology.org/diagnosis/story-bias/ Diagnosis Stories and news coverage can affect giving and relief decisions. How strong these effects are, and how well some classic findings replicate, remain debated. https://charitology.org/open-problems/closing-the-feedback-loop/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/closing-the-feedback-loop/ Open Problems What mechanism lets the people a charity serves send a signal that moves money, the way prices do in markets? https://charitology.org/open-problems/discounting-the-future/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/discounting-the-future/ Open Problems How much should future people count, and how should giving weigh present suffering against risks to the future? https://charitology.org/open-problems/measuring-the-source/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/measuring-the-source/ Open Problems How do you measure the impact of source-level work, such as changing a story, a norm or an institution, when the effects are diffuse, shared and delayed? https://charitology.org/open-problems/moral-parliament-in-practice/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/moral-parliament-in-practice/ Open Problems How should a real giver allocate money when unsure which moral framework is right, and do different methods give stable answers? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-agency-premium/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-agency-premium/ Open Problems Do community-led programs outperform top-down ones on the same outcome, and by how much? https://charitology.org/open-problems/story-without-bias/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/story-without-bias/ Open Problems Can a story make people feel the scale of a problem rather than one face, and does it move money toward larger needs? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-counterfactual-problem/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-counterfactual-problem/ Open Problems How can a giver estimate what would have happened without their gift, cheaply and at scale? https://charitology.org/open-problems/proximity-and-obligation/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/proximity-and-obligation/ Open Problems How should distance weigh in giving, and what do givers choose when they see honest comparisons? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-depth-census/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-depth-census/ Open Problems What share of the world’s charitable money goes to relief, repair, prevention, structure and source work? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-enough-question/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-enough-question/ Open Problems How much money would it take to fix a specific problem at its source, and is it true that money isn’t the bottleneck? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-failure-commons/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-failure-commons/ Open Problems What incentives would get charities to publish their failures, and what happens to their funding when they do? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-exchange-rate-problem/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-exchange-rate-problem/ Open Problems Can outcomes in different causes (a life saved, a species protected, a law changed, a child educated) be compared on a common scale, and where must comparison stop? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-fragmentation-question/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-fragmentation-question/ Open Problems Is the charity sector over-fragmented, and when do mergers, shared services or coordination layers improve outcomes? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-government-question/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-government-question/ Open Problems When does philanthropy add to public spending, when does it replace it, and when does it shape public policy without public accountability? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-money-time-exchange/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-money-time-exchange/ Open Problems When is an hour of volunteering worth more than giving an hour’s wages? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-optimal-restriction/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-optimal-restriction/ Open Problems When does restricting a gift help, and when does it harm? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-overhead-replacement/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-overhead-replacement/ Open Problems What simple public measure could replace overhead ratios as the default way donors judge a charity, without being easy to game? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-payout-question/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-payout-question/ Open Problems What is the best rate to spend philanthropic money now versus later? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-question-of-questions/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-question-of-questions/ Open Problems How should the field decide which open problem to work on first? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-profession-question/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-profession-question/ Open Problems What should a charitologist be trained in, and does training change where money goes? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-replication-rate/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-replication-rate/ Open Problems What share of headline charity impact findings replicate when they are tested again? https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-status-flip/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/the-status-flip/ Open Problems Can generosity become a stronger status signal than consumption, and what would that unlock? https://charitology.org/open-problems/when-charity-harms/ https://charitology.org/open-problems/when-charity-harms/ Open Problems When does charity cause harm, through dependency, crowding out local markets or governments, or delaying reform? https://charitology.org/programs/cause-census/ https://charitology.org/programs/cause-census/ Programs Maps every cause area by how big the problem is, how few resources it gets and how solvable it looks, with the sources and judgments behind each estimate. https://charitology.org/programs/charitology-fellowship/ https://charitology.org/programs/charitology-fellowship/ Programs Paid fellowships that would let researchers and practitioners spend a year working full-time on the field’s open problems, with everything they produce published openly. https://charitology.org/programs/charitology-summit/ https://charitology.org/programs/charitology-summit/ Programs A planned yearly working gathering of researchers, funders, nonprofits and the people they serve, across every cause and framework, built around shared problems rather than speeches. https://charitology.org/programs/certified-charitologist/ https://charitology.org/programs/certified-charitologist/ Programs A credential for donors, nonprofit staff and advisors who have shown they can apply the Charitology method. Anyone can practice charitology without it. https://charitology.org/programs/charity-incubator/ https://charitology.org/programs/charity-incubator/ Programs A planned incubator that would launch new organizations to fill gaps the research finds, but only after checking that no existing organization could fill them instead. https://charitology.org/programs/corporate-program/ https://charitology.org/programs/corporate-program/ Programs Redesigns workplace giving and gift matching so they fund flexibly, report what gifts achieved and recognize results rather than size. https://charitology.org/programs/donor-advisory/ https://charitology.org/programs/donor-advisory/ Programs Planned independent help for donors, families and foundations to work out what they value, when their money should move and how to weigh giving near and far. https://charitology.org/programs/evidence-reviews/ https://charitology.org/programs/evidence-reviews/ Programs Systematic reviews of every major intervention, graded the same way and written in plain language, so anyone can see what is known, what is mixed and what nobody has tested. https://charitology.org/programs/field-verification/ https://charitology.org/programs/field-verification/ Programs Planned independent, on-the-ground checks that programs do what they report, including asking the people served what changed, with findings published in the open. https://charitology.org/programs/failure-lab/ https://charitology.org/programs/failure-lab/ Programs Studies programs and charities that failed or did harm, finds the patterns that connect them and publishes the lessons so the field learns each one once. https://charitology.org/programs/forecasting-tournaments/ https://charitology.org/programs/forecasting-tournaments/ Programs People predict which interventions and policies will work before the results are in, and every forecast is scored with a Brier score when its question resolves. https://charitology.org/programs/history-of-charity/ https://charitology.org/programs/history-of-charity/ Programs Studies what worked, what failed and what was mixed across centuries of giving, so today’s choices can draw on long-run evidence that no annual report can provide. https://charitology.org/programs/local-charitology/ https://charitology.org/programs/local-charitology/ Programs Applies the Charitology method to one city’s giving, mapping where local money goes by cause and depth and where organizations overlap or leave gaps. https://charitology.org/programs/methods-lab/ https://charitology.org/programs/methods-lab/ Programs Compares the ways of giving, from direct cash and policy advocacy to research, mutual aid, volunteering, impact investing and prizes, on the same terms. https://charitology.org/programs/moral-frameworks-program/ https://charitology.org/programs/moral-frameworks-program/ Programs Compares how eight moral frameworks rank the same causes, so givers can see where values agree, where they part and what each one leaves out. https://charitology.org/programs/nonprofit-advisory/ https://charitology.org/programs/nonprofit-advisory/ Programs Planned practical help for nonprofits to measure what their work changes and explain what it really costs, so they can be judged by results rather than overhead. https://charitology.org/programs/policy-program/ https://charitology.org/programs/policy-program/ Programs Applies Charitology’s research to public budgets for aid and social programs, publishing analysis of their evidence, their mix of relief and prevention and their long-run costs. https://charitology.org/programs/question-bounties/ https://charitology.org/programs/question-bounties/ Programs Cash prizes for answering specific Open Problems of Charitology, paid when a result meets the test each problem states. No prizes are funded yet. https://charitology.org/programs/principles-course/ https://charitology.org/programs/principles-course/ Programs A free course built on the open textbook Principles of Charitology, with one unit per chapter and exercises that use real tools and data. https://charitology.org/programs/red-team/ https://charitology.org/programs/red-team/ Programs A standing practice of attacking Charitology’s own claims. Every entry page links to a prefilled GitHub issue for challenging what it says. https://charitology.org/programs/the-charitology-fund/ https://charitology.org/programs/the-charitology-fund/ Programs One pooled fund that would always give to the field’s current best estimate of where money does the most good. It does not exist yet and accepts no money. https://charitology.org/programs/replication-program/ https://charitology.org/programs/replication-program/ Programs Re-tests the most influential charity impact studies, publishes every result, including the ones that hold up, and reports how often headline findings survive. https://charitology.org/programs/the-charitology-prize/ https://charitology.org/programs/the-charitology-prize/ Programs A planned yearly award for published work that changed where generosity goes or how well it is aimed, with a category for the best published failure. https://charitology.org/programs/time-charitology/ https://charitology.org/programs/time-charitology/ Programs Studies the best use of volunteer hours, so people who give time can see which roles help most and organizations can see what each kind of help is worth to them. https://charitology.org/programs/the-open-problems/ https://charitology.org/programs/the-open-problems/ Programs A public list of 23 proposed unanswered questions in doing good, each precise enough to work on, with progress tracked in the open. https://charitology.org/programs/university-chapters/ https://charitology.org/programs/university-chapters/ Programs Student clubs that study and practice charitology together, using a free chapter kit whose sessions also contribute real work to the field. https://charitology.org/tools/ai-charitologist/ https://charitology.org/tools/ai-charitologist/ Tools Ask any question about giving and get answers drawn only from what Charitology has published, grouped by where they come from, with every passage linked. https://charitology.org/tools/browser-extension/ https://charitology.org/tools/browser-extension/ Tools Puts the Giver’s Checklist on donation pages and one click away everywhere else, with a lookup in the open charity registries. Collects nothing. https://charitology.org/tools/charitology-wrapped/ https://charitology.org/tools/charitology-wrapped/ Tools Turn a year of logged gifts into a card you can share, showing where your giving acted and the kind of giver it makes you, with or without the dollar amounts. https://charitology.org/tools/charity-os/ https://charitology.org/tools/charity-os/ Tools Keep your mission, programs, grant pipeline, tasks and evidence in a private browser workspace, with clear owners and next steps. https://charitology.org/tools/charity-lookup/ https://charitology.org/tools/charity-lookup/ Tools Search the Charitology Charity Index by name, see where on the chain from symptom to source a charity’s work is thought to act, and open the public registries in one click. https://charitology.org/tools/compare-tool/ https://charitology.org/tools/compare-tool/ Tools Put two or three interventions side by side on depth, evidence, durability, feedback, who steers and cost, and see exactly where they differ. There is no overall score, because the trade-offs are yours to weigh. https://charitology.org/tools/cost-effectiveness-model-kit/ https://charitology.org/tools/cost-effectiveness-model-kit/ Tools Build a cost-per-outcome model with a low, likely and high value for every input, run 5,000 simulated draws in your browser, and see the range of results and which inputs drive them. https://charitology.org/tools/disaster-response-guide/ https://charitology.org/tools/disaster-response-guide/ Tools What responders and researchers advise about giving after a disaster, a planner that splits one gift across relief, recovery and preparedness, and a calendar reminder to give again when the news has moved on. https://charitology.org/tools/due-diligence-checklist/ https://charitology.org/tools/due-diligence-checklist/ Tools Check an organization against 25 questions on legitimacy, money, results, learning, its place in the system and red flags. Unknowns become questions to ask, and the report downloads as Markdown. https://charitology.org/tools/forecasting-platform/ https://charitology.org/tools/forecasting-platform/ Tools Predict what will happen in the charity system, put a number on it and get scored when the answer arrives. Forecasts are pull requests, so the record is public and permanent. https://charitology.org/tools/gift-giving/ https://charitology.org/tools/gift-giving/ Tools Make a card for a donation given in someone’s name, with what the gift does, a personal message and the reasons you chose it. No amount required. https://charitology.org/tools/giving-dashboard/ https://charitology.org/tools/giving-dashboard/ Tools Keep a private log of your gifts and see where your giving goes, by cause and by depth, from relief for today to work on sources. https://charitology.org/tools/grant-evaluator/ https://charitology.org/tools/grant-evaluator/ Tools Review a proposal on nine dimensions, from source depth to risk of harm, keep unknowns as unknowns, compare your saved proposals side by side and export a review memo. https://charitology.org/tools/impact-calculator/ https://charitology.org/tools/impact-calculator/ Tools See what a gift could achieve, as a range, for interventions with a published cost per outcome, and see which interventions have no reliable per-dollar estimate at all. https://charitology.org/tools/impact-measurement-toolkit/ https://charitology.org/tools/impact-measurement-toolkit/ Tools Build a theory of change from the problem and its source to outcomes and indicators, with feedback from the people served, a comparison plan and a stop rule. Keep several drafts and export them as Markdown or JSON. https://charitology.org/tools/legacy-planner/ https://charitology.org/tools/legacy-planner/ Tools A private worksheet for leaving gifts to charity in your will, with a printable summary and sample wording to take to your estate attorney. https://charitology.org/tools/one-click-split/ https://charitology.org/tools/one-click-split/ Tools Split one giving decision across several charities, with whole-dollar amounts that add up exactly and a step-by-step list of where to give. https://charitology.org/tools/portfolio-builder/ https://charitology.org/tools/portfolio-builder/ Tools Split a giving budget across causes when you aren’t sure which moral framework is right, compare two ways of doing it, and see how much they agree. https://charitology.org/tools/public-api/ https://charitology.org/tools/public-api/ Tools Every Charitology dataset as static JSON, free to use with attribution. Build the Diagnosis, the interventions or the open problems into your own app or donation platform. https://charitology.org/tools/values-compass/ https://charitology.org/tools/values-compass/ Tools Answer thirteen quick questions about what you care about and see which causes fit you, why they fit, and what the moral lenses you use least would show you. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/ Record Philanthropy’s greatest successes and failures, read for what they teach about the system. https://charitology.org/record/charitology-100/ https://charitology.org/record/charitology-100/ Record A future list of the hundred most promising places to give, across every lens. It won’t be published until its method survives public red-team review. https://charitology.org/record/cause-atlas/ https://charitology.org/record/cause-atlas/ Record A map of the cause areas and the problems they touch, from symptoms on the surface to the six sources underneath. https://charitology.org/record/charity-index/ https://charitology.org/record/charity-index/ Record A depth layer on top of the open registries: what an organization does, where its work sits from relief to source, and where to check its filings. https://charitology.org/record/country-profiles/ https://charitology.org/record/country-profiles/ Record Needs, institutions and giving options country by country, built from open data. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/ Record Where credible people disagree, what each side claims, and what would have to be true to settle it. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/ Record The field’s reference work: every core concept, method and debate, written in plain language with sources. https://charitology.org/record/evidence-library/ https://charitology.org/record/evidence-library/ Record Every source cited anywhere on Charitology, in one bibliography, with the pages that cite it. https://charitology.org/record/gap-map/ https://charitology.org/record/gap-map/ Record Where charitable money goes, and a question for the Depth Census: how much reaches the sources of problems? https://charitology.org/record/failure-archive/ https://charitology.org/record/failure-archive/ Record Post-mortems of programs that didn’t work or did harm, written as lessons for the system, not blame. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/ Record Every intervention with its depth, evidence grade, mechanism and, where a credible source publishes one, its cost per outcome. https://charitology.org/record/journal/ https://charitology.org/record/journal/ Record Essays and research for the field, reviewed in public. Volume 0 opens with the manifesto. https://charitology.org/record/lexicon/ https://charitology.org/record/lexicon/ Record The vocabulary of the field, defined in plain language. https://charitology.org/record/methodology/ https://charitology.org/record/methodology/ Record Exactly how Charitology labels evidence, classifies depth, reviews pages and handles corrections. https://charitology.org/record/myths/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/ Record Common beliefs about giving, checked against the evidence, with what to ask instead. https://charitology.org/record/open-datasets/ https://charitology.org/record/open-datasets/ Record Every Charitology dataset as open JSON, plus the public datasets the field builds on. https://charitology.org/record/podcast-and-newsletter/ https://charitology.org/record/podcast-and-newsletter/ Record The field’s outward voice. The feed of new and updated pages is live. The show is designed. https://charitology.org/record/state-of-charity/ https://charitology.org/record/state-of-charity/ Record The yearly state of the charity system. Edition 0 sets the baseline: what we know, what we don’t, and what to measure first. https://charitology.org/record/principles/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/ Record The field’s open textbook, written chapter by chapter in public. https://charitology.org/record/progress-report/ https://charitology.org/record/progress-report/ Record Where every open problem stands, whether open, partly answered or solved, updated as results come in. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/ Record What the world’s traditions teach about giving, read through the lens of symptoms and sources. https://charitology.org/forecasts/daf-assets-2026-above-380b/ https://charitology.org/forecasts/daf-assets-2026-above-380b/ Forecasts Will the first Annual DAF Report estimate of total U.S. donor-advised fund assets for fiscal year 2026 be above $380 billion? https://charitology.org/forecasts/first-open-problem-progress-by-2028/ https://charitology.org/forecasts/first-open-problem-progress-by-2028/ Forecasts Will at least one of the Open Problems of Charitology be marked “partial” or “solved” before 1 January 2028? https://charitology.org/forecasts/five-published-failures-by-2027/ https://charitology.org/forecasts/five-published-failures-by-2027/ Forecasts Will at least five different organizations have voluntarily published a failure or mixed result in Charitology’s Failure Archive before 1 January 2028? https://charitology.org/forecasts/us-giving-2026-above-640b/ https://charitology.org/forecasts/us-giving-2026-above-640b/ Forecasts Will Giving USA’s first published estimate of total U.S. charitable giving for 2026 be above $640 billion in current dollars? https://charitology.org/forecasts/polio-wpv1-certified-by-2030/ https://charitology.org/forecasts/polio-wpv1-certified-by-2030/ Forecasts Will the global certification of the eradication of wild poliovirus type 1 be announced before 1 January 2030? https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/beneficiary-feedback/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/beneficiary-feedback/ Encyclopedia Systematically asking the people a program serves what they think of it, and acting on what they say. It is the most direct way to restore part of the feedback loop that charity is missing. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/cost-effectiveness-analysis/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/cost-effectiveness-analysis/ Encyclopedia Estimating how much good a program produces per dollar, so that options can be compared. The estimates are rough, and the differences they reveal can be enormous. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/counterfactual-impact/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/counterfactual-impact/ Encyclopedia The real effect of a gift is the difference between what happens with it and what would have happened without it. Estimating that difference is one of the hardest and most important problems in giving. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/charity-as-a-system/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/charity-as-a-system/ Encyclopedia Charitology’s model of giving as one connected system. Givers respond to signals, money moves through channels to the work, the work produces outcomes, and feedback can carry results back. The size of any gap is an open empirical question. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/discounting/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/discounting/ Encyclopedia Giving less weight to benefits and costs the further in the future they fall. Some reasons for discounting are about uncertainty and growth. One, pure time preference, is the moral claim that later wellbeing matters less just because it is later. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/donor-advised-funds/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/donor-advised-funds/ Encyclopedia Charitable accounts held by a sponsoring public charity, which the donor advises on grants and investments. They held about $326 billion in 2024, and how fast that money should reach working charities is one of the live debates in philanthropy. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/effective-altruism/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/effective-altruism/ Encyclopedia A philosophy and social movement that uses evidence and careful reasoning to find the ways of helping others that do the most good. Charitology shares its rigor and starts from a different place. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/expected-value/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/expected-value/ Encyclopedia The probability-weighted average of an action’s possible results. It is the standard way to compare a sure thing with a long shot, and it misleads when the probabilities are guesses. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/identifiable-victim-effect/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/identifiable-victim-effect/ Encyclopedia The tendency to give more to help one specific, identified person than to help many people described by statistics. It is one of the best-known findings about giving, and recent replications have questioned how large and reliable it is. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/impact-investing/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/impact-investing/ Encyclopedia Investing with the intention of producing measurable social or environmental good alongside a financial return. It brings investment capital, not only gifts, to bear on social problems, and it raises a sharp counterfactual question. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/moral-uncertainty/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/moral-uncertainty/ Encyclopedia Uncertainty about which moral view is right, as opposed to uncertainty about the facts. Philosophers have developed ways to act well under it, and Charitology’s method of looking through every framework depends on them. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/mutual-aid/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/mutual-aid/ Encyclopedia People in a community pooling time, money and skills to meet one another’s needs directly, without a charity standing between giver and receiver. Its structure can differ from giving through a separate service provider. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/neglectedness/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/neglectedness/ Encyclopedia How few resources already go to a problem relative to its size. Other things equal, an extra dollar tends to do more where few other dollars go, because the best opportunities there have not yet been taken. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/outputs-and-outcomes/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/outputs-and-outcomes/ Encyclopedia Outputs are what a program does or delivers. Outcomes are what changes for people as a result. Counting outputs alone does not establish outcomes. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/overhead-ratio/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/overhead-ratio/ Encyclopedia The share of a charity’s spending that goes to management and fundraising rather than to programs. It is easy to find and widely used, but it does not establish what a charity achieves. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/participatory-grantmaking/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/participatory-grantmaking/ Encyclopedia Grantmaking in which funders hand some or all of the decisions about money, including strategy and criteria, to the communities the money is meant to serve. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/private-foundations/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/private-foundations/ Encyclopedia In U.S. law, charities that do not qualify as public charities, usually because they lack broad public support. They must generally spend an amount tied to 5 percent of their investment assets on charitable purposes each year. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/psychic-numbing/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/psychic-numbing/ Encyclopedia The way concern for people in danger fails to grow with their number, and can even shrink, so that a single person in need moves us more than a mass tragedy. The psychologist Paul Slovic has used it to explain how people respond to suffering on a large scale. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/randomized-controlled-trials/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/randomized-controlled-trials/ Encyclopedia Experiments that assign people or communities to a program or to a comparison group by chance, so that differences in outcomes can be credited to the program. They reshaped development economics, and their limits are still debated. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/restricted-and-unrestricted-funding/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/restricted-and-unrestricted-funding/ Encyclopedia Restricted gifts must be spent on a purpose the funder names. Unrestricted gifts, also called general operating support, let the organization decide. The balance between them shapes what charities can learn, fix and attempt. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/scale-neglectedness-tractability/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/scale-neglectedness-tractability/ Encyclopedia A framework for comparing problems by how big they are, how few resources already go to them and how much extra effort would achieve. It grew out of GiveWell Labs and 80,000 Hours and is widely used in effective altruism. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/source-depth/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/source-depth/ Encyclopedia Charitology’s five-level scale for where a piece of work acts on the chain from symptom to source, from relief through repair, prevention and structure to source. It describes the work. It never grades it. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/symptoms-and-sources/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/symptoms-and-sources/ Encyclopedia The core distinction of charitology. A symptom is a problem as it shows up in people’s lives. A source is what keeps producing it upstream. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/systemic-change/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/systemic-change/ Encyclopedia Change to the structures that produce outcomes, such as laws, markets, institutions, relationships and beliefs, rather than to outcomes one case at a time. On Charitology’s depth scale it is the work of the structure and source levels. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/theory-of-change/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/theory-of-change/ Encyclopedia A written account of how and why a program’s activities are expected to lead to its long-term goal, step by step, with the assumptions that link each step to the next. https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/warm-glow-giving/ https://charitology.org/record/encyclopedia/warm-glow-giving/ Encyclopedia The satisfaction people get from the act of giving itself, apart from what the gift achieves. The economist James Andreoni built it into a theory of giving in 1990, It is one possible input to Charitology’s hypotheses about giving signals. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/cash-transfers/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/cash-transfers/ Intervention Database Giving money directly to people living in poverty, with no conditions on how they spend it. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/community-health-workers/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/community-health-workers/ Intervention Database Local people trained to offer basic health services and advice in their own communities, from promoting vaccination and breastfeeding to referring sick children to clinics. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/corporate-animal-welfare-campaigns/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/corporate-animal-welfare-campaigns/ Intervention Database Advocacy that persuades food companies to change what they buy, such as pledging to source only cage-free eggs, and then tracks whether they follow through. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/deworming/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/deworming/ Intervention Database Treating all children in places where intestinal worms are common with cheap deworming pills, without testing each child first. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/food-banks/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/food-banks/ Intervention Database Collecting donated and purchased food and handing it out, through pantries and meal programs, to households that don’t have enough to eat. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/housing-first/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/housing-first/ Intervention Database Giving people who are homeless, often with serious mental illness, a permanent home quickly, without first requiring them to accept treatment or stop using substances. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/insecticide-treated-nets/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/insecticide-treated-nets/ Intervention Database Nets treated with insecticide, hung over beds, that protect sleepers from the mosquitoes that carry malaria. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/lead-exposure-elimination/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/lead-exposure-elimination/ Intervention Database Regulation and advocacy to take lead out of paint, fuel and everyday products, so that children and adults stop being exposed to it. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/microcredit/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/microcredit/ Intervention Database Small loans for people with little or no access to banks, usually to start or grow a small business. Randomized evaluations on four continents agree that the average effects are modest rather than transformative. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/oral-rehydration-therapy/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/oral-rehydration-therapy/ Intervention Database A drink of clean water, salt and sugar that replaces the fluids a child loses to diarrhea, cheap enough to cost a few cents and simple enough to give at home. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/seasonal-malaria-chemoprevention/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/seasonal-malaria-chemoprevention/ Intervention Database Monthly courses of antimalarial medicine given to young children through the peak malaria season, in places where malaria is highly seasonal. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/teaching-at-the-right-level/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/teaching-at-the-right-level/ Intervention Database Grouping primary school children by what they can actually read and calculate, rather than by grade, and teaching each group the basic skills it is missing. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/tobacco-taxation-advocacy/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/tobacco-taxation-advocacy/ Intervention Database Research, coalition-building and public campaigns that help governments raise taxes on tobacco, which makes it more expensive and cuts smoking. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/vaccination-incentives/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/vaccination-incentives/ Intervention Database Small cash or in-kind rewards for caregivers who bring a child in for routine vaccinations. https://charitology.org/record/interventions/vitamin-a-supplementation/ https://charitology.org/record/interventions/vitamin-a-supplementation/ Intervention Database High-dose vitamin A given every four to six months to children aged 6 to 59 months, in places where vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/carnegie-libraries/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/carnegie-libraries/ Case Studies Andrew Carnegie paid for more than 2,500 library buildings on one condition, that each town keep its library running with public money. The gift built the buildings, and the towns’ commitment made them last. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/dare/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/dare/ Case Studies Police officers teaching children to resist drugs became the most widely used school drug prevention program in the United States. Rigorous evaluations of the original curriculum found little or no effect on drug use, and the program eventually replaced it. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/haiti-earthquake-reconstruction/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/haiti-earthquake-reconstruction/ Case Studies Billions of dollars poured into Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, almost all of the relief aid through international organizations. In 2015 ProPublica and NPR reported that the American Red Cross had raised nearly half a billion dollars and built six permanent homes. The Red Cross said it had helped millions of Haitians in other ways. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/green-revolution/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/green-revolution/ Case Studies Foundation-funded crop research gave farmers high-yield wheat and rice, and cereal harvests in the developing world roughly tripled. The gains were uneven, and some of the costs, from falling water tables to narrower diets, showed up decades later. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/hookworm-campaign/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/hookworm-campaign/ Case Studies A five-year, $1 million Rockefeller commission surveyed hundreds of Southern counties, treated more than 400,000 people for hookworm and pushed for sanitary privies. Hookworm was not eradicated, but school enrollment and literacy rose most where infection had been worst. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/ice-bucket-challenge/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/ice-bucket-challenge/ Case Studies In the summer of 2014 a viral video challenge raised $115 million for the ALS Association, which turned the money into research grants, clinics and advocacy. It is a case of attention-driven giving that funded lasting work, and a reminder that attention picks causes by what spreads, not by need. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/one-laptop-per-child/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/one-laptop-per-child/ Case Studies A nonprofit started by MIT Media Lab faculty set out to give schoolchildren around the world low-cost laptops of their own, and governments bought hundreds of thousands. In Peru children used computers far more but did no better in math or language, and in Uruguay reading and math scores did not improve. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/oral-rehydration-therapy-spread/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/oral-rehydration-therapy-spread/ Case Studies A drink of clean water, sugar and salt can save a child from dying of diarrhea. After it was used to treat refugees during a 1971 cholera outbreak, it spread through health programs and door-to-door teaching, while child deaths from diarrhea fell from an estimated 4.6 million a year in 1980 to about 1.5 million by 2000. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/playpumps/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/playpumps/ Case Studies A merry-go-round that pumped water as children played drew $16.4 million in pledges and wide celebrity support. Field reports later found many pumps broken, unused or slower than the hand pumps they replaced, and the backers stopped the rollout and said so publicly. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/polio-eradication/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/polio-eradication/ Case Studies Since 1988 a global partnership has cut wild polio cases by more than 99 percent and eradicated two of the three wild strains. The original deadline was the year 2000, and the last stretch has proved the hardest. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/rosenwald-schools/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/rosenwald-schools/ Case Studies A Black educator and a Chicago businessman started a program that built nearly 5,000 schools for Black children in the segregated rural South, with local communities and governments paying most of the cost. Economists later found the schools explain a large share of that era’s gains in Black education. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/scared-straight/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/scared-straight/ Case Studies Programs that brought at-risk teenagers into prisons to be confronted by inmates spread across the United States on the strength of a documentary. Randomized trials found they increased later offending, yet versions of the programs carried on for decades. https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/smallpox-eradication/ https://charitology.org/record/case-studies/smallpox-eradication/ Case Studies A coordinated global campaign ended a disease that had killed people for thousands of years. It remains the only human disease ever eradicated. https://charitology.org/record/myths/aid-never-works/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/aid-never-works/ Myths Some aid has failed, and economists still argue about how much aid raises countries’ growth. But specific, well-measured programs, from smallpox eradication to oral rehydration and cash transfers, have saved and improved millions of lives. https://charitology.org/record/myths/if-a-program-sounds-logical-it-works/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/if-a-program-sounds-logical-it-works/ Myths Plenty of programs with convincing logic have failed when tested, and some have caused harm. Scared Straight, which took teenagers into prisons to frighten them away from crime, made later offending more likely in randomized trials. https://charitology.org/record/myths/low-overhead-means-a-good-charity/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/low-overhead-means-a-good-charity/ Myths Overhead ratios say how a charity splits its costs, not what it achieves. A charity can spend almost nothing on overhead and achieve nothing, or invest in good systems and change thousands of lives. https://charitology.org/record/myths/most-charities-are-about-equally-effective/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/most-charities-are-about-equally-effective/ Myths The differences are enormous. Among health programs in poorer countries, the most cost-effective were estimated to do about 15,000 times as much good per dollar as the least, and ordinary donors guess the gap is far smaller than experts do. https://charitology.org/record/myths/small-donations-dont-make-a-difference/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/small-donations-dont-make-a-difference/ Myths Small gifts add up, and individuals, not foundations or companies, give most of the money in American charity. A small gift can also do a lot on its own, because some programs cost very little per person helped. What a small gift achieves depends far more on where it goes than on its size. https://charitology.org/record/myths/sending-supplies-is-the-best-disaster-help/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/sending-supplies-is-the-best-disaster-help/ Myths Disaster agencies ask for money, not goods. Cash lets responders buy exactly what is needed, often from local businesses, while unrequested goods have to be sorted, stored and moved by the same people trying to help. https://charitology.org/record/myths/you-cant-measure-the-good-a-charity-does/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/you-cant-measure-the-good-a-charity-does/ Myths A great deal of it can be measured, often well. Thousands of randomized evaluations have tested anti-poverty programs, and their results have shaped programs reaching hundreds of millions of people. Some good really is hard to measure, which is a reason to measure carefully, not a reason not to. https://charitology.org/record/myths/the-cause-that-moves-you-needs-your-money-most/ https://charitology.org/record/myths/the-cause-that-moves-you-needs-your-money-most/ Myths What moves us is usually a face, a story or a headline, and those are not a measure of need. Being moved is a good reason to give, but the causes that move the most people often already draw the most money, while large, less visible problems go short. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/deworming-long-run-effects/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/deworming-long-run-effects/ Disagreements One Kenyan program suggests that treating children for worms raised their earnings twenty years later, while systematic reviews of dozens of trials find little short-term benefit. Researchers and funders disagree about what to believe and what to do. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/does-microcredit-transform-lives/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/does-microcredit-transform-lives/ Disagreements Microcredit was honored with a Nobel Peace Prize as a path out of poverty. Randomized evaluations found average effects that were modest. The live debate is over what those averages hide and what microcredit should be judged on. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/are-donor-advised-funds-good-for-charity/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/are-donor-advised-funds-good-for-charity/ Disagreements Donor-advised funds now hold hundreds of billions of dollars set aside for charity. Supporters see a vehicle that makes giving easier and pays out faster than foundations. Critics see tax breaks claimed today for money that may reach working charities years later. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/how-much-do-animals-count/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/how-much-do-animals-count/ Disagreements Ethical traditions disagree about whether animals matter in their own right, how much their suffering weighs next to human suffering, and which animals can suffer at all. The answer changes where giving goes. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/near-or-far/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/near-or-far/ Disagreements Should distance matter when you decide where to give? Philosophers and giving traditions offer different answers. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/systemic-change-or-proven-programs/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/systemic-change-or-proven-programs/ Disagreements Should givers fund programs with rigorous evidence of results, or efforts to change the laws, markets and institutions that produce problems, where results are harder to prove? https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/what-randomized-trials-can-tell-us/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/what-randomized-trials-can-tell-us/ Disagreements Randomized trials have become a leading way to judge whether charitable and development programs work. Critics argue that trials answer narrower questions than they seem to, and that results often change when a program grows or moves. https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/the-long-term-future-or-present-needs/ https://charitology.org/record/disagreements/the-long-term-future-or-present-needs/ Disagreements Should giving focus on people alive now, whose needs are certain and urgent, or on protecting the potentially far larger number of people who may live in the future? https://charitology.org/record/traditions/christian-almsgiving-and-tithing/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/christian-almsgiving-and-tithing/ Traditions Christianity inherited the tithe, a tenth of one’s produce, from the Hebrew Bible and made giving to the poor a central act of faith. Practice varies widely between churches, and Catholic teaching adds that what the poor are owed in justice comes before charity. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/dana/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/dana/ Traditions Giving, dāna in Sanskrit and Pali, is honored in three religions that grew up in ancient India, each with its own emphasis. Buddhism treats giving as the first step in letting go of greed, the Bhagavad Gita ranks gifts by the giver’s motive, and Jain laypeople support the monks and nuns who have given up nearly all possessions. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/mutual-aid-societies/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/mutual-aid-societies/ Traditions Long before modern charities and welfare states, people pooled small, regular contributions so that whoever fell sick, lost a family member or hit hard times could draw on the group. Burial societies, friendly and fraternal societies and savings circles carry the same idea, that the helpers and the helped are the same people. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/dasvandh-and-seva/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/dasvandh-and-seva/ Traditions Sikhs are taught to live by honest work and to share what they earn. Dasvandh, giving a tenth of one’s income to the community’s common fund, and seva, selfless service such as working in the gurdwara’s community kitchen, are two of the main ways they do it. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/the-gospel-of-wealth/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/the-gospel-of-wealth/ Traditions In 1889 the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie argued that the rich are trustees of their fortunes and should give them away, wisely, while they live. His essay helped shape modern philanthropy, from the public library to the giant foundation, and so did the questions critics have asked about it ever since. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/tzedakah/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/tzedakah/ Traditions In Jewish tradition, giving is an obligation of justice, and the 12th-century scholar Maimonides ranked eight levels of it. The highest helps a person no longer need charity at all. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/ubuntu/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/ubuntu/ Traditions Ubuntu is a Southern African idea of shared humanity, often summed up as “a person is a person through other persons.” It is an ethic of community and solidarity rather than a doctrine of charity, and it has shaped South African law and the country’s approach to reconciliation. https://charitology.org/record/traditions/zakat-and-sadaqah/ https://charitology.org/record/traditions/zakat-and-sadaqah/ Traditions In Islam, zakat is a required yearly payment on wealth above a set threshold, owed to eight groups the Qur’an names. Sadaqah is voluntary giving of any kind, and its lasting form, sadaqah jariyah, keeps benefiting people long after the gift is made. https://charitology.org/record/principles/01-what-charitology-is/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/01-what-charitology-is/ Principles Charitology is the science of doing the most good. It studies charity as a system and treats the question of where generosity should go as a craft that can be learned. https://charitology.org/record/principles/02-the-charity-system/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/02-the-charity-system/ Principles Charity is a system with five stages, from givers to outcomes, joined by feedback that may be incomplete. It proposes a shared craft connecting existing professions. This chapter maps the system and shows where each condition of the Diagnosis acts. https://charitology.org/record/principles/03-depth-from-relief-to-source/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/03-depth-from-relief-to-source/ Principles Charitology describes every piece of work by where it acts, from relief through repair, prevention and structure to source. This chapter explains the five levels, how to place real work on them, why depth never grades and what this project has not established about the mix. https://charitology.org/record/principles/04-evidence-and-its-grades/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/04-evidence-and-its-grades/ Principles Charitology uses evidence labels for conditions and evidence grades for interventions. This chapter explains its two label systems, one for claims about the charity system and one for interventions, how evidence earns each label and how a label can be lost. https://charitology.org/record/principles/05-counterfactuals-and-neglect/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/05-counterfactuals-and-neglect/ Principles A gift’s real effect is the difference it makes compared with what would have happened anyway. This chapter covers counterfactual reasoning, neglectedness and the scale, neglectedness and tractability framework, and what changes when you look at them from the system’s point of view. https://charitology.org/record/principles/06-comparing-the-incomparable/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/06-comparing-the-incomparable/ Principles Every choice between causes sets an exchange rate between goods that seem impossible to compare. This chapter covers the scales people use, the moral frameworks behind them, how to act under moral uncertainty and how Charitology looks through eight frameworks at once. https://charitology.org/record/principles/08-feedback-and-voice/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/08-feedback-and-voice/ Principles When donors pay for services used by others, feedback and shared decisions can help address gaps in what the funder knows. This chapter covers the missing feedback loop, the practices that restore parts of it and what would close it. https://charitology.org/record/principles/09-failure-and-learning/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/09-failure-and-learning/ Principles Sharing unsuccessful results can help a field learn. This chapter covers why failure stays silent, what the silence costs, and the practices that turn failure into shared knowledge, from failure reports to replication, red teams and scored forecasts. https://charitology.org/record/principles/07-time/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/07-time/ Principles Some good ends when the money stops, and some compounds for generations. This chapter covers how long work takes to pay off and how long it lasts, how to weigh the future against the present, whether to give now or later, and how fast money set aside for charity should move. https://charitology.org/record/principles/10-becoming-a-charitologist/ https://charitology.org/record/principles/10-becoming-a-charitologist/ Principles Anyone can become a charitologist. This chapter is a practical start, with the Giver’s Checklist, a routine for one gift, how to contribute to Charitology on GitHub and how to take on an Open Problem.