Programs
Research to find out what works, funding to act on it, training to grow the field and outreach to change the habits of giving. Each program names the conditions of the charity system it treats.
Research
The Open Problems of Charitology
A public list of 23 proposed unanswered questions in doing good, each precise enough to work on, with progress tracked in the open.
Moral Frameworks Program
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.
Methods Lab
Compares the ways of giving, from direct cash and policy advocacy to research, mutual aid, volunteering, impact investing and prizes, on the same terms.
Cause Census
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.
Evidence Reviews
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.
Replication Program
Re-tests the most influential charity impact studies, publishes every result, including the ones that hold up, and reports how often headline findings survive.
Field Verification
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.
Failure Lab
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.
History of Charity
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.
Forecasting Tournaments
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.
Red Team
A standing practice of attacking Charitology’s own claims. Every entry page links to a prefilled GitHub issue for challenging what it says.
Funding
The Charitology Fund
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.
Charity Incubator
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.
Question Bounties
Cash prizes for answering specific Open Problems of Charitology, paid when a result meets the test each problem states. No prizes are funded yet.
The Charitology Prize
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.
People and education
Certified Charitologist
A credential for donors, nonprofit staff and advisors who have shown they can apply the Charitology method. Anyone can practice charitology without it.
Charitology Fellowship
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.
University Chapters
Student clubs that study and practice charitology together, using a free chapter kit whose sessions also contribute real work to the field.
Principles of Charitology Course
A free course built on the open textbook Principles of Charitology, with one unit per chapter and exercises that use real tools and data.
Donor Advisory
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.
Nonprofit Advisory
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.
Reach
Charitology Summit
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.
Local Charitology
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.
Time Charitology
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.
Corporate Program
Redesigns workplace giving and gift matching so they fund flexibly, report what gifts achieved and recognize results rather than size.
Policy Program
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.