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Best Charities That Make a Difference

Our Panel of Experts aggregates the best research from outside sources and adds additional scrutiny.
The Panel includes authorities in economics, ethics, nonprofit management, and business.
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Best Charities That Make a Difference

Our Panel of Experts aggregates the best research from outside sources and adds additional scrutiny.
The Panel includes authorities in economics, ethics, nonprofit management, and business.
Explore our great charities by hovering over the images.
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Against Malaria Foundation

Against Malaria Foundation

100% of donations buy long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) that protect people from malaria. A US$2.50 net protects two people.

Bed nets are the most effective way to prevent malaria in children, who account for 78 percent of malaria-related deaths. The Against Malaria Foundation distributes nets for as little as $4 per net.

Malaria infection poses significant health risks for pregnant women, newborn children, and developing fetuses. The Against Malaria Foundation distributes nets for just $4 per net, which protect up to two people for four years.

Insecticide-treated bed nets remain the gold standard for preventing malaria transmission in endemic regions. To date, the Against Malaria Foundation has distributed more than 5 million nets, and has plans to distribute 7 million more.

Malaria infection has a direct and negative impact on children’s standardize test scores. The Against Malaria Foundation distributes malaria bed nets, which keeps children healthy, safe, and ready for school.

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Development Media International

Development Media International

DMI uses radio and t.v. campaigns on health issues to change behaviours and save lives.

More than 16,000 children die each day from conditions associated with extreme poverty. Development Media International’s TV and radio campaigns can save one in five of these lives—that’s roughly 3,200 children saved each day.

Development Media International’s TV and radio campaigns focus on health issues that affect women and girls’ wellbeing—such as family planning, child marriage, and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Development Media International TV and radio campaigns raise awareness for important hygiene and sanitation issues—which help change behavior and save lives.

Development Media International radio and TV campaigns raise cultural awareness for life-saving health and wellness issues, while hiring local voice artists, writers, and editors to create informative and engaging messages.

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Evidence Action

Evidence Action

Evidence Action scales up interventions proven to help the world's poor, e.g.  clean water systems and deworming, for under $1 per person.

Evidence Action’s Dispensers for Safe Water initiative currently provides 2 million people with access to clean drinking water using cost-effective and user-friendly water chlorination technology. The initiative will reach 25 million people by 2018.

Evidence Action Beta pressure tests promising interventions that have been rigorously evaluated to determine whether they can be cost-effectively scaled up to improve the lives of millions of people in the developing world.

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Fistula Foundation

Fistula Foundation

Fistula Foundation supports obstetric fistula repair, moving women from social ostracism to reentry into family and community.

Women who suffer from obstetric fistula often leak urine and feces due to injuries sustained in difficult childbirth. Since 2009, Fistula Foundation has performed more than 14,000 free fistula repair surgeries.

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Fred Hollows Foundation

Fred Hollows Foundation

The Fred Hollows Foundation has restored sight to 2M+ people and aims to end avoidable blindness through low-cost eye surgery, doctor training, and community education.

The Fred Hollows Foundation provides cost-effective surgeries and vision care for some of the world’s poorest communities. These services restore sight to those living with reversal blindness—at a cost of just $50 per person.

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Photo: Michael Amendolia
GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly provides cash, no strings attached, to some of the poorest families in the world.

GiveDirectly provides unconditional cash transfers using cell phone technology to some of the poorest people in Kenya and Uganda, enabling recipients to buy food and shelter, educate their children, and start small businesses.

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Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

GAIN's Salt Iodization work protects against the most common cause of preventable brain damage at about 20 cents per person.

Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable brain damage in children. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition brings iodine to billions across the globe, ensuring that each child reaches her full cognitive potential.

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition runs cost-effective programs to add iodine to a common household food—table salt—providing hundreds of thousands of people with this vital nutrient.

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Innovations for Poverty Action

Innovations for Poverty Action

IPA evaluates and promotes solutions to global poverty, generating an estimated $22 billion of net social benefit for the world.

Innovations for Poverty Action discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty. IPA works with governments, businesses, and NGOs to develop and incubate promising anti-poverty interventions, analyze results, and publicize recommendations.

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Iodine Global Network

Iodine Global Network

IGN works to prevent brain damage for pennies a person so all children can reach their full cognitive potential.

Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable brain damage in children. The Iodine Global Network brings iodine to billions of people across the globe, ensuring that each child reaches her full cognitive potential.

The Iodine Global Network runs cost-effective programs to add iodine to a common household food—table salt—providing hundreds of thousands of people with this vital nutrient.

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Living Goods

Living Goods

Living Goods trains Community Health Promoters who go door-to-door providing health products and education, and treating common causes of child deaths.

Living Goods helps women set up their own micro-franchises. Women business owners travel door-to-door to sell contraception, malaria nets, medicines, condoms, and hygiene products—and keep 15 percent of the profits for themselves.

Living Goods employs and trains local women to sell goods and life-saving medical supplies at competitive prices. Living Goods provides women with employment and entrepreneurial skills while improving health outcomes in their communities.

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Photo: Ester Havens
One Acre Fund

One Acre Fund

One Acre Fund supplies smallholder farmers with financing and training to grow their way out of hunger and poverty.

More than 60 percent of people living in the Horn of Africa rely on subsistence farming to support their families, but one in four people in the region do not have sufficient food and nutrition. One Acre Fund reduces hunger in agricultural communities in East Africa by helping small farmers improve harvests and maximize farm profits.

More than 60 percent of people living in the Horn of Africa rely on subsistence farming to support their families, but one in four people in the region do not have sufficient food and nutrition. One Acre Fund reduces hunger in agricultural communities in East Africa by helping small farmers improve harvests and maximize farm profits.

One Acre Fund brings economic opportunity to rural agricultural communities in East Africa by helping small farmers improve harvests and maximize farm profits. In 2014, One Acre Fund’s farmers gained more than $7 million in net farm revenue.

One Acre Fund has conducted dozens of randomized control trials to find the most cost-effective farming techniques. Successful trials have helped hundreds of farmers improve implementation in areas such as nitrogen-fixing crops, crop rotation and diversity, alternative fertilizers, and energy-efficient light sources.

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Oxfam

Oxfam

Oxfam works to sustainably improve lives through advocacy, disaster relief, education, health, sanitation and women's rights.

Oxfam’s school lunch programs keep children nourished and encourage them to stay enrolled in school. A $100 donation to Oxfam could provide school lunches for two children for an entire year.

To date, Oxfam has provided 32,000 gender-specific emergency care kits to women affected by the 2015 Nepal earthquake. These kits include sanitary supplies and help keep displaced women safe and healthy.

As a global leader in international development work for more than half a century, Oxfam works to combat the underlying social and economic inequalities that cause hunger, malnutrition, and food shortages.

Since the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Oxfam has been actively working to provide 60,000 displaced people with access to clean water and emergency toilets across seven regions.

When disaster strikes, children from affected regions often find it difficult or dangerous to continue attending school. Oxfam rebuilds infrastructure, so that children can return to school quickly and continue their educations.

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Population Services International

Population Services International

PSI addresses major health challenges in the developing world, e.g. family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, and common causes of child mortality.

For girls who drop out of school, studies show that pregnancy is the reason in more than 50 percent of cases. Population Services International’s family planning programs empower girls to reach their full educational potential.

In 2007 alone, Population Services International’s voluntary male medical circumcision initiative averted more than 260,000 cases of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and reduced the female-to-male transmission rate of HIV by 60 percent.

Population Services International’s WASH program (water, sanitation, and hygiene) brings clean water supplies to families in 30 countries. To date, PSI has averted more than 30 million cases of diarrhea caused by water-born illnesses.

For girls who drop out of school, studies show that pregnancy is the reason in more than 50 percent of cases. Population Services International’s family planning programs empower girls to reach their full educational potential.

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Possible

Possible

Possible delivers high-quality, durable healthcare to the poorest of the poor in rural Nepal.

Possible provides free and cost-effective health care services to Nepal’s rural poor in partnership with government medical programs. A $100 donation would provide high-quality, low-cost healthcare for four children through Possible’s medical programs.

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Project Healthy Children

Project Healthy Children

PHC supports food fortification, one of the most effective, affordable, and sustainable means of preventing disabilities and deaths globally.

Project Health Children’s micronutrient fortification programs are some of the most cost-effective ways to make sure that each child survives the early years of childhood, and reaches his or her full physical and cognitive abilities.

Project Healthy Children’s micronutrient food fortification brings life-supporting vitamins to some of the world’s chronically malnourished populations, reaching 55 million people worldwide.

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Schistosomiasis Control Initiative

Schistosomiasis Control Initiative

SCI facilitates school-based distributions of deworming tablets, protecting children from debilitating diseases and improving school attendance for less than $0.75 per child.

Schistosomiasis Control Initative combines world-class research, national government partnerships, and large-scale implementation to dispense cost-effective deworming treatments through local school programs—at a cost of just 80 cents per child treated.

45 million women and girls live with female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), a life-threatening consequence of parasitic infection that increases vulnerability to STDs. SCI actively works to prevent FGS among adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa.

Schistosomiasis, a parasitic worm, infects 240 million people, and only 10 percent receive treatment of any kind. SCI has dispensed over 100 million deworming treatments at a cost of roughly 80 cents per child treated.

SCI dispense cost-effective deworming treatments through school-based programs. These low-cost pills keep children safe and healthy, and evidence shows that deworming is also one of the best ways to boost school attendance.

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Seva

Seva

Seva's eye care programs serve nearly one million children and adults in 20 countries yearly, including $50 vision-restoring cataract surgeries.

Seva Foundation works to prevent and cure blindness and visual impairment among impoverished communities in the developing world. Seva’s cataract surgeries cost as little as $50 per person treated.

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Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise

Village Enterprise empowers the ultra poor in rural Africa to lift themselves out of poverty through small sustainable businesses and savings groups.

Village Enterprise empowers the ultra poor in rural Africa to lift themselves out of poverty through small sustainable businesses and savings groups.

Village Enterprise empowers the ultra poor in rural Africa to lift themselves out of poverty through small sustainable businesses and savings groups.

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About Us

The Life You Can Save is a movement of people fighting extreme poverty. We hold that an ethical life involves using some of our wealth and resources to save and improve the lives of those less fortunate than us.

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Support Our Work

Recommended Charities

  • Against Malaria Foundation
  • Development Media International
  • Evidence Action
  • Fistula Foundation
  • Fred Hollows Foundation
  • GiveDirectly
  • Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
  • Innovations for Poverty Action
  • Iodine Global Network
  • Living Goods
  • One Acre Fund
  • Oxfam
  • Population Services International
  • Possible
  • Project Healthy Children
  • Schistosomiasis Control Initiative
  • Seva
  • Village Enterprise

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