2025
Impact Report
How donations made through our community translated into real-world outcomes
Contents
1
Our community's impact in 2025
$20M raised, 20M people reached, cost-effectiveness across all sectors
2
Impact of our Best Charities
24 organizations across Health, Education, Livelihoods and Alumni
3
Impact of our Cause Funds
Maximize Your Impact, Health, Quality of Life, Education, and Women and Girls funds
4
What we're watching
Trends shaping global development across Health, Livelihoods, Education, and Women and Girls
5
Methodology
How we define and calculate DALYs, LAYS, and ROI
6
Explore further
Resources, contacts, and how to give
About this report
The Life You Can Save’s annual Impact Report shows how donations made through our community translated into real-world outcomes for people living in extreme poverty in 2025.
Inside, you’ll find a transparent account of what we raised together, who it reached, and how cost-effectively it delivered impact across health, education, and livelihoods — alongside results from each of our recommended charities and Cause Funds.
It’s a snapshot of what evidence-based giving made possible this year, and the trends shaping where it can go next.
Section 1
Our community's impact in 2025
Together, we reached more lives than ever before.
Total Raised
$20M
directed to high-impact charities
People Reached
20M
across Health, Education and Livelihoods
Impact by sector — recommended charities
Health
17M
people protected
Livelihoods
87K
families supported
Education
74,275
LAYS delivered
Funds allocation by sector
Health
64.5%
17M reached
Livelihoods
17.6%
87K reached
Education
17.9%
74,275 LAYS
Cost-effectiveness †
Health
$100
average cost per DALY averted
Highly effective
per WHO cost-effectiveness standards
Livelihoods
5.2x
average ROI
Highly effective
meets our 5x ROI threshold for high-impact livelihoods programs
Education
$63
average cost per LAYS delivered
Highly effective
per leading global education experts
* The 20M total includes beneficiaries reached through all TLYCS-supported charities. The intervention-level figures (Health, Education, Livelihoods) reflect impact from our recommended charities only, and do not sum to the total. For full methodology, see the Methodology section of this report.
† For definitions of DALY, LAYS and ROI, see Section 5 — Methodology of this report.
Key concept
What is the WHO-CHOICE cost-effectiveness benchmark?
The WHO-CHOICE framework provides internationally recognized thresholds for assessing whether a health intervention represents good value for money. An intervention that averts one year of ill-health (one DALY) for $100 or less is considered highly cost-effective under this benchmark. The charities we recommend in the Health sector consistently meet or exceed this standard, meaning donations to these charities go further than most health interventions available globally.
Section 2
Impact of our Best Charities
In 2025, we raised nearly $12.5 million directly for our recommended Best Charities — a list of organizations selected based on our ever-evolving research methodology, representing the best opportunities to fight extreme poverty with our community’s donations. Here is how each organization put those donations to work.
How we choose
How does The Life You Can Save decide which charities to recommend?
The impact results in this report belong to our partner charities — the organizations doing the work on the ground. Our role is to find them, rigorously evaluate them, and connect them with our community of givers. We assess organizations on their evidence base, leadership and management, monitoring and evaluation systems, transparency, and commitment to learning. Cost-effectiveness is one important factor, but not the only one. Every gift made through The Life You Can Save carries that full evaluation behind it.
| Organization | What our community's donations made possible |
|---|---|
| Against Malaria Foundation | Purchased 244,139 bed nets to protect people from malaria-infected mosquitoes. |
| Breakthrough | Reached 24,489 adolescents with the Deep Transformation program, helping young people build stronger identities within supportive family and community environments. |
| CEDOVIP | Helped 1,064 women live free from violence for a year, ensuring their safety and dignity. |
| Development Media International | Provided essential health messages ensuring 66,775 sick children received treatment for malaria, pneumonia, or diarrhea. |
| Evidence Action | Provided safe drinking water to 123,730 people for one year; dewormed 519,666 children; tested 2,887 women for syphilis; and helped 519,666 children access iron and folic acid treatment. |
| Fistula Foundation | Covered the cost of surgery, medication, and consumables for 12,454 women in Kenya. |
| Fred Hollows Foundation | Covered the cost of 7,035 cataract surgeries. |
| Helen Keller Intl | Provided supplements to protect 193,621 children from vitamin A deficiency disorders, including stunting, anemia, blindness, and death. |
| Iodine Global Network | Protected 4,503,559 people from iodine deficiency disorders such as debilitating brain damage. |
| Living Goods | Provided 178,343 people with one year of access to essential medicines, health information, and trained community health workers. |
| Malaria Consortium | Protected 40,824 children from malaria during a high-risk season. |
| New Incentives | Encouraged the full vaccination of 11,803 infants by providing cash incentives to caregivers over 15 months. |
| Sanku | Provided 6,614,850 children and adults with food-based micronutrient fortification. |
| Seva Foundation | Provided 10,341 people in low-income countries with eye screening and eyeglasses. |
| Unlimit Health | Protected 735,396 children from parasitic worms. |
| Organization | What our community's donations made possible |
|---|---|
| GiveDirectly | Transferred $1,146,064 directly to recipients to use as they wish. |
| One Acre Fund | Provided 35,586 families with start-up financing, high-quality farming inputs, agricultural training, and market facilitation. |
| Raising The Village | Delivered a 24-month program to 12,938 people, supporting improvements in basic needs, climate-smart agriculture, and quality of life. |
| Village Enterprise | Provided seed capital to jumpstart 1,958 small businesses. |
| Organization | What our community's donations made possible |
|---|---|
| Educate Girls | Identified, enrolled, and supported 244,139 out-of-school girls in India. |
| Food4Education | Delivered 230,798 nutritious meals to children in Kenyan schools. |
| TaRL Africa | Delivered Teaching at the Right Level programs to 30,921 children. |
| Organization | What our community's donations made possible |
|---|---|
| Innovations for Poverty Action | Channeled $30,367 to testing and promoting effective solutions to global poverty. |
| Oxfam | Purchased hygiene kits — including a bucket, soap, detergent, and other essentials — for 12,431 families. |
| Population Services International | Helped 12,701 people access essential healthcare services or products, including bed nets, HIV treatment or testing, and sexual and reproductive health products. |
Total people reached across all recommended charities:
14.4 million
Reach figures reflect estimated beneficiaries supported through donations directed to each organization in 2025. Alumni charities are former recommended charities that continue to receive donor support. Some figures represent units other than individual people (meals, nets, businesses, cash transferred) as noted in each description.
Section 3
Impact of our Cause Funds
Our cause funds allow our community to direct their giving to specific sectors. Here is what each fund achieved in 2025.
Maximize Your Impact Fund
Raised: $4.55M
The Maximize Your Impact Fund is an actively managed fund designed to address the interconnected challenges of extreme poverty, such as health, education, and living conditions, which extend far beyond a lack of income. We use the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index to identify the regions with the highest poverty levels and the specific factors driving them.
To optimize the impact of donor contributions, our fund managers provide strategic oversight by monitoring the global landscape for urgent funding gaps and opportunities with high additionality. This active management allows us to make discretionary grants that address time-sensitive needs.
Beneficiaries
4.4M
people reached
DALYs averted
44,131
years of ill-health prevented
LAYS delivered
25,655
years of quality education
ROI generated
$3.4M
in additional household income
Funds allocation by sector
Health
64.5%
Livelihoods
17.6%
Education
17.9%
Key concept
What is the Maximize Your Impact Fund?
The Maximize Your Impact Fund is not a fixed allocation — it is actively managed. Rather than splitting donations evenly across charities, our fund managers monitor the global development landscape in real time, directing capital toward the most urgent opportunities with the highest potential for additional impact. This means every donation is placed where it can do the most good at the moment it arrives, not where it would have done the most good last year.
Key concept
What are discretionary grants and why do they matter?
Discretionary grants are time-sensitive allocations made by our fund managers when a funding gap or opportunity arises that requires fast action. Unlike standard allocations, discretionary grants allow TLYCS to respond to urgent needs in a way that fixed-schedule giving cannot. In 2025, two discretionary grants were made to organizations outside our Best Charities list, including Population Services International.
Health Fund
Raised: $311K
The Health Fund aims to help improve the access and quality of health services. Donations to the fund are used to support organizations that implement proven health interventions, particularly for diseases and conditions which are preventable or easily treatable in high-income countries.
Beneficiaries
578,696
people reached
DALYs averted
7,458
years of ill-health prevented
Supported charities (12)
Quality of Life Fund
Raised: $128K
The Quality of Life Fund supports sustained economic development by addressing the interconnected barriers of financial instability, low productivity, and treatable illness. By providing vital healthcare services such as eyesight restoration and fistula repair alongside financial training and agricultural inputs, this integrated approach ensures that poor health, lack of capital, and low productivity are addressed simultaneously.
Beneficiaries
21,212
people reached
DALYs averted
647
years of ill-health prevented
ROI generated
$434K
in additional household income
Supported charities (7)
Education Fund
Raised: $73K
The Education Fund focuses on supporting educational opportunities for children and adolescents who live in extreme poverty. Charities in this fund work to increase access to and participation in education, while promoting literacy, numeracy, and life skills that create self-sufficiency. The Education Fund places emphasis on the compounding benefits of enrolling girls into education.
Learners reached
6,131
children and adolescents
LAYS delivered
3,247
years of quality education gained
Supported charities (2)
Women and Girls Fund
Raised: $398K
The Women and Girls Fund focuses on tackling the disproportionate burden of extreme poverty that women and girls experience. The fund supports charities that work towards reshaping gender norms through school and community programs, promoting women’s inclusion and safety, and increasing access to education, maternal healthcare, and family planning services.
Health beneficiaries
~2,000
people protected
DALYs averted
1,780
years of ill-health prevented
Learners reached
6,100+
children and adolescents
LAYS delivered
7,400
years of quality education gained
Supported charities (4)
All figures are estimates based on 2025 donation allocation data. LAYS (Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling) measure quality-adjusted educational outcomes and differ from simple learner headcounts.
Section 4
What we're watching
Across our portfolio, 2025 revealed three trends reshaping how lasting change happens in global development. Understanding them helps explain not just what our recommended charities achieved this year, but why the work is becoming more durable, more efficient, and more connected than ever.
Three trends shaping the field
Trend 1
From direct delivery to government ownership
The most significant shift across the work of our recommended charities in our portfolio is a move away from parallel systems toward permanent integration within national health and education frameworks. Living Goods is moving toward a "government-first" sustainability model. Helen Keller Intl is embedding vitamin A delivery into routine primary care. Village Enterprise is integrating its graduation model into Rwanda and Kenya’s social safety nets through government partnerships. Food4Education is co-developing county school feeding policies, TaRL Africa is integrating its approach into national teacher training and school timetables, and Educate Girls is utilizing embedded Technical Assistance Units to drive government ownership. When governments own these programs, impact outlasts any single donor cycle.
Trend 2
Data and technology as precision tools
Digital tools are no longer just for reporting — they are driving real-time decisions. New Incentives uses vaccine-tracking dashboards to course-correct in the field. Malaria Consortium deploys electronic data collection to ensure every child completes their full course of preventive treatment. Against Malaria Foundation ensures that 99.91% of funded nets reach their intended beneficiaries through a rigorous digital monitoring system. Precision at scale is no longer a tradeoff.
Trend 3
Integrated interventions, compounding impact
The most effective organizations do not focus on a single issue. Malaria Consortium’s SMC visits now deliver immunizations and vitamin A supplements. Raising The Village combines water, sanitation, and climate-smart agriculture in a single 24-month program. GiveDirectly’s cash transfers reduced child mortality by 48%, demonstrating that economic security and health outcomes are deeply intertwined. Additionally, many of our other recommended nonprofits recognize that a gender-sensitive lens is essential for the success of any intervention.
Health
Our health charities are protecting lives at extraordinary scale, from preventing malaria in children during the riskiest months of the year, to fortifying flour for 31 million people, to restoring sight through nearly one million cataract surgeries. What unites them in 2025 is a shared pivot: from reaching more people to embedding their programs into the systems that will serve those people permanently.
47M
children reached with vitamin A supplements by Helen Keller Intl, a record
21M
bed nets distributed by Against Malaria Foundation, protecting 38 million people
19,577
fistula surgeries performed by Fistula Foundation across 34 countries
Impact story
Malaria Consortium — Akide, Uganda
For Akide, a mother in rural Uganda, getting her children to the nearest clinic meant miles of travel, lost income, and no guarantee of care. When malaria struck, she faced an impossible choice: pay for medicine or feed her family. That changed when community health workers began bringing malaria prevention directly to her village. Her children now receive monthly preventive treatment during peak malaria season. Fewer bouts of malaria. Fewer emergency costs. More stability for her family. "No mother should have to choose between her child’s health and their next meal."
Key concept
What is Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC)?
SMC is a preventive strategy that delivers antimalarial medicines to young children during the months when malaria transmission is highest. Rather than waiting for children to fall ill, SMC proactively protects them during the rainy season when mosquito populations peak. Malaria Consortium is a global leader in SMC delivery, reaching approximately 25 million children across seven countries in 2025. SMC is recognized by the WHO as a highly effective tool for reducing malaria morbidity and mortality in high-risk regions.
Livelihoods
The livelihoods organizations in our portfolio share a foundational belief: that people in extreme poverty are not the problem to be solved, but the protagonists of their own success. Whether through cash transfers, farming inputs, business seed capital, or holistic village programs, all four organizations are building economic foundations that persist long after the initial investment.
$1B+
total cash delivered by GiveDirectly since inception, with transfers shown to reduce child mortality by 48%
$0.65 to $2.21
daily household income for Raising The Village graduates, from below the poverty line to above it
$5.70
in new farmer income generated for every $1 of donor investment through One Acre Fund
Impact story
One Acre Fund — Maureen, Kenya
Maureen Ongachi enrolled with One Acre Fund in 2015, initially skeptical. Before joining, her quarter acre plot produced just one bag of maize a season. Her children would go to bed hungry. In her first season with One Acre Fund, she harvested five bags from the same plot. "I was elated, I remember harvesting and just bringing all the bags here and staring at them in amazement." Today her harvests last until the following year. "Right now, even if I don’t get work we are not worried because we know we have enough food. One Acre Fund changed my life for the better."
Education
Giving children access to education is not enough. They need to be healthy enough to learn, supported enough to stay, and taught in ways that actually build skills. Our education charities tackle all three barriers simultaneously. Food4Education keeps children fed and increases school attendance. TaRL Africa ensures that children who are in school are actually learning foundational skills. Educate Girls ensures that girls, the most systematically excluded group, don’t fall through the cracks and drop out from school.
576K
learners fed daily by Food4Education across 1,700+ schools in 12 Kenyan counties
285,237
out-of-school girls identified, enrolled, and supported by Educate Girls in India
4.2M
learners reached by TaRL Africa between July 2024 and June 2025
Impact story
Educate Girls — Bunty, India
Bunty loved school. As a girl in rural India, she finished homework early, scored well, and dreamed of becoming a police officer. Then Grade 8 ended. The nearest secondary school was Kilometers away, no other girls from her village were continuing, and her family decided the road was too uncertain. She stayed home. She married young. When the Educate Girls team began visiting her home, it took many meetings before her family agreed. Bunty studied for her Grade 10 exams while still waking at five each morning to cook, clean, and care for her children. She scored over 74% and topped the board. Today, she hopes to become a teacher.
Women and Girls
Across our portfolio, gender is increasingly understood not as a separate intervention but as a lens through which all effective development must be viewed. The organizations focused specifically on women and girls share a commitment to addressing not just the symptoms of gender inequity but its structural causes: the norms, systems, and power dynamics that make poverty stick harder and longer for women and girls than for anyone else.
4M+
adolescents reached by Breakthrough through gender-transformative education programs with state governments
89.2%
fistula closure rate achieved by Fistula Foundation, restoring health, dignity, and economic independence
43,072
community members reached in Kampala by CEDOVIP through the "SASA! Together" program
Impact story
Breakthrough — Rupali, India
When a girl eloped in Rupali’s village in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, the consequences fell on everyone else. The education of 15 to 20 girls was suddenly at risk. Four or five were married off young in response. Rupali’s own plans to study Medicine in Ranchi were cut short, and she was confined to her village. But through Breakthrough’s sessions, Rupali had learned to negotiate. She enlisted her teachers, reached out to Team Breakthrough, and promised her parents she would prove herself. She scored 80% in her 10th exams. Her parents changed their minds. Today, Rupali is filling college forms in Hazaribagh, excited for the next chapter of her life.
Key concept
What is obstetric fistula?
Obstetric fistula is a devastating childbirth injury caused by prolonged, obstructed labor without access to emergency medical care. It creates an abnormal opening between the birth canal and bladder or rectum, resulting in chronic leakage that women cannot control. The condition is entirely preventable with proper obstetric care, and almost entirely treatable with surgery — yet it affects an estimated 500,000 women across Africa and Asia, most of whom live in extreme poverty and have no access to surgical care. Fistula Foundation works to close this gap, with an 89.2% surgical success rate across 34 countries in 2025, delivering 19,577 life-transforming surgeries.
Section 5
Methodology
We estimate the impact of donations raised by The Life You Can Save using three metrics: Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS), and Return on Investment (ROI). Here is what each metric means and how we calculate it.
DALY
Disability-Adjusted Life Year
One year of healthy life lost to premature death or disability. We report DALYs as "a year of ill-health averted."
DALYs combine two components: Years of Life Lost (YLL) due to premature mortality, and Years Lived with Disability (YLD) due to illness. YLL is calculated by multiplying deaths prevented by standard life expectancy at the age of death, applying a 3% annual discount rate. YLD is estimated by multiplying cases by a disability weight and duration of illness. Cost-effectiveness is then determined by dividing total intervention costs by total DALYs averted. (WHO, 2025; Murray, 1994)
ROI
Return on Investment
The additional income generated by participants in a livelihoods program, compared to peers who did not participate. We report ROI as "additional income generated."
ROI is defined as the ratio of cumulative program-attributable economic value per beneficiary to the average cost per beneficiary. An ROI of 6x means that for every dollar invested, participants generate $6 in additional economic value compared to their peers. Because livelihoods programs are complex and context-dependent, we work with each nonprofit to ensure accurate reporting of economic value and causal attribution. (Cerf, 2023)
LAYS
Learning-Adjusted Year of Schooling
The equivalent of one additional year of high-quality education, adjusted for differences in learning quality across countries.
We first calculate Equivalent Years of Schooling (EYOS) by converting learning gains into local schooling years, then apply a 50% discount to account for reduced implementation fidelity at scale. EYOS are then benchmarked against a high-quality standard using internationally harmonized test scores. One year of local schooling in a system delivering half the learning of a benchmark system equals 0.5 LAYS. (Angrist et al., 2025; Filmer and Pritchett, 2018)
Important caveats
Our impact estimates are based on rigorous secondary research, drawing from reviews of high-quality studies, global health and development data, and established evaluation methods. These are estimates, not primary research data collected directly from our charities’ programs. They are derived from existing studies and models assessing the effectiveness of similar interventions, and impact can vary based on geography, population, and local conditions.
These estimates allow us to identify large differences in cost-effectiveness between programs, but they are highly approximate and subject to considerable uncertainty. They are by no means the only criterion we use to determine which organizations we recommend. Our recommendations are based on an assessment of multiple factors, including organizational leadership and management, track record, monitoring and evaluation systems, transparency, and commitment to constant improvement.
BibliographyClick to expandClick to collapse▾
Alkire, S., Kanagaratnam, U. and Suppa, N. (2020). 'The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): 2020 revision', OPHI MPI Methodological Note 49, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford.
Angrist, N., Evans, D. K., Filmer, D., Glennerster, R., Rogers, H., & Sabarwal, S. (2025). How to improve education outcomes most efficiently? A review of the evidence using a unified metric. Journal of Development Economics, 172, 103382.
Cerf, M. E. (2023). The social-education-economy-health nexus, development and sustainability: Perspectives from low- and middle-income and African countries. Discover Sustainability, 4(1), 37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-023-00153-7
Filmer, D., & Pritchett, L. (2018). Learning-adjusted years of schooling (LAYS): Defining a new macro measure of education (Policy Research Working Paper No. 8591). World Bank. View paper
Murray, C J. 1994. "Quantifying the Burden of Disease: The Technical Basis for Disability-Adjusted Life Years." Bulletin of the World Health Organization 72(3): 429–45. View paper
Stenberg, K., Watts, R., Bertram, M. Y., Engesveen, K., Maliqi, B., Say, L., & Hutubessy, R. (2021). Cost-effectiveness of interventions to improve maternal, newborn and child health outcomes: A WHO-CHOICE analysis for Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 10(11), 706–723. https://doi.org/10.34172/ijhpm.2021.07
United Nations Development Programme. (2014). Multidimensional Poverty Index: Frequently Asked Questions. View document
World Health Organization [WHO] (2025). Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). World Health Organization. View page
Section 6
Explore further
Want to go deeper? The resources below will help you learn more about how we evaluate charities, understand the impact of your giving, and explore opportunities to give.
Impact Calculator
See the real-world difference a donation of any size can make across our recommended charities.
Explore
Charity Evaluation Framework
Learn how we assess and select the organizations we recommend, from evidence base to transparency.
Explore
Evaluation Hub
Access the full body of research and evaluations that underpin our charity recommendations.
Explore
Best Charities
Browse our full list of recommended charities and learn what makes each one exceptional.
Explore
Cause Funds
Direct your giving to a specific sector — Health, Education, Livelihoods, or Women and Girls.
Explore
Support our Operations
Every $1 donated to TLYCS generates $9.19 in donations to high-impact charities. Supporting our operations is a powerful way to amplify your impact.
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