GiveWell Conversations

This episode was recorded on July 16, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time.

Malaria is the cause area where GiveWell has directed the most funding over our 18-year history. We’ve recommended over $1 billion to malaria programs, which we estimate will avert over 200,000 deaths, mostly in young children, through support for programs like Against Malaria Foundation’s insecticide-treated nets and Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention.

Despite significant progress against malaria in the past 25 years, malaria is still a leading cause of death globally for children under five. The current status of mal...

This episode was recorded on June 25, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time. 

GiveWell has long grappled with fundamental questions about how to value different positive impacts and make funding decisions across diverse programs. In particular, how much more valuable it is to save a life than to substantially improve it? And how can we prioritize between programs that achieve those outcomes in different measures when there’s no “right” answer to that question?

In this episode, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with Senior Program Officer Julie Faller about w...

This episode was recorded on June 11, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time. 

In the face of potential major cuts to foreign aid, how can we anticipate the impact on global health and effectively direct resources to the areas of greatest need?

In this episode, GiveWell’s CEO and co-founder, Elie Hassenfeld, speaks with Principal Researcher Alex Cohen to discuss the forecasting work GiveWell has undertaken to better understand what the future of global health funding might look like. They explore the potential size of the funding gaps, whi...

This episode was recorded on May 30, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time. 

The US government has historically been a major funder of HIV/AIDS programs, providing around $5 to $6 billion annually through PEPFAR and other initiatives. With anticipated major reductions in US government foreign aid, including potential cuts of 20% to 50% to HIV/AIDS funding, GiveWell is assessing where new, cost-effective needs might emerge.

GiveWell aims to find programs where additional funding can have the greatest impact. While HIV/AIDS has not historically been a focus for GiveWell due to substantial US g...

This episode was recorded on May 2, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time. 

Cuts to US government foreign assistance have created unprecedented challenges for global health programs. Countries that have relied on this funding must now navigate substantial gaps and make difficult decisions about program priorities. 

In the fourth episode of GiveWell’s podcast series on these cuts, GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld speaks with Program Officer Dan Brown about grants to create technical support units (TSUs) in six African countries. These TSUs will provide support to the ministries of h...

This episode was recorded on April 15, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time.

The US government has historically spent approximately $12 billion to $15 billion annually in foreign assistance dedicated to global health. The funding cuts announced in the first few months of 2025 disrupted the global health landscape and created the possibility of enormous funding gaps that are still coming into focus. In response, GiveWell has approved around $18 million in grants to support urgent needs—but why has our research led us not to grant more funds yet?

In today’s episode, the thir...

This episode was recorded on March 31, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time.

Our first episode shared a broad overview of the impacts of US government aid cuts and GiveWell’s initial response. This time, GiveWell Program Officer Natalie Crispin joins CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld to zoom in on a specific case, focusing on grants we’ve made to support urgent funding gaps for seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC). 

SMC is one of the most cost-effective programs we’ve found—GiveWell has historically funded around $60-80 million annually for Malaria Consortium’s SMC progr...

This episode was recorded on March 12, 2025 and represents our best understanding at that time. 

In this discussion between GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld and Senior Program Officer Julie Faller, we provide snapshots of how US funding changes are affecting global health programs:

Immediate program trade-offs: As funds are paused, country governments are having to choose between essential health services, including one country that said it would prioritize HIV treatment programs while indefinitely pausing HIV prevention programs.Supply chain breakdown: Essential supplies like ready-to-use therapeutic food for malnourished children have been stranded throughout the supply chain (i...