The Simplest Way to Save Lives With Your Money

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Dec 16, 2025

Elie Hassenfeld, co-founder and CEO of GiveWell, shares insights from his journey in charitable giving. He explores how GiveWell seeks out high-impact charities by asking tough questions and measuring effectiveness. Elie discusses the importance of transparency, the challenges of quantifying impact, and how emotional and evidence-based motivations can coexist in philanthropy. He highlights GiveWell's top charities and addresses recent changes in global aid that affect health programs. This engaging conversation brings new clarity to the concept of giving well.

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INSIGHT

Apply Investment Rigor To Philanthropy

Accurate understanding and avoiding self-deception are core to good decision-making in finance and giving.
Elie applies hedge-fund style rigor and backtesting thinking to evaluate charitable effectiveness.

ANECDOTE

Humble Origins Of GiveWell

Elie Hassenfeld and Holden Karnofsky started researching charities in 2006 after pooling a few thousand dollars to donate.
Late nights reading academic papers (Elie on diarrhea at 3 AM) convinced them to leave Bridgewater and found GiveWell in 2007.

INSIGHT

Money Doesn't Equal Measured Impact

Charity Navigator reported finances but rarely answered what donors actually buy with their money.
Organizations often lacked simple operational answers when Elie asked how a $20 donation produced impact.

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“This lightbulb went off that almost no one was asking these questions.”

In 2006, Elie Hassenfeld and a few of his friends pooled some money they wanted to donate to charity. And they wanted to find charities where their money would go the farthest in improving lives. That information, it turned out, was incredibly hard to find.

That was the seed of GiveWell. For almost a decade, GiveWell has dedicated itself to rigorously researching the impact of charities around the world and channeling donations to the ones that are the most effective at saving lives. It might sound simple, but this was a radically new approach in the world of charitable giving, and the work itself isn’t simple at all.

I’ve supported GiveWell through the years. So as the year winds down and other people might be thinking about giving to a charity, I wanted to invite Hassenfeld, GiveWell’s chief executive, on the show to talk through this work. How does it measure impact? Are there limits to what you can measure? As an organization, has it made mistakes? What does it really mean to give well?

If you like what you hear, I hope you’ll also consider donating to GiveWell. Learn more at givewell.org.

Mentioned:

GiveWell

“Trust in Radical Truth and Radical Transparency” by Ray Dalio

Harlem Children’s Zone

Against Malaria Foundation

Helen Keller Intl

New Incentives

No Lean Season

Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)

PATH

GiveDirectly

ALIMA

Book Recommendations:

Factfulness by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund

Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.

This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Aman Sahota and Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.

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