This is a great question, and the same should be asked of governments (as in: “why doesn’t the UK aid budget simply all go to mosquito nets?”)
A likely explanation for why the Gates Foundation doesn’t give to GiveWell’s top charities is that those charities don’t currently have much room for more funding (GiveWell had to rollover funding last year because they couldn’t spend it all. A recent blog posts suggests they may have more room for funding soon https://blog.givewell.org/2022/07/05/update-on-givewells-funding-projections/)
A likely explanation for why the Gates Foundation doesn’t give to GiveDirectly is that they don’t see strong enough evidence yet for the effectiveness (particularly in the long-term or at the societal level) of unconditional cash transfers (A Cochrane review from this year suggests slight short-term benefits: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD011135.pub3/full)
This is a great question, and the same should be asked of governments (as in: “why doesn’t the UK aid budget simply all go to mosquito nets?”)
A likely explanation for why the Gates Foundation doesn’t give to GiveWell’s top charities is that those charities don’t currently have much room for more funding (GiveWell had to rollover funding last year because they couldn’t spend it all. A recent blog posts suggests they may have more room for funding soon https://blog.givewell.org/2022/07/05/update-on-givewells-funding-projections/)
A likely explanation for why the Gates Foundation doesn’t give to GiveDirectly is that they don’t see strong enough evidence yet for the effectiveness (particularly in the long-term or at the societal level) of unconditional cash transfers (A Cochrane review from this year suggests slight short-term benefits: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD011135.pub3/full)