Hi Miranda, and apologies for writing semi-anonymously.
That was very helpful and wonderful to hear!
I am also very glad to hear that you keep your grant decisions independent of your outreach and fundraising plans, despite potential strong misaligned incentives, and I am relieved and immensely grateful that I was wrong to suspect otherwise.
I’m confused as to why GiveWell is not filling the current funding gap of FEM’s program, given that you estimate it to be more cost-effective than the programs you are currently funding, which are 13x cash. I imagine that’s because you’re less uncertain about the estimates for those programs?
[I’m also curious as to why someone disagree-voted the above, if the voter is reading this I would find an explanation helpful.]
We expect to wait until the results of FEM’s RCT are available before deciding whether to recommend funding for the program itself; we do have some remaining uncertainties, and it’s possible that additional work could lead to significant changes in our cost-effectiveness estimate. We also plan to continue our own research on family planning programs in general, which may affect our funding decisions in this area.
As our investigations progress, we’ll share updates on our website. Please feel free to reach out directly if you have questions in the meantime!
Hi Miranda, and apologies for writing semi-anonymously.
That was very helpful and wonderful to hear!
I am also very glad to hear that you keep your grant decisions independent of your outreach and fundraising plans, despite potential strong misaligned incentives, and I am relieved and immensely grateful that I was wrong to suspect otherwise.
I’m confused as to why GiveWell is not filling the current funding gap of FEM’s program, given that you estimate it to be more cost-effective than the programs you are currently funding, which are 13x cash. I imagine that’s because you’re less uncertain about the estimates for those programs?
[I’m also curious as to why someone disagree-voted the above, if the voter is reading this I would find an explanation helpful.]
I’m glad you found this response helpful!
We expect to wait until the results of FEM’s RCT are available before deciding whether to recommend funding for the program itself; we do have some remaining uncertainties, and it’s possible that additional work could lead to significant changes in our cost-effectiveness estimate. We also plan to continue our own research on family planning programs in general, which may affect our funding decisions in this area.
As our investigations progress, we’ll share updates on our website. Please feel free to reach out directly if you have questions in the meantime!
Best,
Roman Guglielmo
Donor Relations Associate
GiveWell