For the past few months I've been following The Givewell Blog. Here's a recent post, Why are we always criticizing charities?:
Recently, we've criticized (in one way or another) many well-known, presumably well-intentioned charities (Smile Train, Acumen Fund, UNICEF, Kiva), which might lead to some to ask: should GiveWell focus on the bad (which may discourage donors from giving) as opposed to the good (which would encourage them to give more)? Why so much negativity and not more optimism? The fact is, we are very optimistic about what a donor can accomplish with their charity. Donor's can have huge impact -- save a life, improve equality of opportunity, or improve education. Our research process, and our main website, are (and always have been) built around identifying outstanding charities. GiveWell hasn't set a bar that no charity can meet. Six international charities have met and passed the bar. Where most charities ...
