How We Evaluate
Principles
EECE evaluates charities based on the principles of effective altruism. This means that we evaluate and recommend those charities that we believe have the ability to do the most good with additional funds. When it comes to determining what it means to do the most good, we take a broad and inclusive approach. We do not limit ourselves to only human-centered causes and issues but consider the well-being of all sentient beings to be important. As such, we are open to evaluating any charity that we believe has the potential to greatly reduce suffering and increase welfare wherever it may be found.
Due to the nature of early-stage charities, the material that is available to use to evaluate these charities is often limited when compared to that of more established organizations. This is one of the challenges of evaluating new charities, but we do not believe that this prevents one from developing an accurate understanding of the direction and potential of an organization. EECE is committed to attaining an accurate understanding of our reviewed charities through our evaluation process.
Basic Evaluation
EECE uses two different levels of evaluation: basic and in-depth. Basic evaluations consist of consulting the charity’s publicly available information, typically its website, to answer questions about the nature of the organization including the problem it aims to address, the interventions it uses to address this problem, its goals, its accomplishments, and any other pertinent information helpful for understanding the direction and potential of the charity. The charities we choose for basic evaluation will typically be those that appear to hold promise of being highly effective or addressing a previously underserved cause area. Charities that have only undergone basic evaluation will not be recommended, though a charity may be evaluated in more depth at a later date and subsequently recommended. Basic evaluations serve primarily as a way for EECE to develop a better understanding of potentially highly effective early-stage charities and to provide the public with greater information about these charities.
In-Depth Evaluation
In-depth evaluations are performed for those charities that we believe have the strongest potential of receiving our recommendation. After conducting a basic evaluation, particularly promising charities are asked whether they would like to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation. Those that agree are asked to complete an evaluation form describing in-depth the operation of their charity. This includes the programs the organization run, the financial breakdown for these programs and how more or less funding would influence the programs and the organization as a whole, the near- and long-term goals of the organization, how the organization tracks the effectiveness of their programs, important financial and organizational documentation, and any other information the charity feels would be helpful for proper evaluation. Once we have received the evaluation form, EECE will contact leading members of the organization to acquire further information, including the charity’s day-to-day operations and the workplace environment as well as resolving any questions that may have arisen after reviewing the evaluation form. Upon reviewing this information, a detailed evaluation will be written describing the information gathered through this process, an analysis of the charity’s room for further funding, the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and whether we recommend the charity to donors. Those charities that we recommend may also receive grants from EECE. All evaluations whether basic or in-depth will be published on our evaluations page.
Privacy
We take seriously the privacy of the organizations that we evaluate. Once we have neared the end of the evaluation process, we allow the charity to read through the review to ensure that we did not misrepresent their organization or publish any sensitive information. If necessary, this feedback is then incorporated into the final review published on our website. If at any time during or after the evaluation process the charity asks us to discontinue the evaluation, we will stop the process and remove the evaluation from our website.