Smeets, professor at the UvA's Amsterdam Business School, and Stichting Doneer Effectief announced the top 3 in Amsterdam on Tuesday afternoon. It is the second year this research has been carried out. 'More and more academic research is available on the actual performance of charities. Thanks to the work of independent research institutions that investigate charities globally, we can now inform Dutch donors where their donations are doing the most good.'

Problem categories

Independent research institutions such as GiveWell, GivingGreen and Animal Charity Evaluators assess charities operating in different problem categories. Among other things, they do so based on 4 criteria: proven effectiveness of the intervention, cost-effectiveness, transparency, and scope for additional financing. The results are public. A jury of Dutch and Flemish academics reviews the quality of the research reports and then decides on a single top recommendation per category. Doneer Effectief compiles information about the effectiveness of charities, ultimately making it easier to donate to them.

'For example, we look at whether the action a charity is taking to tackle a problem is also demonstrably the best way forward. In terms of cost-effectiveness, we look at which charity delivers the most per donated euro. Transparency is about disclosing positive results, but also about sharing mistakes that have been made,' says Smeets. 'Finally, we look at whether there’s enough scope for additional donations without sacrificing impact.'

Explainer | Paul Smeets about how the rating process works

Major social impact

'We’ve chosen the 3 categories deliberately to represent the significant global issues of today,' Smeets says. Every hour, 650 children die of easily preventable diseases, 4 million tonnes of CO₂ are emitted into the air and over 18 million animals die in the bio-industry. Smeets: 'At the same time, some charities are doing something about it, maximising the result per donated euro. For instance, New Incentives is setting up an anti-dehydration programme to stop children dying from diarrhoea. This costs no more than 3 euros per child per year. The Good Food Institute helps reduce CO₂ emissions from food production by developing and promoting alternative proteins. The Vegetarian Society of Denmark was the driving force behind the Danish government’s plan to set aside almost 200 million euros to promote plant-based proteins instead of animal ones. According to our jury, a donation to these 3 causes will make the biggest difference this month.'

Popularity of donating effectively

Earlier this year, Geven in Nederland calculated that 76% of households donate to at least one charity annually. Bram Schaper, director of Doneer Effectief, sees a growing interest in charities that make a demonstrable impact based on academic research: 'Since our launch in 2022, we’ve already raised over 5 million euros and the number of donations is increasing every quarter. This has exceeded all our expectations. I believe the information we provide offers something unique to those Dutch donors who demonstrably want to help address significant global issues.'