[yboris]

Efforts work best when they are focused on cost-effective interventions, not things you have direct experience with.

Just about 100% of the US population have no experience with malaria. Yet it costs about $2 to provide a insecticide-treated net that protects on average 2 people for 2-3 years from malaria (while they sleep -- a common time for malaria transmission). There is arguably nothing you can do with $2 of resources in the US that can do as much good as this.

So, please focus on cost-effective charities with a proven track record, that use evidence-based methods to help individuals, and do it in a transparent way (so you know what's happening when you donate). To make it easier, start with GiveWell - an independent charity evaluator: https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

[shkkmo]

I would point out that only funding projects that can easily measure and quantify results will rule out a lot of important projects. If you are going to donate, then you should do it responsibly. Using an independent non-profit to evaluate your potential recipients is a way to do that, and getting direct experience with the non-profit is another.

You seem to have missed my point: Doing evil things for money and then donating some of that money to charity is generally worse than not doing the evil things in the first place.

[prionassembly]

Then, it's possible that nets are being distributed by evil people who make their victims kneel for hours before getting help. (This is extreme, but it could involve things diametrically opposed to your values; maybe Islam is being spread in traditional animistic societies[0], destroying traditional culture; maybe they're micro-chipping these people.) Cost-effectiveness is a good metric, but if you know nothing about what's involved in curing malaria...

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[0] Semi-relatedly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Save_the_Children_Fund_Fil...

[yboris]

Exactly the reason everyone should do research before giving to charity. Since unlike products you buy, which you can test out and even return, charitable donations provide you with no feedback, you must research charities.

The great news is GiveWell has been doing this for over a decade (full time!) and has excellent recommendations.

https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities