Best Charities

Not all charities are equal. In fact, you can often have 100x more impact by donating to the best ones.
To find them, Effective Altruism Australia:
Learn more about our evaluation process here.
You can either donate to specific programs, or give to one of our funds and we will direct your donation based on the strongest evidence and need at the time.

Fund options

Our two funds

Giving to a fund usually lets you do more good. Most donors don’t have time to do deep, regular research on all the charity options. With an expert-led fund, donors pool their money to be distributed as effectively as possible. Because of the size of the pool, experts can better research where the money is most needed, and follow-up on how it’s being spent. So, if you want your money to be allocated most efficiently and effectively, consider our funds:

Top Charities Fund

In partnership with
With our top charities fund, we work with GiveWell to find the programs that save or improve lives the most per dollar. With this fund, your donation goes to the most cost-effective funding opportunity among our top recommendations below, which align with GiveWell’s Top Charities.

Top Climate Charities Fund

In partnership with
With our climate fund, we work with Giving Green to find the programs expected to reduce CO2 most effectively. With this fund, your donation goes to the most cost-effective opportunities via Giving Green’s Top Climate Nonprofits.

Top Charities Fund

In partnership with
With our top charities fund, we work with GiveWell to find the programs that save or improve lives the most per dollar. With this fund, your donation goes to the most cost-effective funding opportunity among our top recommendations below, which align with GiveWell’s Top Charities

Environment Fund

In partnership with
With our climate fund, we work with Giving Green to find the programs expected to reduce CO2 most effectively. With this fund, your donation goes to the most cost-effective opportunities via Giving Green’s Top Climate Nonprofits.

Global health and development

Our top recommendations

We are highly confident that donating to these programs will go far in saving or improving lives in the world’s poorest communities.

Against Malaria Foundation

Bednets to prevent malaria

Malaria kills more young children in Africa each year than any other cause, with a child dying of the disease about every minute. Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) enables the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets at a low cost, protecting people’s sleeping spaces from mosquitos that can carry malaria.

For more, you can review GiveWell’s full report on bed nets or learn more about AMF via GiveWell and Giving What We Can.
Recommended by

Malaria Consortium

Drugs to prevent malaria

Malaria is preventable with low-cost medications. Still, many people in the most vulnerable communities lack easy access to antimalarial medicine. Malaria Consortium’s SMC seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) program helps governments deliver preventive antimalarial drugs to children under five during the peak malaria transmission season. Analysis of rigorous studies has found that SMC can reduce malaria cases by up to 75%, thereby reducing malaria deaths.

For more, you can read about Malaria Consortium via GiveWell and Giving What We Can.
Recommended by

Helen Keller International

Vitamin A supplementation

Millions of young children living in poverty face vitamin A deficiencies, putting them at risk of blindness, infection, and even death. Helen Keller International partners with governments across Africa and Asia to increase vitamin A supplementation to children, with strong evidence showing that these programs effectively improve health and reduce child mortality. In 2024, Helen Keller International distributed more than 87 million capsules of vitamin A.

For more, you can read reports on Helen Keller International’s supplementation program by GiveWell and Giving What We Can.
Recommended by

New Incentives

Cash incentives for childhood vaccinations

Immunisations protect children from deadly diseases like tuberculosis and whooping cough. But, many children in lower-income countries don’t receive all recommended immunisations, including due to lack of access, education, or because their parents can’t afford to get to the clinic. New Incentives works with local health clinics in Nigeria to offer cash incentives to caregivers who bring their babies to be immunised. It also promotes vaccination within communities and helps ensure clinics have enough vaccine supply. A randomised trial found that the program doubles vaccination rates in the regions it operates.

For more, you can read reports on New Incentives by GiveWell and Giving What We Can.
Recommended by

Other programs we support

We also support programs that offer deworming, cash transfers, and depression treatment. While they’re currently judged to be less cost effective at saving and improving lives than the top charities (above), some donors find these connect better with their priorities or values.

Unlimit Health

Treating children for parasitic infections

Parasitic worm infections can impair childhood development, cause severe chronic illness, and reduce school attendance. Unlimit Health partners with governments across sub-Saharan Africa to deliver tens-of-millions of deworming treatments to school children each year. Treatments are very inexpensive and provided at no cost to families.

For more, you can review GiveWell’s full report on bed nets or learn more about AMF via GiveWell and Giving What We Can.

Recommended by

Deworm the World Initiative
(led by Evidence Action)

Treating children for parasitic infections

With untreated worm infections often leading to malnourishment, illness and missed school, children can be set back for life. The Deworm the World Initiative led by Evidence Action supports governments around the world to eliminate the threat of parasitic worms through school-based mass deworming programs. Their advocacy and technical assistance to launch, strengthen and strengthen school-based deworming programs has led to over 2 billion treatments being delivered since 2024, costing less than US$0.50 each. 

For more, you can read reports on Deworm the World by GiveWell, Giving What We Can and The Life You Can Save.

Recommended by

GiveDirectly

Unconditional cash transfers to the extreme poor

Providing direct unconditional cash transfers to very poor families allows them to purchase that which they believe will help them most. Strong evidence indicates that cash transfers lead recipients to spend more on their basic needs—like food, medicine, and housing—and even allow them to jumpstart small businesses, with evidence showing no impact, or a negative impact, of transfers on alcohol or tobacco expenditure.
You can also donate to Give Directly’s programs focused on Refugees or their Universal Basic Income research.

For more, see GiveWell’s full report on cash transfers or read reports on GiveDirectly by GiveWell, Giving What We Can and The Life You Can Save.

Recommended by

StrongMinds

Treating depression at scale in Africa

Globally, 280 million people experience depression disorders. In low-income countries, up to 85% have no access to treatment, and women are affected at 2x the rate of men. StrongMinds provides free group talk therapy to low-income women and adolescents with depression in sub-Saharan Africa. They scale their reach through peer-to-peer therapy, teletherapy, public education, and partnerships. Women who complete their therapy achieve clinically significant reductions in depression symptoms, restoring hope for themselves and their families and supporting health, education and economic outcomes. Approximately 80% of clients are depression-free at the conclusion of treatment. Since 2013 they have treated more than 900,000 individuals for depression.

For more, you can visit StrongMinds and see GiveWell’s analysis of the program here.

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Climate action

Our Environment Fund helps Australians maximise their impact on combating climate change. Our expert evaluation partners conduct over 4,000 hours of rigorous research each year to identify some of the most effective, evidence-based, high-leverage climate initiatives worldwide.

Each charity in this fund—listed below—has been independently recommended by our evaluation partners for its exceptional impact potential. Your donation directly supports high-leverage climate solutions with measurable results.

We are highly confident that donating to our Environment Fund—which supports programs including those listed below—will go far in combating climate change.

Clean Air Task Force are working to decarbonise the global energy system to address climate change. They do this by advocating for the technologies and policies needed to get to a zero-emissions planet at an affordable cost. You can learn more about Clean Air Task Force from our evaluations partners: Giving Green and Founders Pledge.
Recommended by
Project Innerspace is working to unlock widespread, clean geothermal energy. They do this by supporting emerging technologies that will make geothermal energy viable in a far broader set of geographies. You can learn more about Project Interspace from Giving Green’s report on their work, as well as their report on the Geothermal Sector.
Recommended by
Opportunity Green uses legal and policy approaches to reduce emissions from aviation and shipping. Aviation and shipping are two of the most neglected sectors of climate, as they are typically not included in any individual country’s emissions footprint. You can learn more about Opportunity Green from Giving Green’s deep dive on their work, as well as their deep dive on the aviation and shipping sectors.
Recommended by

Climate action

We are highly confident that donating to our Environment Fund via Effective Altruism Australia Environment—which supports programs including those listed below—will go far in combating climate change.

Clean Air Task Force are working to decarbonise the global energy system to address climate change. They do this by advocating for the technologies and policies needed to get to a zero-emissions planet at an affordable cost. You can learn more about Clean Air Task Force from our evaluations partners: Giving Green and Founders Pledge.
Project Innerspace is working to unlock widespread, clean geothermal energy. They do this by supporting emerging technologies that will make geothermal energy viable in a far broader set of geographies. You can learn more about Project Interspace from Giving Green’s report on their work, as well as their report on the Geothermal Sector.
Opportunity Green uses legal and policy approaches to reduce emissions from aviation and shipping. Aviation and shipping are two of the most neglected sectors of climate, as they are typically not included in any individual country’s emissions footprint. You can learn more about Opportunity Green from Giving Green’s deep dive on their work, as well as their deep dive on the aviation and shipping sectors.

Help us do more good

At Effective Altruism Australia (EAA), we are on a mission to help Australians tackle the world’s most pressing problems. With your support, we can reach more people, move money more efficiently, grow our community, and increase support for high-impact charitable programs.
Your donation to EAA’s operations has a catalytic effect—what’s known as a “giving multiplier.” In the 2024 calendar year, enabled by a grant from Founders Pledge, we demonstrated that supporting EAA’s fundraising work can generate more than a 5x return in increased donations to our partner charities. You can review some of these results in our FY24 financial report.
Beyond fundraising, EAA builds and nurtures a national community through events, resources, and career advice—connecting people who are thinking carefully about the world’s biggest problems and taking impactful action to solve them. We occasionally engage in targeted policy advocacy, such as making submissions to the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry on Philanthropy, where we’ve advocated for expanded tax deductibility for high-impact causes, modernised regulatory frameworks, and better impact evaluation. Most of this is supported by grants and volunteers, but if you want to amplify your impact, you might consider helping to amplify ours.
To support EAA’s work, simply select an amount under “Amplify my impact” in the donation form. All funds to support EAA’s work are allocated by our Board of Directors, with full transparency through our annually published audited financial statements.
Finally, you can also donate to Giving What We Can, a partner organisation of ours fostering a global community of effective givers and pledgers. So far they have moved over US$450 million to high-impact charities.

Other cause areas

Beyond global health and climate, there are other cause areas where donating effectively can help address pressing problems in the world.
Improving animal welfare
There are likely well over 100 billion animals living in factory farms at present. Most experience serious levels of suffering. Moreover, there are promising paths to improving the conditions, reducing the number of animals raised, or developing alternative options to animal products. If you’re interested in this cause area, you can learn more or donate via Giving What We Can’s Animal Welfare page. Despite our best efforts, it is hard for Australian donors to make tax-deductible donations to the most cost-effective animal welfare charities. There might be good reasons to forgo the tax deduction given the cost-effectiveness of animal welfare interventions.
Creating a better future and reducing existential risks
As technology advances, humanity faces new risks. Some of these risks are existential, meaning billions could die, or we could face an unrecoverable collapse. Some people also work on this space because avoiding these catastrophes is key to making sure the long-term future goes. Highly effective charities in this space work to reduce existential and catastrophic risks, such as those coming from misaligned artificial intelligence, pandemics, and nuclear war. Donors interested in this cause area can learn more, and donate, via Giving What We Can’s recommendations. Again, while few recommendations are tax-deductible in Australia, donors might consider arguments for forgoing that deduction.

For a more complete list of highly effective cause areas and charities, please visit this Giving What We Can page.
As technology advances, humanity faces new risks. Some of these risks are existential, meaning billions could die, or we could face an unrecoverable collapse. Some people also work on this space because avoiding these catastrophes is key to making sure the long-term future goes well. Highly effective charities in this space work to reduce existential and catastrophic risks, such as those coming from misaligned artificial intelligence, pandemics, and nuclear war. Donors interested in this cause area can learn more, and donate, via Giving What We Can’s recommendations. Again, while few recommendations are tax-deductible in Australia, donors might consider arguments for forgoing that deduction.

For a more complete list of highly effective cause areas and charities, please visit this Giving What We Can page.
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