Published: May 2019
Note: This page summarizes the rationale behind a grant to IDinsight that GiveWell has recommended to Open Philanthropy. IDinsight staff reviewed this page prior to publication.
Summary
In February 2019, GiveWell recommended that Open Philanthropy make a $184,324 grant to IDinsight to support its evaluation of New Incentives' program of conditional cash transfers (CCT) for infant immunizations in northern Nigeria. This grant is part of our work to support the creation of future top charities and improve the quality of our recommendations. IDinsight has previously received GiveWell Incubation Grants (in October 2016, May 2017, and April 2018) intended in part to support its work on the baseline and midline stages of a randomized controlled trial evaluating New Incentives' CCT program. New Incentives received a GiveWell Incubation Grant to support its CCT program in November 2017.
Table of Contents
About the grant
This relatively small grant is intended to cover IDinsight's staff costs from February to May 2019 for the randomized controlled trial (RCT) it is conducting on New Incentives' CCT program. By the end of May 2019:
- IDinsight aims to have finished its midline analysis,
- We plan to have agreed with IDinsight on key design elements for the RCT's endline survey that affect the budget, and
- We plan to finalize a budget with IDinsight for the remainder of this work that we agree achieves the right balance of a) value of information generated by the endline survey and b) cost.
At that point, GiveWell plans to recommend an additional grant to IDinsight, which we expect to be the final grant supporting this project. This grant would cover fieldwork costs for the endline study and IDinsight staff costs for the project from June 2019 through June 2020 (when the project would end). (See "Our Process" below for more.)
We expect this RCT to be a key input into our decision about whether New Incentives will be added to our list of top charities.
Plans for follow-up
This grant is part of our ongoing engagement with both IDinsight and New Incentives. We have had and expect to continue having frequent conversations with both organizations to agree on key research decisions and budget.
Key questions for follow-up
- What endline survey design decisions (e.g. sample size) does IDinsight believe are justified based on the value of information they will generate for GiveWell's decision about whether New Incentives should be a top charity?
- How much additional funding will IDinsight need to complete the project, given these endline survey design decisions?
Our Process
IDinsight's funding for the New Incentives project ended in January 2019. We agreed with IDinsight that we would take additional time to work out some details of the endline survey that might affect the budget, and consequently agreed to split IDinsight's funding request into a) this smaller bridge grant to cover the next few months and b) a final, future grant.
Sources
| Document | Source |
|---|---|
| IDinsight, New Incentives Evaluation 2019 Bridge Funding Budget | Unpublished |