No Lean Season donations received

This is an online portal with information on donations that were announced publicly (or have been shared with permission) that were of interest to Vipul Naik. The git repository with the code for this portal, as well as all the underlying data, is available on GitHub. All payment amounts are in current United States dollars (USD). The repository of donations is being seeded with an initial collation by Issa Rice as well as continued contributions from him (see his commits and the contract work page listing all financially compensated contributions to the site) but all responsibility for errors and inaccuracies belongs to Vipul Naik. Current data is preliminary and has not been completely vetted and normalized; if sharing a link to this site or any page on this site, please include the caveat that the data is preliminary (if you want to share without including caveats, please check with Vipul Naik). We expect to have completed the first round of development by the end of July 2024. See the about page for more details. Also of interest: pageview data on analytics.vipulnaik.com, tutorial in README, request for feedback to EA Forum.

Table of contents

Basic donee information

ItemValue
Country

Donee donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 8 170,792 1,821,330 0 0 0 150,000 170,792 170,792 250,000 812,351 1,687,500 11,500,000 11,500,000
Seasonal intracountry migration 8 170,792 1,821,330 0 0 0 150,000 170,792 170,792 250,000 812,351 1,687,500 11,500,000 11,500,000

Donation amounts by donor and year for donee No Lean Season

Donor Total 2017 2016 2014
Good Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities (filter this donee) 11,500,000.00 11,500,000.00 0.00 0.00
GiveWell Incubation Grants (filter this donee) 2,920,643.00 0.00 2,499,851.00 420,792.00
Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund (filter this donee) 150,000.00 150,000.00 0.00 0.00
Catherine Hollander (filter this donee) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Sophie Monahan (filter this donee) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total 14,570,643.00 11,650,000.00 2,499,851.00 420,792.00

Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (7 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
We’re Shutting Down No Lean Season, Our Seasonal Migration Program: Here’s Why2019-06-06Kanika Bahl Evidence Action No Lean Season Donee periodic updateSeasonal intracountry migrationEvidence Action explains why it is shutting down No Lean Season, its program that provides subsidies for seasonal intracountry migration in Bangladesh. The main reason cited is allegations of financial irregularities, which led No Lean Season to terminate its relationship with the local implementation partner. The lack of clear positive results is also cited. An accident in Cumilla, Bangladesh, that caused the death of some workers who had received subsidies from No Lean Season, is also mentioned, but not cited as a reason for closing the program
Evidence Action is shutting down No Lean Season2019-06-06Catherine Hollander GiveWell No Lean Season GiveWell Evaluator update on doneeSeasonal intracountry migrationGiveWell blogs about Evidence Action's announcement that it is shutting down No Lean Season: https://www.evidenceaction.org/blog-full/why-we-are-shutting-down-no-lean-season Like the original Evidence Action blog post, GiveWell cites two main reasons for closing the program: Investigation into allegations against Evidence Action’s implementing partner, and mixed evidence of impact for the program. GiveWell explains why it still has a high opinion of Evidence Action, but notes three questions derived from these developments: (a) selection of implementing partners, (b) process for hiring and evaluating staff, and (c) financial oversight. GiveWell expects to ask Evidence Action to redirect to Deworm the World Initiative the unused funds donated via GiveWell for No Lean Season. Donors who have a different preference for their donated money are asked to contact donations@givewell.org by July 31
Why (and when) we test at scale: No Lean Season and the quest for impact2018-11-19Karen Levy Varna Sri Raman Evidence Action No Lean Season Donee periodic updateSeasonal intracountry migrationEvidence Action, which runs the incubation program Evidence Action Beta under which No Lean Season is being incubated, reviews the results of the 2017 RCT that did not show the expected impact of scaling up its seasonal intracountry migration program in Bangladesh. The diagnosis was that implementation issues led to a slow rate of actual loan disbursement and therefore too small an effect on migration to yield the sought increases in income and consumption. The post mentions how this feedback was used to improve the iteration of the program in 2018, and the results should begin to emerge in early 2019. See also the related GiveWell post (removing No Lean Season from top charity status) at https://blog.givewell.org/2018/11/19/update-on-no-lean-seasons-top-charity-status
Update on No Lean Season’s top charity status2018-11-19Catherine Hollander GiveWellGood Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities No Lean Season GiveWell Evaluator update on doneeSeasonal intracountry migrationGiveWell announces the removal of No Lean Season from its list of top charities, in advance of the annual top charity list refresh. The primary reason is that the results of the 2017 RCT suggest that the program did not successfully induce migration. No Lean Season has over two years of funding remaining, which would allow them to use the information to tweak the program further, allowing for re-evaluation by GiveWell in 2019. Evidence Action has a related blog post at https://www.evidenceaction.org/blog-full/why-test-at-scale-no-lean-season
Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 20172017-12-11Josh Rosenberg GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Natalie Crispin Josh Rosenberg Sophie Monahan Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Chelsea Tabart Christian Smith Isabel Arjmand James Snowden GiveWell top charities Effective Altruism Funds No Lean Season Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly Causa Justa::Just Cause Planned Parenthood ProPublica Earthjustice Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell staff describe where they are donating in 2017. Not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell
Our top charities for giving season 20172017-11-27Natalie Crispin GiveWellGiveWell Maximum Impact Fund Good Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities GiveWell top charities Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Malaria Consortium Deworm the World Initiative Helen Keller International Sightsavers The END Fund No Lean Season GiveDirectly Development Media International Dispensers for Safe Water Food Fortification Initiative Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Iodine Global Network Living Goods Project Healthy Children GiveWell Evaluator consolidated recommendation listGlobal health and developmentGiveWell annual top charity refresh, also announced amounts recommended for Good Ventures to donate to top charities. Added two new top charities
Update on the Open Philanthropy Project’s Work on Migration Liberalisation2016-04-08Sebastian Nickel Open Borders: The CaseOpen Philanthropy Center for Global Development U.S. Association for International Migration Protect the People ImmigrationWorks Foundation No Lean Season Niskanen Center New York University Third-party coverage of donor strategyMigration policyThe blog post provides an update to https://openborders.info/blog/overview-of-the-open-philanthropy-projects-work-on-migration-liberalisation/ (a blog post from a year ago), providing updates on the grants discussed in the previous post, as well as descriptions of new grants. A section titled "Closing thoughts" gives the author's take on events; it stresses the difficulty of figuring out how best to effect political change, and the longer time horizon needed for efforts to bear fruit.

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (8 donations)

Graph of top 10 donors (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations

Graph of donations and their timeframes
DonorAmount (current USD)Amount rank (out of 8)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
Catherine Hollander----2017-12-11Seasonal intracountry migrationhttps://blog.givewell.org/2017/12/11/staff-members-personal-donations-for-giving-season-2017/#Catherine-- Like Sophie Monahan, the donor plans to support No Lean Season with 10% of her total giving to increase the visibility of the new top charity, and based on being impressed with its work. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 10.00%.
Sophie Monahan----2017-12-11Seasonal intracountry migrationhttps://blog.givewell.org/2017/12/11/staff-members-personal-donations-for-giving-season-2017/#SophieGiveWell The donor selected this charity because of more interest in reducing near-term poverty for adults and children, even though GiveWell met the most critical room for more funding needs. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 100.00%.
Good Ventures/GiveWell top and standout charities11,500,000.0012017-12Seasonal intracountry migrationhttp://www.goodventures.org/our-portfolio/grants/evidence-action-no-lean-season-december-2017GiveWell Grant includes a $2.5 million minimum for being a top charity, and $9 million to meet the full funding gap over three years for implementing the program in Bangladesh. Grant announced on 2017-11-27 at https://blog.givewell.org/2017/11/27/our-top-charities-for-giving-season-2017/ along with GiveWell top and standout charities list. Affected countries: Bangladesh.
Effective Altruism Funds: Global Health and Development Fund150,000.0062017-10-17Seasonal intracountry migrationhttps://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/global-development/payouts/3xW9fK4U7YqMsKaQgGG8SoElie Hassenfeld Elie Hassenfeld recommended No Lean Season on 2017-09-27 after receiving a phone call from Karen Levy saying that No Lean Season had failed to raise funds to meet the unexpectedly high demand for money from borrowers. Hassenfeld recommended the grant amount because Levy told him that would enable the program to continue operating uninterrupted. This was before No Lean Season became a GiveWell top charity. Affected countries: Bangladesh; Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 100.00%.
GiveWell Incubation Grants1,687,500.0022016-12Seasonal intracountry migration/potential top charityhttps://www.givewell.org/charities/evidence-action/december-2016-grant-- Grant to Evidence Action follows previous grants to expand seasonal migration program. Now operates in Bangladesh and Indonesia. Affected countries: Bangladesh|Indonesia; announced: 2017-05-11.
GiveWell Incubation Grants812,351.0032016-03Seasonal intracountry migration/Potential top charityhttps://www.givewell.org/charities/evidence-action/march-2016-grant-- Grant to fully cover projected No Lean Season costs for 2016. Hope that it would become a GiveWell top charity in the long term. See https://www.givewell.org/charities/evidence-action/no-lean-season/all-content for all GiveWell content on the organization. Affected countries: Bangladesh.
GiveWell Incubation Grants250,000.0042014-03Seasonal intracountry migration/potential top charityhttps://www.givewell.org/evidence-action/march-2014-grant-- Grant made to Evidence Action (which manages the program, and separately runs the Deworm the World Initiative) to support preliminary work and additional research on the No Lean Season program in Bangladesh. See https://www.givewell.org/charities/evidence-action/no-lean-season/all-content for all GiveWell content on the organization. Affected countries: Bangladesh.
GiveWell Incubation Grants170,792.0052014-03Seasonal intracountry migrationhttps://www.givewell.org/evidence-action/march-2014-grant-- Second grant made to Evidence Action (which manages the program, and separately runs the Deworm the World Initiative) to support preliminary work and additional research on the No Lean Season program in Bangladesh.. See https://www.givewell.org/charities/evidence-action/no-lean-season/all-content for all GiveWell content on the organization. Affected countries: Bangladesh.