Beyond GiveWell: Higher-Variance Global Development Funding Opportunities

By DavidNash @ 2025-12-29T14:54 (+94)

This is a linkpost to https://gdea.substack.com/p/hits-based-giving-opportunities-2025

There’s extensive research helping donors find cost-effective interventions in global health (GiveWell, etc). But for donors with higher risk tolerance considering hits-based giving without $1m+ to deploy, the landscape is far less mapped.

This post compiles donation opportunities and project ideas across economic growth, health, migration and meta-level infrastructure. This isn’t deep (or even shallow) evaluation, it’s a selection of leads for further investigation.

I’m still open for more suggestions if you want to add a comment below.

Economic Growth

Two years ago I asked development people and economists for donation suggestions for supporting economic growth. You can read the full list in the link but I’ve listed the ones below that are more likely to have a funding gap.

Growth Teams - Partners directly with governments to design and implement strategies for generating scalable jobs in poorer states
- Tija - Uses AI to create personalised growth strategies for SMEs, a project of Growth Teams
Charter Cities Institute - Advocates for the establishment of charter cities to spur economic development
Emergent Ventures - A low-overhead fellowship and grant program that supports entrepreneurs with scalable, “zero to one” ideas for improving society
Prosperiti - Indian think tank focused on economic freedom and job opportunities, targeting labour regulation reform at the state level
XKDR Forum - Interdisciplinary group that conducts research and policy engagement on macroeconomics, finance and the judiciary to advance India’s growth

Not in the above list but potential to be impactful.

African Urban Lab - Research and training centre at the African School of Economics. Training the next generation of African city planners and municipal leaders
- YIMBY movement for African cities - Implementing urban policies (expansion planning, satellite property tax, curriculum reform)
The African Tech Futures Lab - Aiming to provide decision-makers with policy strategies to govern emerging technologies like AI, clean energy, and climate engineering
The Global Prosperity Institute - Volunteer run think tank writing on economic growth, they also run a fellowship where people work with Tanzanian businesses. They are open to small donations but unsure if they could absorb a much larger figure
Roots of Progress - Attempting to establish a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. Includes a career accelerator program
- Actively fundraising
Abundance & Growth fund from Coefficient Giving. Most of these are based within institutions, US focused or receiving large grants already
- Asothia - Funding opportunity database tool for scientists/researchers

Ambitious Impact

When asking people for hits-based giving suggestions AIM would come up a lot.

I’ve included some of the newer orgs that are more likely to have a funding gap but you can also just speak to AIM to see where they think extra donations will make the biggest difference.

ACTRA - Implementing community-based therapy (CBT) and crime prevention strategies in Latin America
Learning Alliance - Supports teachers in Africa to implement evidence-based practices
No Violence at Home - Uses media to change social norms aiming to reduce intimate partner violence
Radius Institute for Road Safety - Providing data and technical assistance to reduce road traffic deaths and serious injuries
Four new charities from the latest incubation round
- First Embrace - Will establish ‘Kangaroo Mother Care’ wards in Nigerian hospitals to reduce low-birth-weight new born mortality
- Better Season Project - Provide asset-collateralised loans to Kenyan smallholder farmers for water tanks and other productive tools
- Opal Health - Learning and action groups in rural Uganda to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality
- Better Futures Guide - Will create a GiveWell-style evaluator specifically for livelihood programmes

Migration

Setuwelt - A scholarship program that connects underprivileged Indian youth to Germany’s apprenticeship program
Kav LaOved - A legal aid non-profit that helps migrant workers recover unpaid wages (from the Maximum Impact research project)
Malengo - Facilitates educational migration as a poverty reduction strategy. They provide financial support and mentorship to high-potential students from Uganda to complete university degrees in Germany
- Although recently had grants from The Shapiro Foundation, GiveWell and Coefficient Giving

Health

Project Resource Optimization (hosted at CGD) - Maintains a database of vetted, mid-implementation aid projects that lost USAID funding, connecting donors with opportunities.
- HPV Vaccination ($80k funding gap) - Implementation research on scaling HPV vaccination to prevent cervical cancer in Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Nepal
- Madagascar Vaccines ($230k) -Strengthening urban immunisation systems to reach zero-dose children in Madagascar
- LIFELINE Syria ($460k) - Emergency response providing necessities and health services in conflict-affected Syria
- HIV/TB Myanmar ($1m) - Prevention programme for HIV and tuberculosis in Myanmar
One Day Health - Social enterprise that launches nurse-led primary health centres in remote “healthcare black holes” in Uganda to treat common, treatable conditions like malaria and pneumonia
- They were also looking for funding for a project called Health AIM - A mapping tool helping health providers reach remote rural areas
Wells4Wellness - Drills and maintains wells in Niger, recently evaluated by an EA group
From AIM
- Access to Medicines Initiative - Works to prevent stock-outs of essential family planning supplies in health clinics in Nigeria
- Respira Health - Closing the treatment gap for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Kaya Guides - Provides evidence-based mental health support (guided self-help) for youth in LMICs
- Lead Research for Action - Conducting lead exposure research in neglected countries to identify sources and pave the way for advocacy
- Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Initiative - Aiming to curb lead poisoning caused by the unsafe recycling of lead-acid batteries
From ACX Grants - 2024
- Aperture.ai - Pupillometry via smartphone, the team was given $60k
Manifund Opportunities
- Screwworm Free Future ($56k funding gap) - Coordinating South American governments toward continental eradication during a rare 12-18 month political window created by barrier collapse
- AI-assisted low-cost ultrasound scanner ($36k funding gap) - Wearable ultrasound patch with AI diagnostics using off-the-shelf components for home monitoring in settings without hospital access, currently building first prototype
- Clean Indoor Air for Schools ($350k funding gap) - Developing open-source quiet classroom air purifiers at <$2/student/year with evidence of absence reduction and test score gains
- mRNA for airway disease ($80k funding gap) - Inhaled lipid nanoparticles for lung disease treatment using AI-designed LNPs, MIT postdoc seeking ferret preclinical studies before company spinout
- Vaccine manufacturing platform ($50k funding gap) - Cell-based vaccine production replacing egg-based methods for influenza and yellow fever, eliminating adaptive mutations and supply constraints
Turn.io cohort for a Health & AI Accelerator, startups that may be looking for funding
- AI Diagnostics - digital diagnostic tools and AI stethoscopes for tuberculosis screening
- hearX Foundation - accessible hearing care and digital hearing aids for low-resource settings
- Cuéntame - B2B mental health platform using AI to personalise wellness journeys for Latin American employees
- MDaaS Global - network of tech-enabled diagnostic centres for low-income patients in Nigeria
- Helium Health - electronic medical records and hospital management software for West Africa
- Peek Vision - software and data intelligence optimising eye health surveys and services globally

Funds

I looked into a few different funds to see where they were granting as they will have hopefully done some vetting and analysis. I’ve included examples from different funds where they didn’t receive large grants and don’t look to be based within institutions.

Founders Pledge & TLYCS have launched a ‘GHD Catalytic Impact Fund’
- They have funded a bunch of AIM orgs and a few non aim orgs including
  - Research Institute for Compassionate Economics - Child health and human development challenges in India
  - Project Impala - Low-cost patient monitoring device and software platform designed by the social enterprise GOAL 3
  - PrEP4All - Advocacy group fighting for universal access to HIV prevention and treatment, focusing on breaking patent monopolies to lower drug prices
  - Structural Transformation of Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STARS) - A fellowship and research program supporting early-career economists from developing countries to influence agricultural policy
Giving Green Fund - Climate focused orgs
The Livelihood Impact Fund seeks to meaningfully and durably improve the lives of the global poor - Here are a few that seemed interesting
- Wala – Provides solar irrigation equipment and financing to smallholder farmers in Malawi, allowing them to cultivate crops during the dry season
- Young Farmers Champions Network – Advocacy and peer-to-peer training network for young farmers and aims to change mindsets to view agriculture as a viable business
- Springboard – Combines organic farming training with business incubation to help rural youth build sustainable agricultural enterprises in Nigeria
- Wezesha Impact – Delivers vocational and entrepreneurship training to underserved youth, bridging a gap between education and labour market demands
Mulago Foundation Acceleration Program - Provides grants and capacity building to high-potential African nonprofits (<$500k budgets) in health, livelihoods, justice and education. Given their funding cut off there may be opportunities to support a smaller org amongst their grantees
Mental Health Funders (funding circle)
- $20K for Overcome - Providing free telehealth services to sufferers of mental illness in LMICs
- $50K for Veneactiva - Stepped care therapy (IPC and G-IPT) for Venezuelan refugees in Peru
Global Health Funders (funding circle)
The Life You Can Save Funds
- They generally give to GiveWell recommend orgs, but also a slightly wider range including education and quality of life
Gates Foundation Grand Challenges awards ($100k–$200k) - 2000+ grants over the last 20 years, would require further research into potential impact and room for funding
Coefficient giving - Formerly Open Philanthropy
- Effective Giving & Careers
  - Institute for Development Innovation - Lobbying for smarter public welfare programs for India’s poor
  - Network for Effective Evidence-based Development - Help public policy master’s students access opportunities in evidence-based development (US based)
- They also have funds focused on the below areas but I didn’t see any orgs that looked likely to have room for more funding
  - Lead Exposure Action Fund
  - Science and Global Health R&D
  - Air Quality
  - Forecasting
  - Global Health & Wellbeing Opportunities
  - Global Growth
  - Global Aid Policy
The Agency Fund
- Several organisations in their AI for Global Development Accelerator may have room for funding beyond their accelerator grants, including
  - Jacaranda Health (maternal care in Kenya)
  - Digital Green (agricultural advisory)
  - Precision Development (farming in India)
- The Agency Fund also have a list of their investments with funding amount included, which could indicate which orgs are potentially funding constrained

Research & Evidence

Peace Per Dollar - Aims to establish cost-effectiveness methodologies and norms for peacebuilding interventions. Is a small project but could maybe do something with an early backer
Rethink Priorities’ GHD department - Can help fund specific research or general support
Institute for Replication - Reproduces social science research to see which results hold up
The Metascience Observatory ($65k funding gap) - Building comprehensive database of experimental replications across scientific fields to track reproducibility and enable quality-focused journal rankings

Communication & Advocacy

In Development - “Dedicated to exploring how progress actually happens in the developing world” - A new project that may benefit from early funding
Unlock Aid - Advocacy nonprofit that lobbies for bipartisan legislation to reform how America’s foreign aid budget is spent
- They had a $70,000 funding gap in September 2025, likely to be filled by now but it suggests they will have a funding gap next year
- They also have an index of global health supply chain organisations that they think are impactful
VoxDev - “A platform that bridges the gap between development economics research and policy practice”
- Technically a project for several institutions rather than a standalone charity but maybe could do more with separate funding. I’ve been impressed with their output despite being just two people
Friends of The Global Fight advocates for full commitments from donor governments to the Global Fund, to support malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS programming globally
Substack Blogs - Potentially there is value here if a writer could be more influential if they had more time to write, although I suspect they have more counterfactual good in their existing careers
- Africa’s Bright Future - Magatte Wade - “for entrepreneurs, investors, academics, policymakers, and anyone else who wants informed discussions about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for Africa”
- Yaw’s Brief - Covers economic history, trade and geopolitics, with a focus on structural forces
- Tech Safari - A tech publication founded by Caleb Maru that connects the dots on Africa’s tech ecosystem, profiling startups and investment trends