Reach Up (icddr,b) – (dedicated charity page)
Charity overview
The Happier Lives Institute is the nonprofit organisation behind this website.
Our goal is to find and promote the best charities that improve global happiness. We do this by conducting scientifically rigorous research into different cause areas, interventions, and charities.
What problem is the Happier Lives Institute working on?
It’s hard to choose the best charity to donate to. There are so many charities to choose from. And some charities are far more effective than others.
It’s also hard to know which charities create the most happiness.
Luckily, we’ve already done extensive research to find out which are the best charities for creating happiness. We then share these findings for free.
We’re the only organisation in the world that does this.
What does the Happier Lives Institute do?
Our mission is to help you choose the best charities for making the world a happier place.
We’re what’s known as a ‘charity evaluator’.
The most effective charity evaluators use research and evidence to weigh up which charities they recommend. Almost all charity evaluators tend to focus on physical health or wealth as key measures of success – but they don’t factor in the impact on people’s overall happiness.
That’s where we come in. We use measures of happiness as a way to assess the impact charities are having. We’re the first and only charity evaluator that does this.
It’s our job to do extensive, scientific research on the things that charities do to create happiness.
Our research seeks to answer these main questions:
- What cause areas make the most difference to people’s happiness? (For example, is it mental health, nutrition or parenting?)
- What kinds of interventions are the most cost-effective for creating happiness? (For example, within mental health, which has the biggest impact on happiness – psychotherapy, nutrition, or wealth?)
- Which charities make the most difference to people’s happiness using those interventions? (For example, within the intervention of psychotherapy, which charity does the most good per dollar?)
In addition to being a charity evaluator, we also:
campaign for governments, charities and other organisations to adopt a “happiness first” approach, in that they should use WELLBYs as their first measure of success
Do foundational research on happiness, such as…
Publish research on…
Why donate to the Happier Lives Institute?
Overheads
Keeping the lights on
Fund more research
Marketing etc so we can be self-sufficient in terms of funding…
Multiply your donation – by scaling through us
We publish our research and recommendations so anyone can access them for free – but it costs money for us to produce these recommendations. We providing a high value service.
Cost-efficient. We’re very responsible with funding we receive. We don’t have a highly paid CEO, or big marketing agencies.
Reliant on donations. In order for our service to be free and unbiased, we don’t take any commission for donations to other charities through our platform. And charities don’t pay us for recommending them. We can only continue this work if we receive donations to Happier Lives Institute itself.
Transparent. We’re open about our levels of confidence, mistakes we’ve made, and areas where we need to improve.
Make the world happier
Donating to our recommended charities is the most effective thing you can do to increase happiness in the world.
Backed by research
Our charity recommendations are based on extensive, peer-reviewed scientific research.
Multiply your impact
Our top charities are at least 5x more effective than the highest benchmarks.
Free to use
100% of your donation goes to the charity you choose. And you can access all our our research for free.
Transparent
We’re open about our levels of confidence, mistakes we’ve made, and areas where we need to improve.
Fair and unbiased
We don’t take any money from the charities we recommend. Our funding only comes from people who want to support our work directly.
Evidence showing its impact
IPA report summary
Need for funding
The Happier Lives Institute is the nonprofit organisation behind this website.
Our goal is to find and promote the best charities that improve global happiness. We do this by conducting scientifically rigorous research into different cause areas, interventions, and charities.