I think the guy you’re thinking of is Zell Kravinsky.
alexanderis
Karma: 18
I don’t know what financial statements you’re looking at, but if you look at the 2009 IRS form 990, it shows that they raised $374K and spent $340K. Of that, $110K was re-granted.
They did raise $768K in 2008, but they only spent $155K of it, and saved the rest. $250K of it was restricted for the their economic empowerment grant, which was distributed in early 2010.
Furthermore, I find your characterization of their business model misleading. I don’t know what Holden and Elie made working for a hedge fund, but I bet it’s a hell of a lot more than they’re making at GiveWell, so criticizing their selfishness strikes me as mistaken.
I don’t know if GiveWell publishes the data on where they get their money, but I’m fairly certain that very little of it comes from the general public in the way you’re suggesting. Their mid-2010 budget update (DOC), for instance, calculates when they would run out of money if they don’t get any donations that they aren’t already anticipating. Most of their funding, on my understanding, comes from the Hewlett Foundation and their board.
Edit: I’ve been a fan of the GiveWell project for quite some time, and have an informal agreement to join GiveWell as an employee in mid-2011. I’m a student and was commenting simply on my own behalf, without any discussion with GiveWell. After Holden commented, I emailed him to say that I had commented, and he recommended that I disclose my plan to work for them.
I don’t know what metric you’re using to determine whether CN or GiveWell has a significantly higher online profile, but “charitynavigator.org″ returns ten times as many hits on Google as ”givewell.org″
No doubt about it, Charity Navigator evaluates more charities, but they’re able to do so because they use a substantially less rigorous methodology. They carry out a fundamentally different function: they’re a watchdog group, aiming to avoid fraud, while GiveWell conducts research to try to find excellent charities, a much more difficult task. (Looks like Yvain makes this point above).
Because it’s younger and appeals to a smaller group of people that want to maximize their impact, GiveWell moves substantially less money than Charity Navigator (though it’s growing).
Edit: I’ve been a fan of the GiveWell project for quite some time, and have an informal agreement to join GiveWell as an employee in mid-2011. I’m a student and was commenting simply on my own behalf, without any discussion with GiveWell. After Holden commented, I emailed him to say that I had commented, and he recommended that I disclose my plan to work for them.