Build your initiatives.
Pick a fortune and the causes you love, then slide to your line and see what the rest could do every year. Every price has its source.
You keep
$1 billion
You commit
$0
Your line is $100 million. Past it is the bonus zone, down to $50 million.
Keeping it going means the money is invested and pays out at least 5% a year, so if its returns keep pace, it can last for generations: Alfred Nobel's fortune, invested as a fund, has paid for the Nobel Prizes since 1901. Spending it down does more sooner, for problems that can be finished.
Drag the slider, or use the arrow keys.
Malaria
0
lives saved this year
About $5,500 saves a life with bed nets: GiveWell's estimate for the Against Malaria Foundation.
An average from recent years. At a far larger scale each life would cost more, so the count never passes the yearly toll.
Read the blueprint: MalariaClean water
0
people given safe, chlorinated water this year
Less than $1.70 a person a year gives access to chlorinated water at shared water points.
Access isn't use: a later survey found about 2 million people using the dispensers, not the 5 million estimated.
Read the blueprint: Clean waterHomes for veterans
0
veterans with a home this year
About $23,400 a year houses a veteran through HUD-VASH: rent help from HUD and case management from VA.
Our arithmetic from GAO's figures for 2024: what both agencies spent, divided by the vouchers in use.
Read the blueprint: Homes for veterans
Slide right to see what your fortune could do.
Where the slider's numbers come from
Each cause's price and its whole need, with sources. Outcomes are for one year, and none ever passes the whole need.
Malaria
About $5,500 saves a life with bed nets: GiveWell's estimate for the Against Malaria Foundation. The whole need is every life malaria takes in a year, 610,000.
An average from recent years. At a far larger scale each life would cost more, so the count never passes the yearly toll.
Read the blueprint: MalariaClean water
Less than $1.70 a person a year gives access to chlorinated water at shared water points. The whole need is everyone without safely managed drinking water, 2.1 billion people.
Access isn't use: a later survey found about 2 million people using the dispensers, not the 5 million estimated.
Read the blueprint: Clean waterEnding hunger
Ending hunger by 2030 would take about $93 billion more each year. Paying all of it, each year, is the whole need.
The newest estimate and the highest, so the slider never overstates the share.
Read the blueprint: Ending hungerSchool meals
About $64 a year gives a child decent school meals in the world's poorest countries. The whole need here is the 73 million children school meals didn't reach before the pandemic.
The World Food Program calls that price a tentative benchmark.
Read the blueprint: School mealsRestoring sight
About $120 a surgery, the full cost at India's Aravind Eye Care System. The whole need is everyone whose sight is impaired by cataract, 94 million people.
Costs measured at one system in India over a decade ago. Elsewhere surgery can cost more.
Read the blueprint: Restoring sightHomes for veterans
About $23,400 a year houses a veteran through HUD-VASH: rent help from HUD and case management from VA. The whole need is every veteran counted as homeless on a night in January, 32,495.
Our arithmetic from GAO's figures for 2024: what both agencies spent, divided by the vouchers in use.
Read the blueprint: Homes for veteransChild care
About $13,184 a year, the average price of child care in America. The whole need here, at most: a child for every single-mother family, 7.7 million.
That includes families whose children are already in school, so it overstates the need.
Read the blueprint: Child careNational parks
The National Park Service's repair backlog is $24.2 billion. Clearing all of it is the whole need.
Read the blueprint: National parksMedical debt
On average, every dollar erases about $100 of medical debt, bought for pennies through Undue Medical Debt. The whole need is all the medical debt counted in America, at least $200 billion.
Honest limit: a large randomized study found erasing old medical debt brought no measurable gains in people's mental or physical health or financial wellness. Preventing new debt matters as much as erasing the old.
Read the blueprint: Medical debtCats
About $59 a cat to spay or neuter, vaccinate and return to its colony. The whole need here is the low end of estimates of America's community cats, 30 million.
Some of those cats are already fixed, and colonies refill without steady work, so this is an upper bound.
Read the blueprint: CatsRelief from pain
About $182 a year gives a person palliative care, pain relief included, by the Lancet Commission's costing for Rwanda. The whole need is everyone living with serious health-related suffering, 73.6 million people in 2023.
Only about 14% of people who need palliative care get it, and money isn't the only barrier: restrictive rules on morphine keep relief from many.
Read the blueprint: Relief from painFamine and malnutrition
About $191 treats a severely malnourished child through to recovery, in a recent field costing in Mali. The whole need is every child with severe wasting, the deadliest form, 12.2 million children at any one time.
Costs vary widely by place, from $103 to $1,267 per child treated across studies, and more children fall ill over a year than are sick on any one day, so this need is cautious.
Read the blueprint: Famine and malnutritionRainforests
Keeping tropical forest under funded protection costs up to about $8.00 a hectare a year: our arithmetic from a costing for the Brazilian Amazon. The whole need here is the tropical forest in the countries a new global forest fund would support, over 1 billion hectares.
A protected hectare isn't always a saved one: protected areas cut deforestation by about 41%, not to zero.
Read the blueprint: RainforestsEndangered species
Lowering the extinction risk of every threatened species would cost an estimated $3.41 billion to $4.76 billion a year. The IUCN Red List counts 49,505 species threatened with extinction. Paying the higher estimate in full, each year, is the whole need.
Money isn't the same as protection: one study found no evidence that heavy anti-poaching spending cut rhino poaching, while dehorning did.
Read the blueprint: Endangered speciesFarm animals
Campaigns that win cage-free commitments from companies have spared hens from cages for about $0.80 a hen each year, by Rethink Priorities' most cautious estimate. The whole need here is America's egg-laying hens still in cages, about 167.4 million: our arithmetic from USDA's flock and cage-free counts.
An average from past campaigns, not a promise for the next dollar, and cage-free isn't pain-free, though it cuts hens' worst pain sharply.
Read the blueprint: Farm animalsSolar for clinics
Bringing health centers in poorer countries reliable power costs roughly $5 for every person they serve, by Sustainable Energy for All's estimate. The whole need is everyone served by a health center without reliable electricity, close to 1 billion people.
Power isn't the same as care: in a randomized trial in Uganda, solar raised the quality of maternity care by 4 percentage points, and a year on, many sites had parts not working.
Read the blueprint: Solar for clinicsA voice for everyone
A speech device with an evaluation and ten training sessions costs about $10,900: our arithmetic from Medicare's rates. The whole need here is everyone in America who may benefit from a way to communicate beyond speech, about 5 million people.
Many people do well with a tablet setup of $500 to $800, so this price is cautious, and without training and support, about a third of devices go unused.
Read the blueprint: A voice for everyoneClubfoot and cleft lip
About $530 treats a child born with clubfoot, with casting and years of bracing, by GiveWell's estimate. The whole need here is the babies born with clubfoot in low- and middle-income countries each year who aren't reached, about 136,000: our arithmetic from the newest global survey.
About 26.4% of children relapse, mostly when bracing stops, and clubfoot programs can absorb less than $20 million a year, by one estimate. Cleft surgery is in the chapter, not the slider.
Read the blueprint: Clubfoot and cleft lipKids growing up online
A proven school anti-bullying program costs about $27 a pupil in its first year: our arithmetic in dollars from a randomized trial's costs. The whole need here is every student in America's public schools, about 49.5 million.
The effect is modest and was measured in British primary schools: the share of pupils bullied fell to 17.7%, against 20.7%. It targets bullying among peers, not strangers online.
Read the blueprint: Kids growing up onlineNurse visits for new parents
A few nurse visits at home after a birth cost about $500 to $700 a family, and the slider uses the higher figure. The whole need here is every family with a new baby in America, about 3.6 million a year.
A statewide rollout may cost more, closer to $1,300 a family in Oregon, and the one independent study of this model found few significant effects.
Read the blueprint: Nurse visits for new parentsReading and math for every child
About $9.63 puts a child through two years of catch-up classes in Zambia's national program, support costs included. The whole need here is the 387 million primary-age children who can't read proficiently, a count from before the pandemic, so it's likely higher now.
The price buys a place in a proven program, not a guaranteed reader: the gains in Zambia were modest, and only a third of children attended on a given day.
Read the blueprint: Reading and math for every childSickle cell disease
About $336 keeps a child with sickle cell disease in sub-Saharan Africa on hydroxyurea, with lab checks, for a year: our arithmetic from African drug prices and a Ugandan costing. The whole need here is everyone with the disease in sub-Saharan Africa, about 5.68 million people.
Finding children and keeping them in care is the real bottleneck, and costs extra: in one screening network, only about a third of babies who screened positive got a confirming test.
Read the blueprint: Sickle cell diseaseA home for everyone
A year of supportive housing, rent help and services together, cost $22,265 a person with the lower-cost provider in Denver's randomized trial. The whole need is everyone counted with chronic patterns of homelessness on a night in January, 155,750.
A home ends homelessness for most people who get one, but on its own it hasn't been shown to improve symptoms, substance use or work.
Read the blueprint: A home for everyoneYoung people leaving foster care
LifeSet cost $11,841 per young person in Tennessee's randomized trial, in 2015 dollars, so today's price is higher. The whole need is every young person who leaves foster care as an adult with no permanent family: 15,030 in fiscal year 2025.
LifeSet's gains were modest and come from one state's trial, and one independent model puts its benefits below its cost.
Read the blueprint: Young people leaving foster careTrees that last
Restoring a hectare costs a median of $1,691 across 243 projects worldwide, with up to five years of upkeep. The whole need is the Bonn Challenge's goal: 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested land.
A paid-for hectare isn't always a living forest: in tropical Asia, 44% of planted trees were dead within five years.
Read the blueprint: Trees that lastChildhood cancer
Treating one child cost $10,854 at a children's cancer unit in Haiti, counting the whole unit's running costs. The whole need is the children who develop cancer each year in low- and middle-income countries: close to 90% of 400,000, or about 360,000.
The price buys treatment, not a cure: at the Haiti unit, about 35% of children survived five years.
Read the blueprint: Childhood cancerMental health
Group therapy from trained lay counselors costs about $45 a person treated at StrongMinds, by the Happier Lives Institute's analysis. The whole need is people with major depression outside the world's high-income regions who get no minimally adequate treatment, about 183 million, by our arithmetic from the study's table.
Treated isn't cured: GiveWell judges this kind of program about 25% as cost-effective as its top picks, and in one trial the benefit faded within thirty months.
Read the blueprint: Mental healthDiabetes prevention
Medicare paid at most $768 a person for a full year in the program in 2024, when every target was met. The whole need is every American adult with prediabetes, about 115.2 million.
Outside trials the benefit is smaller, and providers say the payment doesn't cover their costs.
Read the blueprint: Diabetes preventionSafer steps for seniors
Delivering a tai ji quan course cost $906 a participant in a randomized trial in Oregon, travel included. The whole need is the older Americans who report a fall each year, 14 million.
A course cuts the rate of falls by about 23%, not all of them, and the benefit grows when practice continues.
Read the blueprint: Safer steps for seniorsSolar for schools
An average school system of 225 kilowatts, at about $2.60 a watt, costs about $585,000 before incentives, by our arithmetic. The whole need is America's 99,073 public schools, less the 10,840 schools that already have solar: about 88,233.
The price leaves out roof repairs and batteries, and savings depend on local rates and how the panels are owned.
Read the blueprint: Solar for schoolsLocal news
A local reporter costs about $70,000 a year in pay and benefits, by a local news coalition's estimate. The whole need is two reporters, the same coalition's rule of thumb, for each of the 238 counties with no local news and the more than 1,400 with only one source: about 3,276.
A reporter isn't a newsroom: a county with no outlet also needs one built, at roughly $500,000 to start.
Read the blueprint: Local newsChildren's educational TV
A remote preschool built on Sesame Street's Arabic show and run over families' phones cost $260 a child in Lebanon. The whole need is the children in war, disaster or displacement who are a year from starting school and in no education at all, 10.9 million.
It rests mostly on one randomized trial, and early gains like these often fade.
Read the blueprint: Children's educational TVProtecting elders from scams
The Justice Department's elder fraud hotline costs about $70 for each call that reaches a case manager, by our arithmetic from its contract and its call counts. The whole need is the people aged sixty and over who reported fraud to the FBI in a year, 201,266.
Evidence for any one kind of help is thin, and the true number of victims is far larger.
Read the blueprint: Protecting elders from scamsTime with a new baby
12 weeks at New Jersey's average weekly benefit for new parents, $925, comes to about $11,100, by our arithmetic. The whole need is every baby born in America, about 3.6 million a year, though some parents already have paid leave.
A fund can pay wages, but it can't promise the job will be there, and very long leaves can hurt mothers' careers.
Read the blueprint: Time with a new babyWheelchairs and hearing aids
About $2,500 pays for an adult's fitted wheelchair for life, with assessment, training, repairs and replacements. The whole need is the 50 million adults in low- and middle-income countries who need a wheelchair. Children need theirs too, at a higher cost.
A modeled cost. A chair alone costs far less, but without fitting and follow-up, devices often go unused.
Read the blueprint: Wheelchairs and hearing aidsALS
About $63,693 covers a year of what ALS costs one person: medical care, home changes, paid caregiving and lost income. The whole need is everyone living with ALS in the US, about 32,893 people.
That cost comes from an older study and isn't adjusted for inflation, so it understates today's, and care doesn't cure ALS.
Read the blueprint: ALSSports and play for every kid
About $1,016 is what the average sports family spends in a year on one child's main sport. The whole need is the children who don't play organized sports: about 21 million of America's 50 million school-age children, since 58% play.
Travel and club teams push that average up, so a free local league costs far less, and paying fees doesn't fix time, rides or coaching.
Read the blueprint: Sports and play for every kidGrowing food
About $19 from funders, on top of what a farmer repays, gives a family a season of One Acre Fund's full farm program. The whole need is the more than 50 million African families who farm small plots and could benefit, by One Acre Fund's count.
That price leaves out overhead, so the full cost is somewhat higher, and the gains are One Acre Fund's own measures.
Read the blueprint: Growing foodLibraries and museums
About $31.20 mails a child a free book every month for a year through the Imagination Library. The whole need is the American children under five who don't get the books yet: about 15.9 million of 18.5 million, since about one in seven already do.
Not every family signs up: the program plans for only about 65% of eligible children enrolling.
Read the blueprint: Libraries and museumsPavement into parks
Chicago's Space to Grow put about $1.5 million into each schoolyard it turned into a green community space. The whole need is America's 90,000 public schools, only a tiny fraction of which have green yards open to the public.
Some schoolyards need only an agreement to open their gates, and upkeep needs its own money.
Read the blueprint: Pavement into parksSurvivors of trafficking
About $36,419 gives one survivor a year of housing, case management and counseling: a Miami program's $1,092,560 budget for about 30 people. The whole need is the 21,457 victims the national hotline identified in 2025.
One program's own budget, and not every survivor needs a year of housing. Far more people are never identified.
Read the blueprint: Survivors of traffickingFree community classes
About $2,788 pays for an adult's seat for a year in the free English program a randomized trial found raised earnings. The whole need is the 58.9 million American adults reading at the lowest level.
A ceiling, not a waiting list: the national system serves about 1.3 million a year, for about $750 each, and many adults would never enroll.
Read the blueprint: Free community classesSafe houses of worship
Up to $200,000 secures one site, the federal grant program's limit. The whole need is the applications the program turned away: about 5,400 a year, since it got more than 7,000 and funded more than 1,600.
Not every applicant is a house of worship, and the security they choose is recommended by federal guidance, not proven to prevent attacks.
Read the blueprint: Safe houses of worshipRhinos
About $3,120 a year paid for one rhino's share of protection in South Africa's Greater Kruger area. The whole need is every wild rhino: about 26,699, counting 22,540 in Africa and 4,159 in Asia.
A share of the bill in one costly, high-threat place, not a rhino saved: most protection there showed no clear effect, while dehorning did.
Read the blueprint: RhinosCutting carbon
About $370 buys a tonne of removal that lasts: Frontier has contracted $679 million for 1,835,427 tonnes. The whole need is the lasting removal scenarios call for each year by mid-century: over 3.5 billion tonnes.
Tonnes are contracted years ahead and some may never arrive, and today's prices are the market's price, not its cost.
Read the blueprint: Cutting carbonDogs
About $125 spays or neuters a dog of any size at a nonprofit clinic. The yardstick here is every dog that came into a shelter in 2025, 2.8 million.
A subsidized fee, not the full cost, and a spayed dog isn't one less dog in a shelter: one state's program saw no drop in dog intake.
Read the blueprint: DogsCaring for the caregivers
About $1,707 a family paid for the Tailored Activity Program, home visits from an occupational therapist that improved caregivers' wellbeing in a trial. The whole need is everyone caring, unpaid, for someone with dementia: nearly 13 million Americans.
A trial's cost, and a modest benefit: it helped caregivers but didn't ease the agitation that comes with dementia.
Read the blueprint: Caring for the caregiversThe people who help
A dollar an hour more, over a full-time year of 2,080 hours, costs $2,080 a worker. The whole need is the 4.7 million home health and personal care aide jobs, where most direct support workers are counted, since there's no national count of direct support workers alone.
Before payroll taxes, and a raise paid privately ends when the money does unless states raise their rates, as their own reports warn.
Read the blueprint: The people who helpGrowing up healthy and kind
About $63.33 a child seals the back teeth in a school program, which prevents fillings and saves money. The whole need is the nearly 7 million children in lower-income households without sealants.
A cost in older dollars, from programs in a handful of states, and each program needs willing schools and parents' consent.
Read the blueprint: Growing up healthy and kindFacts for everyone
About 5 cents a view paid for short YouTube videos that taught people the tricks of manipulation. The yardstick here is every adult in America, about 270 million.
A view isn't always a different person, the price is from one campaign, and the effect was measured within a day.
Read the blueprint: Facts for everyone
A note from Ryan
I know this is a lot to ask.
I'm not wealthy myself, and I'm not writing this from envy. Nobody here is a villain. Most great fortunes were built inside, or born into, an economic system so complicated that no one fully chose their part in it. Many of you never asked for the cameras, the security details, or the public verdicts on your lives. I understand that it isn't simple.
What I see is an opportunity that has never existed before: enough money, in enough hands, to change how the world works within a single generation, and a family name that means good things for generations after that. Whatever you believe, this is a rare moment.
I'm serious about this. If you'd like to talk, I'll travel to meet you, on your schedule, under NDA if you prefer.
And if you run a nonprofit doing this work well, I'd love to hear from you too. You know what works; my part is helping people see it. When a family asks where to start, I want to know who to introduce. Nothing is announced without your say.
Ryan K. Hertel
Talk to Ryan
Private and non-binding. Nothing is shared, nothing is announced, and nothing is committed by writing.
Sources
Every number, and where it came from.
Source 1: Taxes on failure to distribute income: private foundations (opens in a new tab)
Internal Revenue Service. Checked 15 October 2026.
Source 2: The Nobel Prize amounts (opens in a new tab)
Nobel Prize Outreach. Checked 16 October 2026.
Nobel's will made his fortune a fund whose income pays for the prizes each year.
Source 3: Our Top Charities (opens in a new tab)
GiveWell, September 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.
Averages for grants made from 2022 to 2024: the Against Malaria Foundation's bed nets, and Malaria Consortium's seasonal medicine.
Source 4: Safe Water Now (opens in a new tab)
Evidence Action. Checked 15 October 2026.
Chlorine dispensers and in-line chlorination at shared water points. The figure counts people given access.
Source 5: Following the data on Dispensers for Safe Water (podcast episode 25) (opens in a new tab)
GiveWell, 5 March 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.
A survey in Uganda and Malawi.
US Government Accountability Office, 30 March 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.
Spending by HUD (rent help) and VA (case management) on HUD-VASH in fiscal year 2024, and the vouchers in use that year. Veterans also pay part of their rent.
Source 7: Malaria: fact sheet (opens in a new tab)
World Health Organization, 4 December 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.
Deaths in 2024, the latest year counted.
Source 8: Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2024 (opens in a new tab)
WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, August 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.
Safely managed means water at home, available when needed and free from contamination.
Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, May 2024. Checked 15 October 2026.
Ten measures that could lift about 700 million people out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. The newest estimate, and higher than earlier ones.
Source 10: State of School Feeding Worldwide 2024 (opens in a new tab)
World Food Programme, 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.
A tentative benchmark for decent-quality school meals in low and lower-middle-income countries, in 2023 dollars.
World Health Organization, with FAO, UNESCO, UNICEF and WFP, 16 November 2021. Checked 15 October 2026.
Children school meals didn't reach before the pandemic: the latest count.
Health Affairs, October 2016. Checked 15 October 2026.
The full cost per operation at the Aravind Eye Care System, measured in 2013.
Source 13: Blindness and vision impairment: fact sheet (opens in a new tab)
World Health Organization, 10 February 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.
People with distance vision impairment or blindness caused by cataract.
Source 14: Point-in-Time (PIT) Count (opens in a new tab)
US Department of Veterans Affairs, 3 September 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.
Veterans counted as homeless on one night in January 2025. New veterans become homeless every year.
Source 15: Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply (opens in a new tab)
Child Care Aware of America, May 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.
The national average price for infants and four-year-olds, in centers and family child care homes.
Source 16: Families with own children under 18, mother only (Current Population Survey) (opens in a new tab)
US Census Bureau, via FRED, December 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.
In thousands, for 2025.
Source 17: By the Numbers: Infrastructure (opens in a new tab)
National Park Service, 22 May 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.
Repair needs at the end of fiscal year 2025, not counting day-to-day operations.
Source 18: How much medical debt will my donation abolish? (opens in a new tab)
Undue Medical Debt. Checked 16 October 2026. Readable copy (opens in a new tab).
An average, by face value: what the debt was worth on paper, not what families would otherwise have paid.
Source 19: Health Policy 101: Health Care Costs and Affordability (opens in a new tab)
KFF, 8 October 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Medical debt owed at the end of 2023, from the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation. A floor: debt carried on credit cards or owed to family can be missed.
Quarterly Journal of Economics (NBER working paper 32315), May 2025. Checked 15 October 2026.
The study erased debt that had gone to collections. People did pay less on their existing medical bills.
Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 29 November 2021. Checked 15 October 2026.
Surgery, an ear tip, a rabies vaccine, short-term care and return, averaged across the agencies studied, before overhead and trapping.
Source 22: Outdoor cats FAQ (opens in a new tab)
Humane World for Animals. Checked 15 October 2026.
Estimates vary widely. This is the low end of the publisher's range.
Source 23: Rwanda Policy Brief (opens in a new tab)
Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief. Checked 16 October 2026.
The Commission's essential package of palliative care, costed with 2015 data at the lowest international medicine prices.
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 15 July 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Serious health-related suffering: suffering from illness that can't be relieved without medical care.
Source 25: Palliative care: fact sheet (opens in a new tab)
World Health Organization, 5 August 2020. Checked 16 October 2026.
Current Developments in Nutrition, 10 December 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Field costing in Mali, Somalia and South Sudan, in 2022 dollars.
UNICEF, 4 May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
PLOS Global Public Health, 8 November 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
BMJ Global Health, March 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.
More children fall ill over a year than are sick on any one day.
Mongabay, 4 July 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.
Reporting a peer-reviewed costing (da Silva and others, Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, 2022) of the yearly cost of managing the Amazon's protected areas and Indigenous lands.
Source 31: Tropical Forest Forever Facility (opens in a new tab)
Tropical Forest Forever Facility. Checked 16 October 2026.
The fund's own figure for the forest countries it could support.
Source 32: A forest loss report card for the world's protected areas (Wolf and others) (opens in a new tab)
Nature Ecology & Evolution, 11 February 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.
Science, 11 October 2012. Checked 16 October 2026.
The yearly cost of lowering the extinction risk of every globally threatened species, in 2012 dollars. The list of threatened species has grown since.
IUCN, 9 July 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 35: Dehorning reduces rhino poaching (Kuiper and others) (opens in a new tab)
Science, 5 June 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Eleven reserves in South Africa's Greater Kruger area.
Source 36: Corporate campaigns affect 9 to 120 years of chicken life per dollar spent (opens in a new tab)
Rethink Priorities, 9 August 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.
The slider uses the most cautious estimate, for past cage-free campaigns.
Source 37: Chickens and Eggs (opens in a new tab)
US Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 21 September 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
The national flock on 1 September 2026.
Source 38: Monthly USDA Cage-Free Shell Egg Report (opens in a new tab)
US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, 1 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
The cage-free flock on 1 October 2026.
Source 39: Do better cages or cage-free environments really improve the lives of hens? (opens in a new tab)
Our World in Data, 25 September 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
Summarizing model-based estimates of hens' pain from the Welfare Footprint Project.
Source 40: Towards a renewed commitment to energy for healthcare (opens in a new tab)
Sustainable Energy for All, 7 April 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
From a co-author of the World Bank, WHO and IRENA report Energizing Health. A one-off cost, rough by its own account.
Source 41: Electricity in health-care facilities: fact sheet (opens in a new tab)
World Health Organization, 14 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Global Health: Science and Practice, December 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 43: DMEPOS Fee Schedule: DME26-D (October 2026) (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Medicare's national fee for a new, top-tier speech-generating device.
Source 44: 2026 Medicare Fee Schedule for Speech-Language Pathologists (opens in a new tab)
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 13 November 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
National Medicare rates for a device evaluation and for training sessions.
Source 45: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (Practice Portal) (opens in a new tab)
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Checked 16 October 2026.
The profession's own guidance. Its estimate of need comes from a 2020 textbook, and its abandonment figure from an older study.
Source 46: Finding & Funding AAC (opens in a new tab)
Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Checked 16 October 2026.
Practitioners' cost estimates, in slides hosted by the state.
Source 47: MiracleFeet: Clubfoot Treatment (January 2023) (opens in a new tab)
GiveWell, August 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
GiveWell's own model of the grant, independent of the charity.
BMJ Global Health, 28 March 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
A survey of clubfoot programs in 70 countries.
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 28 May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 50: Ponseti Casting for Clubfoot (opens in a new tab)
GiveWell, December 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.
A short report. GiveWell says it hasn't checked the funding estimate itself.
Psychological Medicine, 12 November 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
A randomized trial in British primary schools, with its costs.
Source 52: Foreign Exchange Rates: G.5A Annual (opens in a new tab)
Federal Reserve Board, 5 January 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
The average exchange rate for 2025, in dollars per pound.
Source 53: Learn About the New Condition of Education 2025: Part I (opens in a new tab)
National Center for Education Statistics, June 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
JAMA Network Open, July 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.
A randomized trial in Durham, North Carolina, by the program's developers. The drop in investigations is only borderline significant.
Source 55: Births: Provisional Data for 2025 (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, April 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 56: Babies don't come with instructions. But in Oregon, they now come with a nurse (opens in a new tab)
NPR, via KPBS, 23 July 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, November 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 58: Targeting Foundational Skills to Improve Learning at Scale in Zambia (opens in a new tab)
J-PAL. Checked 16 October 2026.
A randomized trial of Zambia's national program, in more than a thousand schools.
UNESCO, 21 September 2017. Checked 16 October 2026.
The newest official global count, from before the pandemic.
Blood (American Society of Hematology annual meeting), 2 November 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
A survey of 120 clinicians, presented as a conference abstract.
PharmacoEconomics, 18 July 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
A model costed at a clinic in Kampala, in 2021 dollars. Lab monitoring costs $104 a year after the first, in its cost table.
The Lancet Haematology, 15 June 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
A global model. Its numbers use thin spaces and a raised decimal point, which the checks keep as printed.
Blood Advances, 1 May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
The society's report on its own program.
Urban Institute, 15 July 2021. Checked 16 October 2026.
US Department of Housing and Urban Development, May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
A count on one night, which likely misses some people sleeping outside.
The Lancet Public Health, June 2020. Checked 16 October 2026.
MDRC, November 2016. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 68: The AFCARS Dashboard (Print Version), Preliminary FFY 2025 Estimates (opens in a new tab)
US Administration for Children and Families, 27 February 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Preliminary national figures.
MDRC, May 2015. Checked 16 October 2026.
A randomized trial in Tennessee.
Source 70: Youth Villages LifeSet (YV LifeSet) for former foster youth: Benefit-Cost (opens in a new tab)
Washington State Institute for Public Policy, December 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
An independent benefit-cost analysis in 2023 dollars.
Land Degradation & Development, 19 August 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
Costs from 243 projects worldwide, in 2024 dollars.
IUCN, 17 November 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 14 November 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.
A synthesis of 176 restoration sites.
ecancermedicalscience, 28 February 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
Data from 2017 and 2018.
Source 75: Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines (opens in a new tab)
World Health Organization. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 76: 2025 Giving Season Charities Update (opens in a new tab)
Happier Lives Institute, 8 December 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
A charity evaluator. Its costs rest partly on the charities' own data.
The Lancet Psychiatry, December 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
Minimally adequate treatment means a month of medicine with four doctor visits, or eight visits for therapy.
GiveWell, March 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
A charity evaluator, more cautious than the Happier Lives Institute.
Journal of Development Economics, September 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
A randomized trial of a StrongMinds and BRAC program with about 1,900 girls.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, March 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 81: National Diabetes Statistics Report (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 March 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
PLOS Medicine, 27 February 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
The American Journal of Managed Care, 1 June 2020. Checked 16 October 2026.
Journals of Gerontology Series A, August 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1 September 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 31 January 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.
Age and Ageing, September 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 88: Brighter Future: The State of Solar and Battery Storage in U.S. K-12 Schools (opens in a new tab)
Generation180, August 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
A nonprofit's census from public records. It counts private schools too, and may miss some systems.
Source 89: U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage: 2026 Data Update (opens in a new tab)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, August 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
The price per watt for systems of 100 to 250 kilowatts is read from the chart on slide 36, in 2025 dollars.
National Center for Education Statistics. Checked 16 October 2026.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, October 2011. Checked 16 October 2026.
Environmental Research Letters, March 2019. Checked 16 October 2026.
At the prices of the time, which have fallen since.
Source 93: Size of the Gap (opens in a new tab)
Rebuild Local News, 4 April 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
Rough estimates from a coalition that advocates for local news.
Source 94: The State of Local News: 2026 Report (opens in a new tab)
Medill Local News Initiative, Northwestern University, 13 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 95: Education Cost-Effectiveness Brief: Remote Early Learning Program (opens in a new tab)
International Rescue Committee, 28 December 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
The organization's own analysis of the Lebanon trial.
Education Cannot Wait, January 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
The UN's fund for education in emergencies. Pre-primary here is the year before primary school.
NYU Global TIES for Children, 1 May 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
A randomized trial with mostly Syrian refugee families, published in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
Psychological Bulletin, October 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 99: National Elder Fraud Hotline task order (15PVCD22F00000015) (opens in a new tab)
USAspending.gov. Checked 16 October 2026.
Federal contract data: the hotline's full value over its term.
US Department of Justice, October 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 101: 2025 IC3 Annual Report (opens in a new tab)
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, April 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Complaints people chose to file; most fraud goes unreported.
Journal of Consumer Affairs, 26 May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
A randomized trial of mailings to past fraud victims, with the US Postal Inspection Service.
American Journal of Public Health, 22 June 2017. Checked 16 October 2026.
New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, December 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 105: Paid Family and Medical Leave in the United States (R44835) (opens in a new tab)
Congressional Research Service, 30 September 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
A neutral report for Congress, with figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Source 106: Maternity and Family Leave Policy (Rossin-Slater) (opens in a new tab)
National Bureau of Economic Research, January 2017. Checked 16 October 2026.
A review of the research.
Source 107: The Case for Investing in Assistive Technology (opens in a new tab)
ATscale, the Global Partnership for Assistive Technology, November 2020. Checked 16 October 2026.
A model of the lifetime cost of each product, with fitting, training, repairs and replacements. The adult wheelchair figures are each table row's last column.
Source 108: Global report on assistive technology (opens in a new tab)
World Health Organization and UNICEF, 15 May 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.
The report itself is a PDF, linked from this page.
Source 109: Cost of illness for neuromuscular diseases in the United States (Larkindale and others) (opens in a new tab)
Muscle and Nerve, 28 January 2014. Checked 16 October 2026.
Costs in that study's dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration, 3 January 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
The CDC's National ALS Registry.
Source 111: Project Play survey: Family spending on youth sports rises 46% over five years (opens in a new tab)
Aspen Institute Project Play, 3 March 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
A national survey of parents whose children play regularly.
Source 112: U.S. youth sports participation increased to 58% in pursuit of 63% by 2030 (opens in a new tab)
Aspen Institute Project Play, 5 May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
An analysis of the federal National Survey of Children's Health.
Source 113: 2025 Annual Report (opens in a new tab)
One Acre Fund, May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
One Acre Fund's own figures.
Source 114: Imagination Library (opens in a new tab)
Cortland Free Library. Checked 16 October 2026.
A local partner of the program, in New York.
Source 115: National population by single year of age and sex, July 1, 2025 (Vintage 2025) (opens in a new tab)
US Census Bureau. Checked 16 October 2026.
A data file. The count of children under five adds its rows for ages zero to four, both sexes, as of July 1, 2025.
Source 116: Dolly Parton's book program reaches 1 in 7 U.S. kids under 5. How much longer? (Poole) (opens in a new tab)
Fortune (from The Conversation), 3 October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 117: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, United States (handout and cost estimator) (opens in a new tab)
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Checked 16 October 2026.
The program's own materials, filed with a Utah public meeting.
Source 118: Schoolyards that Both Students and Communities Enjoy (opens in a new tab)
Spaces4Learning, 1 January 2017. Checked 16 October 2026.
On Chicago's Space to Grow program, in that year's dollars.
Source 119: Trust for Public Land, Macy's Partner to Support Local Community Schoolyard Initiative (opens in a new tab)
Recreation Management, 4 April 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
Repeating the Trust for Public Land's figures.
Source 120: Greening Underserved Schools while Preventing Floods in Chicago (opens in a new tab)
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, 10 September 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
The Florida Senate, 3 November 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
The program's own budget, in a request for state funding, in Miami.
Source 122: National statistics (opens in a new tab)
National Human Trafficking Hotline. Checked 16 October 2026.
Cases identified through the hotline, which Polaris runs. They are not a count of everyone affected.
Source 123: Modern slavery in United States (opens in a new tab)
Walk Free. Checked 16 October 2026.
A modeled estimate for 2021, from the Global Slavery Index. It includes forced marriage.
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, August 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.
The paper's cost section, in that program's dollars.
Source 125: US Adults Need Stronger Skills to Thrive in a Changing World (opens in a new tab)
ProLiteracy, 11 December 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.
A literacy nonprofit's conversion of the federal survey's shares into numbers of adults aged sixteen to sixty-five.
Source 126: Adult Education Pays for Itself (Goetz) (opens in a new tab)
New America, 7 May 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
A think tank's analysis of federal adult education data.
Source 127: Notice of Funding Opportunity: Nonprofit Security Grant Program, Fiscal Year 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Federal Emergency Management Agency, 24 June 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 128: Nonprofit Security Grant Program fulfills less than one-quarter of 2026 applications (opens in a new tab)
Jewish Insider, 30 September 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Reporting figures from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Source 129: Mitigating Attacks on Houses of Worship Security Guide (summary) (opens in a new tab)
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 130: Dehorning reduces rhino poaching (Kuiper and others), full text (opens in a new tab)
Science, 5 June 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
The full paper, with its cost figures, for the Greater Kruger area from 2017 to 2021.
Source 131: Poaching of African rhinos down, but drought and other threats drive losses globally (opens in a new tab)
IUCN, 7 August 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 132: Progress (opens in a new tab)
Frontier, October 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Its own live figures, which will change: dollars contracted, tons contracted and tons delivered.
Source 133: The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal, 3rd Edition: Executive summary (opens in a new tab)
University of Oxford and others, June 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
An independent scientific assessment.
Source 134: The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal, 3rd Edition: Voluntary demand for CDR (opens in a new tab)
University of Oxford and others, June 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.
Source 135: Spay & Neuter (opens in a new tab)
Emancipet. Checked 22 October 2026.
A nonprofit clinic's fee, which is subsidized, not its full cost.
Source 136: U.S. Animal Shelter Statistics (opens in a new tab)
ASPCA. Checked 22 October 2026.
Shelter Animals Count's national estimates for the year, as the ASPCA reports them.
Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 2010. Checked 22 October 2026.
Journal of Applied Gerontology, 22 February 2023. Checked 22 October 2026.
The cost in a research trial; delivered in a community it may cost more or less.
Source 139: Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures (opens in a new tab)
Alzheimer's Association, 2026. Checked 22 October 2026.
BMC Geriatrics, 20 October 2021. Checked 22 October 2026.
Source 141: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: Frequently Asked Questions (opens in a new tab)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Checked 22 October 2026.
Source 142: Occupational Outlook Handbook: Home Health and Personal Care Aides (opens in a new tab)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 27 August 2026. Checked 22 October 2026.
Source 143: Message Sent: DSPs Count (opens in a new tab)
Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota, August 2024. Checked 22 October 2026.
Oregon Department of Human Services and OHSU, 2024. Checked 22 October 2026.
Pay and turnover moved together; the report doesn't test cause.
Health Affairs, December 2016. Checked 23 October 2026.
Costs in 2014 dollars, from programs in fourteen states.
Source 146: School Sealant Programs (opens in a new tab)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 May 2024. Checked 23 October 2026.
Science Advances, 24 August 2022. Checked 23 October 2026.
Prices from a campaign in 2022; a paid view isn't always a different person.