The annual, Merseyside Skeptics Society Charity Walk is upon us. This year it will take place on Sunday May 20^th and will follow our usual route from Otterspool Promenade alongside the river Mersey ending at the beautiful Liverpool Waterfront. Here’s the fundraising link.

You can find details of the event on Facebook and Meetup.

Last year we raised £336.54 with Gift Aid for MerseyAid refugee support which we matched with a donation to The Whitechapel Centre supporting homeless people in the Liverpool area.

Previously we have raised £487 for Mind the Mental Health Charity, £929 for Alzheimer’s Society and £343 for North West Cancer Research.

Each year, selecting a worthy charity to donate to is difficult. We want to donate to a worthy cause but we also want to see the money we raise being used as productively as possible. So, this year, we have selected a charity that considers multiple factors then uses the evidence to decide where donations are most useful.

GiveWell are a charity who undertake in-depth charity analysis and identify top charities which are “evidence-backed, thoroughly vetted and underfunded”. GiveWell are completely transparent and make all of their research available to the public. Their criteria include selecting charities whose work have evidence of effectiveness, charities who use donations to support the best outcomes in the most effective way and charities who won’t be overwhelmed by an increase in funding. GiveWell also follow their top charities and publish reports on how they are doing transparently and are continually striving to improve their own charity through regular transparent reporting on their strengths, weaknesses and aims for improvement.

Some of GiveWell’s current top charities include:

• Malaria Consortium – treatment to prevent malaria in children in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Sightsavers – Supporting deworming programs in low-income countries.
• Helen Keller International – Vitamin supplementation to prevent child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.
• GiveDirectly – Distributing cash to very poor individuals in Kenya and Uganda.

You can find out more about GiveWell on their website where you can read all about the charities they recommend and the research that they do.

You can donate to our event fundraising page here.

We look forward to seeing you at the walk!