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What can I do about climate change?
We had the same question. So we created Giving Green.
Giving Green is a guide for individuals and businesses to make more effective climate giving decisions. We perform rigorous research and recommend highly effective climate initiatives, so you can give with confidence.
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Giving Green is incubated at IDinsight, a global advisory, data analytics, and research organization that uses data and evidence to improve lives worldwide.​ We are also inspired by the principles of effective altruism, which seek to find ways of doing good that actually work. We bring IDinsight’s deep expertise and effective altruism’s research rigor to everything we do.
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Our work is funded by generous climate donors like you who believe in high-impact climate action and evidence-based climate giving advice. We receive no funding from and have no formal relationship with any of the organizations we study or recommend. If you share our mission, please consider donating to Giving Green directly.
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We also provide consulting services to individuals and organizations that want to give more effectively to fight climate change. Learn more about how we create bespoke climate giving recommendations here.
OUR VALUES
To guide our search for effective climate projects, we strive to uphold four values. These are our commitments to teammates, supporters, and the planet.
1. Truth-seeking
We ask challenging questions and perform rigorous research, guided by evidence and reason.
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2. Humility
We value different perspectives and acknowledge our own limitations.
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3. Transparency
We share research and deliberations publicly to encourage dialogue.
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4. Collaboration
We foster catalytic partnerships to amplify climate actions and maximize impact.
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OUR TEAM
Dr. Dan Stein
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Dan Stein is Giving Green's founder and director and the Chief Economist at IDinsight.
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Dan is passionate about using evidence-based approaches to fight the climate crisis. Prior to IDinsight, Dan worked as an Economist at the World Bank, where he launched a program of impact evaluations in energy and environment.
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Dan holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Physics and Political Economy from UC Berkeley.
Emily Thai
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Emily Thai is Giving Green's manager.
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Prior to joining Giving Green, Emily worked at the University of Chicago’s Center for RISC, conducting climate research and managing social impact partnerships between academics and social media platforms, and at Rhapsody Venture Partners, investing in sustainable technology.
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Emily holds bachelor’s degrees in Materials Science and Engineering and Women’s and Gender Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Enzia Schnyder
Enzia Schnyder is a Research Associate at Giving Green.
Prior to joining Giving Green, Enzia worked in research at the International Renewable Energy Agency, the UK Department for Environmental and Rural Affairs and an alternative protein start-up.
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She holds an MEng in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford and a Postgraduate Diploma from the University of Nottingham, where she studied the use of microbes to produce of alternative proteins made from carbon dioxide.
Jack Rafferty
Jack Rafferty is the Manager of Climate Giving for Giving Green Australia.
Prior to joining Giving Green, Jack was the Co-founder and Director of Lead Exposure Elimination Project, a policy focused international NGO that is working to end childhood lead poisoning worldwide.
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Jack holds bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science and Philosophy from the University of Sydney.
Dr. Kimberly Huynh
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Kimberly Huynh is a Climate Scientist for Giving Green.
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Prior to joining Giving Green, Kimberly worked as a Content Editor and Summer Research Analyst at GiveWell and conducted environmental fieldwork in Canada, New Zealand, Chile, and the United States.
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Her PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley focused on estimating methane emissions from wetlands. She earned both a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering & a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University.
Dr. Lucia Simonelli
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Lucia is a Senior Climate Researcher for Giving Green.
Prior to joining Giving Green, Lucia was a Senior Policy Fellow at Carbon180 where she specialized in federal policy for direct air capture (DAC) and other carbon removal pathways. She also served as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, working on climate initiatives and learning about the legislative process. Before pivoting to policy, Lucia was a postdoc in mathematics at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy.
Lucia holds a BSc in mathematics from the University of Texas and PhD in mathematics from the University of Maryland.
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Sunnie Huang
Sunnie Huang is Giving Green's communications and development officer.
She began her career as a journalist, first at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto, then at The Economist in London. After moving to the nonprofit sector, she worked with Generation Pledge to grow the community of ultra-high-net-wealth inheritors who want to do good with their resources.
Sunnie holds degrees in journalism and environmental economics. She is passionate about helping impact-oriented organizations grow.
ADVISORS
Dan Plechaty
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Dan Plechaty is a Strategist at ClimateWorks. As part of the Global Intelligence team, he provides actionable insights to climate grantmakers through emissions modeling and scenario analyses, coordinates projects on action, accountability and progress tracking, and explores new topics that intersect with existing programmatic grantmaking areas.
Dr. Jae Pasari
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Jae Pasari is the Program Manager for Climate Action at Preston-Werner Ventures. He leads research to identify high leverage climate investment opportunities in non-profit, political, and business spheres.
Michelle Levinson
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Michelle Levinson is a Manager in eMobility at the World Resources Institute. She has over a decade of experience working on US climate policy and electricity markets.
Dr. Neil Buddy Shah
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Neil Buddy Shah is the CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and previously the Managing Director of GiveWell. Buddy has a decade-plus track record of taking cutting-edge ideas from academia and industry and applying them to the needs of the social sector.
Dr. Ruth Levine
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Ruth Levine is the Vice President of Just Societies and Chief Learning Officer at the Hewlett Foundation, and the former CEO of IDinsight. She is a development economist with more than three decades of experience working on the design and implementation of policies and programs related to global health and education, social protection, gender equality, and labor markets.
Shu Dar Yao
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Shu Dar Yao is the Founder of Lucid Capitalism, an advisory firm that educates and guides VC and PE funds and their portfolio companies on ESG issues, including climate change and social inequality. Her career has spanned finance and nonprofit ecosystems; she led the Investment Committee at RSF Social Finance and previously has worked at Social Finance, Citigroup's Inclusive Finance, the World Bank Group's IFC, and JPMorgan.
FUNDERS
