GiveWell plans at least $2.5 billion in new malaria grants from 2027 to 2032

GiveWell, the U.S. nonprofit that researches cost-effective ways to save and improve lives and directs donors' money to the programs it rates highest, said on October 26, 2026, that it aims to grant at least $2.5 billion in new malaria funding from 2027 through 2032. The figure could be several times larger, the organization said in a post on its blog, depending on how much money it has, whether cost-effective programs can be scaled up and how much demand there is from the countries concerned.

The plan comes as GiveWell's own grantmaking grows quickly. It expects to grant more than $1 billion in 2026, more than double the $418 million it committed in 2025, and it expects to grant more than $1 billion to areas other than malaria in 2027.

Where the money could go

GiveWell said most of the new money could go to prevention: insecticide-treated bed nets, seasonal malaria chemoprevention for young children and malaria vaccines, including campaigns that run more often or reach people who are not covered today. It also named testing and treatment by community health workers, supply chains for tests and drugs, and newer tools such as spatial emanators and insecticide-treated baby wraps, if the evidence for them holds up. It stressed that the list is neither complete nor final.

The grants could go to organizations it already funds, such as the Against Malaria Foundation and Malaria Consortium, or to new grantees. GiveWell said initial grants would probably cover two to three years of programs, that it would set money aside to renew them, and that it is trying to secure enough to keep programs running for five to six years.

A proposed fund inside the Global Fund

One route is a proposed Malaria Impact Accelerator with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Countries would submit investment requests through the Global Fund's existing country coordinating mechanisms. GiveWell and the Global Fund would jointly set a ceiling for each country, the Global Fund's Technical Review Panel would check requests for technical soundness and GiveWell would check them against its cost-effectiveness bar. Because allocations would follow malaria burden more closely than the Global Fund's core grants, GiveWell expects the money to go to fewer, higher-burden countries. A fast track would cover urgent gaps.

The partnership is not settled. GiveWell said the Global Fund's board had yet to approve the mechanism, and that it could grant less than planned through it, or nothing, if the Global Fund's commitment, the reach of its programs or countries' demand fall short. In that case it would expand malaria grants through other organizations instead. GiveWell also pointed to a change of leadership at the Global Fund: on October 28, at its 56th meeting, the Global Fund's board appointed Mark Dybul, who led the organization from 2013 to 2017, as its next executive director. He begins a four-year term in early 2027, and Peter Sands leads the Global Fund until then.

Less money from governments

GiveWell linked the plan to falling health aid. The Global Fund's eighth replenishment closed at $12.64 billion in pledges, its board said in February 2026, compared with $15.7 billion for the seventh in 2022. The board approved $10.78 billion in allocations to countries for 2026 to 2028. GiveWell put the Global Fund's malaria allocations for the next three years at $3.5 billion, about 15% less than in the previous cycle.

The World Health Organization estimates that malaria killed 610,000 people in 2024, up from 598,000 in 2023, and that the WHO African Region accounted for about 95% of cases and deaths.

GiveWell said it will check whether other malaria funding falls as its own rises, because it wants its grants to "add to what governments and other donors already spend, not replace it." It said it is exploring matched funding and advocacy to encourage governments and donors to keep up their spending.

Built on larger grants this year

The announcement follows a step up in GiveWell's malaria grants. In August 2026 it described a $276 million grant to the Against Malaria Foundation for nets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as its largest ever, funded by Coefficient Giving and donations to GiveWell's Top Charities Fund. GiveWell says it has now directed more than $1.3 billion to malaria prevention and treatment.

In the coming months it expects to fill funding gaps that countries have already identified, pay for baseline household surveys of malaria and child mortality, and, if the Global Fund's board approves the mechanism, set country allocations and publish guidance. It is also looking at funding malaria vaccines through Gavi.