There are many people out there trying to create social networks around social change. I applaud this effort, but if you are one of them, I'd like to suggest that you do the following if you haven't already:

1. Write down what your project will provide that the "Facebook Causes" app doesn't.

2. Email Project Agape (which created the app) and ask whether they have any short-term plans to add the functionality under #1.

3. If you aren't going to provide something really, really, really big that Facebook Causes doesn't, consider moving on to another project.

First off, I want to say that NetSquared has done some huge things really well, and I admire and appreciate that. There are a lot of exciting new tech tools around these days; NetSquared has sought out the people who want to use them for equally exciting purposes, people who look at these tools and see not just personal entertainment and networking but also liberation, meritocracy, and the chance to make the world a truly better place. They've found more of these people than anyone expected, and that's awesome.

Late last year, my friend Elie was trying to figure out where to donate. Since trying to explore the whole charitable sector at once was too big a project, he decided to focus on the popular "clean water for Africa" cause. He found that there's a lot more to this cause than water.

75% of the giving in the U.S. is given by individual donors, not to or through foundations. You think looking through 150 proposals is tough - how are they supposed to figure out which of 1.5 million well-meaning organizations to fund? Currently, the "leading" online resource for helping them figure this out is Charity Navigator ... and that is nothing short of a tragedy, for them and the people they're trying to help.

I'd be a hypocrite to post my favorite projects with a praiseworthy sentence or two and leave it at that. I owe you an explanation of exactly what process and criteria I used to whittle down the field … because my own project is about transparency, and transparency means more than honesty – it means making it easy for you to see WHY I say what I say. So first I'll give my top 6, and then I'll explain where I’m coming from so you can decide how useful this is to you.

Got a question via email asking whether people in the sector have been receptive to the "somewhat radical idea" of GiveWell. My impression is that they have been - it could just be because the sector is so much more polite than the one I'm coming from, but I generally feel like we've gotten a much warmer reception than others who set themselves up as "evaluators" (always a controversial thing to be doing), and I think it has to do with a fundamental difference between the way we see our role and the way most grantmakers and evaluators see theirs.