GiveWell and GiveDirectly: What’s with the similarity in names?

I was a little taken aback when I first saw that the charity evaluator GiveWell had awarded its top ranking to the charity GiveDirectly.  The names of these two organizations are so similar:  each is two words, beginning with the word “give,” and with the second word smushed up against the first.

Suppose I were to announce the recipient of the first annual Mark Stein humanitarian award:  my (fictional) brother, Michael Stein, who best embodies the ideals of humanitarianism.  People would rightly be skeptical of such an announcement.  Is something of the sort going on with GiveWell and GiveDirectly?

In short, no.  There does not appear to be any relationship between the two organizations that would reduce the credibility of GiveWell’s recommendation of GiveDirectly.    GiveWell, founded in 2007, is slightly older than GiveDirectly, which was founded in 2008.  It’s possible that the organizers of GiveDirectly got the idea for their name from GiveWell.  If so, it’s hard to blame GiveDirectly for borrowing the idea because their name so perfectly represents the ambition (if not quite the reality) of their organization: we allow you to give so directly to the world’s poor that we eliminate the space between you and them.   

Updated February 9, 2014 (minor edit)