Refugees

International Rescue Committee

Research summary, last reviewed May 2026. US 501(c)(3), EIN 13-5660870; UK Charity Commission no. 1065972. Official site.

Independent recognition: Charity Navigator 4/4 stars · CharityWatch Grade A · GiveWell operational partner (safe water programme)

Headline outcome: 36.5 million people reached across more than 40 countries in 2024

What does the International Rescue Committee do?

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) was founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, himself a newly arrived refugee from Nazi Germany, by a committee of 51 prominent Americans including John Dewey and Reinhold Niebuhr. Ninety years on, it works on the full arc of displacement: emergency response in active conflict zones (Sudan, Ukraine, eastern DRC and others), long-term programming in protracted crises (health clinics, education, livelihoods, women’s protection, water and sanitation), and refugee resettlement in more than 25 US cities and in the UK.

Two things distinguish it from most large humanitarian agencies. First, cash relief: the IRC is one of the largest humanitarian cash transfer providers in the world, giving displaced families money directly so they can decide what they need most. Second, evidence: its research arm, the Airbel Impact Lab, has published 285 research studies and produces an estimated 19.2% of all impact evaluations in the humanitarian sector, despite the IRC representing only around 3% of sector spend.

Why did EveryDrop choose it?

The IRC passed our four-stage vetting assessment: a clearly aligned charitable purpose (advancement of human rights and relief of those in need), no undue private benefit, no undue public disbenefit, and no restrictions on access. Its programmes are free at the point of use and targeted by need, not identity: it serves everyone within an affected area who meets vulnerability criteria, regardless of religion, ethnicity or politics.

It holds a 4/4-star Charity Navigator rating and a Grade A from CharityWatch. Notably, GiveWell, which rarely engages with large humanitarian agencies, has had an operational partnership with the IRC since 2023 to deliver chlorinated drinking water to roughly 1.7 million people in refugee camps and communities in Chad, Nigeria and Somalia: a concrete vote of cost-effectiveness confidence in a ringfenced IRC programme.

How effective is it?

Humanitarian aid is genuinely harder to measure than, say, vitamin supplementation, and the IRC does not publish a single donation-to-outcome unit cost. We are honest about that. What it does have is an unusually serious commitment to evaluation: Airbel’s research has changed cash transfer practice at the World Food Programme and education-in-conflict practice at UNICEF, and the IRC’s annual Emergency Watchlist, ranked on a transparent methodology, is cited by UN agencies and donor governments across the political spectrum. In 2024 the IRC reached 36.5 million people, on its own published reporting.

What are the open questions?

We publish what we are monitoring as well as what we like, and the IRC has more on this list than most of our charities.

CEO compensation is the best known: David Miliband’s total package was around US$1.25 million in FY2022, roughly twice the closest US peer organisations, though within the range for US nonprofits of this size and set by an independent board committee. In February 2025 the IRC cut leadership salaries by 20% as part of wider cost reductions. We think users should know this rather than discover it.

In 2021 the IRC paid US$6.9 million to settle US government allegations of procurement fraud by field staff in its 2012 to 2015 Syria operations. The matter is closed, controls were overhauled, and internal misconduct reporting has risen 176% since 2017, which is what a strengthened reporting culture should look like. We watch for any recurrence.

Finally, finances: a US$50 million budget shortfall in 2024, then the January 2025 US foreign-aid freeze, which hit an organisation that had expected about 42% of its budget from US government sources and forced thousands of layoffs. We re-check the IRC’s financial trajectory, and its evidence-based, bipartisan framing of refugee policy, at every annual review.

Sources

This summary is derived from EveryDrop's internal vetting dossier, prepared under our four-stage assessment framework using public, verifiable sources. Assessments are re-checked every twelve months. If you spot something we should know, email [email protected].