BlogGWWC's Community Celebrates our 15th Anniversary
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GWWC's Community Celebrates our 15th Anniversary

Grace Adams
7 min read
25 Nov 2024

We are celebrating 15 years of Giving What We Can and the 10% Pledge, and we've been lucky enough to gather some wonderful quotes and reflections from across our community to share how they feel about their giving and the Pledge.

There's also a long list of posts and quotes our members (including our founders) and collaborators have shared across social media, as well as some more in-depth pledge stories you can read on our blog.

Thank you for the ongoing support of our community over the 15 years that Giving What We Can has grown!

Peter Singer:

Took the 10% Pledge in 2009, as a founding member.

Happy 15th birthday, Giving What We Can!

I can remember when you were just a baby. In fact, I knew you when you were just a twinkle in Toby Ord's eye. That was when I visited Oxford in June 2007, and he told me of his plans to start an organization that would tell people how important it is to give effectively, because the most effective organizations helping people in extreme poverty do hundreds of times as much good as the average organizations working in that area. He was already thinking of asking them to make a pledge. I expressed my enthusiasm to Toby, and the small group of supporters he had brought together to speak to me. And when GWWC was launched, I was very happy to make the 10% pledge.

It's been great to see GWWC continue to thrive, and cause a very substantial sum to be given more effectively than it would otherwise have been given. I'm pleased to have been a part of the movement.

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Peter Singer Credit: Alletta Vaandering

Julia Wise:

Took the 10% Pledge in 2012.

It was life-changing for me to discover that there was a community of people who cared as much about donation as I did.

This community helps me feel that we can make big differences together. Even though the scale of problems in the world is huge, none of us are helpless. We can use evidence to find the best ways to help, and we can use our resources to put a dent even in big problems.

I wrote up some reflections on continuing to donate 50% now that my husband and I both work for nonprofits. Building in a habit of significant donation was important to maintaining it over time, as we got older and more focused on raising our kids than on activism.

A warm welcome to other people who are discovering this community!

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Julia and her family

Bernadette Young:

Took the 10% Pledge in 2009, as a founding member.

For 15 years I've been a part of Giving What We Can. My pledge has helped me feel connected to the world, and given me a sense that it's always possible to try and do some good. The stories of others who have made the same pledge is incredibly heartening, especially when I think how far those donations can ripple to make a critical difference in the lives of others.

It's very humbling to reflect how many more infections I've helped treat or prevent in this way than in my every day job. In a better world, it wouldn't be possible for small amounts of money to have such a relatively high impact. Till we have that world. this is something I feel it's really important for me to do.

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Bernadette wearing her 1 year and 10 year pledge pins!

Dylan Matthews:

Took the 10% Pledge in 2016.

I wrote a big piece for the Washington Post in 2013 on effective altruists who donated huge shares, 50 percent or even more, of their income to effective charities. I remember thinking as I reported it that this was noble but I'd never be able to do it myself. But I eventually realized that even if I didn't give most of my money away, I could still do something. So I signed the GWWC pledge and have been donating 10 percent to GiveWell top charities ever since. It's just become part of my regular budget and routine, and it's a good reminder, on days when I worry I'm not having an impact, that quietly, every month I send a check, I am.

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Dylan Matthews, Senior Correspondent and Lead Writer at Vox

Claire Barton:

Took the 10% Pledge in 2022.

My only regret about taking the GWWC 10% pledge is that I didn't know about it sooner. Committing to give to the most effective charities to maximise benefit seems so logical and intuitive, I wonder why this had never occurred to me before. It just feels so right.

Joey Savoie:

Took the 10% Pledge in 2012.

An idea that has always motivated me is the idea of the veil of ignorance — the basic concept being, how would you want society to be if you did not know who you would be in it? A world where people in the top 25% donate significantly to those less well off has always appealed to me and felt right. The GWWC pledge was one of the first long-term charitable actions I took in this direction. I remember signing my paper copy of the pledge with four other friends, two of us taking the further pledge and the others taking the 10%. It felt both important and significant to our group and carried real weight.

Michelle Hutchinson:

Took the 10% Pledge in 2011.

It feels wild that it was 15 years ago we were stood together with Alan Fenwick from SCI telling us about how cost-effective schistosomiasis treatment is. There was a crew of 30 odd people who made up the founding members. I wasn't one of them, because promising 10% of my income over my lifetime felt like a big commitment. I was so impressed that there were so many people willing to make that pledge. It's truly breathtaking that there are now nearly 1000, and I'm glad I became one of them. I'm grateful that being around this group of people has helped me to live up to my values, and to explain how I'm doing that to my son as he grows up.

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Michelle and her son

Heather McLaughlin

Took the 10% Pledge in 2012.

In 2012 I committed to the 10% Pledge through Giving What We Can, happy to find a group and a plan that helped me organise the donations and activity I had been doing before that to do my bit against extreme poverty and support global health.

I recently turned 73, and have now been retired for 9 years. On minimal income these days, after 12 years I have chosen to resign from my donation obligations. Being aware that the Pledge states ‘until retirement’, I feel I have done quite well to continue significantly beyond this. According to my account, I have donated 162% of income over my time with GWWC, so am proud of that.

I plan to continue with some of my non-donation activities - talking to people about effective giving, placing copies of Peter Singer’s “The Life You Can Save” book into street libraries, running birthday fundraisers (last month my friends and family donated AUD 938 to the Fred Hollows Foundation), offering Giving Games to seniors, and organising concerts to raise funds and awareness for effective causes.

After wondering how it would all go, I have in general found it no problem to make the donations, and even exceed the obligation even though my income in recent times would be considered very modest. I wish more people in the older age bracket could take the Pledge.

It’s been very satisfying having this group as a support and inspiration. Keep up all the good work, and I will be cheering on many much younger people from the sidelines.

Warm greetings from my small town in Australia to all in GWWC,

Heather McLaughlin

(You can read our member story with Heather from a few years ago)

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Pledge stories on the blog

Here are some pledge stories we've published for the 15th anniversary:

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Just some of the posts from our community celebrating the 15th Anniversary!

We've run into a good problem where there are just too many social media posts from our members and collaborators for us to share in this blog post! So we've compiled a list of some of them that you might like to look through:

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post, and if we've missed you from this list, feel free to reach out to us so we can add you!