Hello and welcome to our February newsletter!
Earlier this month, we were shocked to hear about the devastation across Turkey and Syria caused by the earthquakes. Our hearts go out to our members in Turkey, and their communities. Although harrowing, hearing about and seeing pictures of disasters helps us empathise with the most challenging conditions people can face.
In the wake of this disaster, we published a blog from Stefan Shaw and Louise Kihlberg about what to consider when thinking about donating to disaster relief efforts.
One thing that’s always on my mind after these highly publicised tragedies, are the ongoing tragedies occurring around the world, that aren’t receiving any media attention. The famine and war in Tigray, Ethiopia and the persecution of people in Myanmar have received little news coverage. And the suffering from the “silent catastrophes” of global poverty and preventable illnesses rarely makes the news at all.
With all of the suffering in the world, I am extremely grateful to be surrounded by a global community of people who are dedicated to effectively improving the lives of others. Your gifts have a meaningful impact on those you are helping, and are contributing to a more equal world. I hope giving makes you feel empowered to be a part of positive global change, as it does for me.
If you want to join our movement, take a pledge to donate a portion of your income to highly effective charities today. Committing to a pledge was one of the most powerful things I’ve done.
We also published a great article from member Alana Horowitz-Friedman busting the myth that “the best charities are the ones with low overhead costs”. This is an excellent piece to bring up with friends and family when discussing where to donate. Thanks, Alana for this well thought out article!
With gratitude,
-Grace Adams & the rest of the Giving What We Can team
Featured top-rated charity
Family Empowerment Media
Family Empowerment Media (FEM) is an evidence-driven nonprofit committed to eliminating maternal deaths and other health burdens from unintended pregnancies. FEM produces and air radio-based social and behavioural change campaigns on family planning to empower women and men who want to delay or prevent pregnancy to consistently use contraception. Read more here
Jobs and Volunteering
We are hiring an Effective Giving Global Coordinator and Incubator to help us support the global effective giving community and the development of new effective giving initiatives. Applications close March 1st. More information and application here.
Are you interested in volunteering to help us with marketing our events? We’re looking for an ongoing volunteer who can assist with promoting our upcoming events. Email me if you’re interested.
Attend An Event
Meetup - Europe/Asia
We have decided to have a single meetup each month and alternate between Europe/Asia and Americas/Oceania each month. We invite you to connect with other members from around the world at these events. This month will be a social event getting to know other community members.
Open Forum - Americas/Oceania
Our open forum is an event where you can come along with questions about effective giving and/or to meet others interested in effective giving. This event alternates between Europe/Asia and Americas/Oceania each month.
News & Updates
Community
- 80,000 Hours has just published a new post about how much solutions differ in effectiveness, this is a great piece from Ben Todd, who found that some of Toby Ord’s original research that underpins the concept of effective giving holds up, and can be expanded to other areas. But Ben also points out that it might be most fair to say that the best charities are 10 times better than the median.
- Do you know a lawyer who can do a small amount of work to help our Charity Elections program expand into new countries? Find out more details in this post.
- Due to the changes in the rules surrounding Meta’s Giving Tuesday match, the project has officially been hibernated, which we communicated in this recent EA Forum post.
Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators
- Charity Entrepreneurship has announced their top interventions in Large-Scale Global Health and Biosecurity, which potential entrepreneurs can launch through the July-August 2023 Incubation Program. The application deadline is March 12, 2023. Links for applications can be found here. CE also invites everyone to an online event on February 20, 6PM UK Time, where Sam Hilton, Director of Research, will introduce the ideas and answer questions. Team members and incubatees will also be present at EAG Bay Area.
- Animal Charity Evaluators is accepting applications for our 2023 Movement Grants! If you’re looking for funding to support your promising charity or initiative, apply by March 17
- Open Philanthropy is hiring for two exciting new roles
- Internship in Cause Prioritization - work with the Global Health & Wellbeing cause prioritization team to investigate potential new focus areas enabling Open Phil to prioritize across causes which informs their grantmaking. (Deadline February 26)
- Forecasting Senior Program Associate - make grants to support the forecasting community, support Open Phil staff in commissioning external forecasts on specific questions of interest, and lead their internal forecasting work. (Deadline March 5)
Cause areas
Animal welfare
- Faunalytics has released our newest original report, Reforming Animal Agriculture Subsidies: A Guide for Advocates. This report dives into animal agriculture subsidies and how advocates can reduce their harmful impact. Additionally, we have released a companion report, The Animal Agriculture Industry's Perspective On Advocates & Cage-Free Reforms.
- Good Food Institute investment data analysis + survey results show that long-term investor appetite for alt proteins is strong despite challenging macroeconomic & market conditions slowing growth in 2022.
Global health and development
- New Incentives expanded operations and began offering cash incentives to caregivers in Kano State last month in order to encourage childhood vaccinations.
- The Happier Lives Institute published a shallow cause exploration of immigration reform, including some rough cost-effectiveness estimates for possible interventions.
- Lead Exposure Elimination Project published a new study with Aga Khan University doctors which found that 40% of oil-based paints sampled from the market in Pakistan contained dangerous and illegal levels of lead, endangering the health of children. Some paint contained 1000 times the legal limit for lead.
Long-term future
- The Council on Strategic Risks is excited to debut our inaugural class of our Fellowship for Reducing Nuclear Weapons Risks. They had their first convening in late January and are meeting regularly ahead of an experiential learning trip sometime later this spring.
- Support from our community has enabled TerraPraxis to launch its EVALUATE application to help coal plant owners, investors, and policymakers evaluate the opportunity to decarbonize the global coal fleet – the single largest source of carbon emissions – with emission-free heat sources by 2050.
Brit just completed her Trial Pledge, you can congratulate her on twitter here!
Have any feedback on our newsletter or communications? Share your thoughts here.
Why not streamline your giving by setting up a recurring donation to a highly effective charity today?
Useful Links
- Review our giving recommendations.
- Report your donations with your pledge dashboard.
- Share our ideas to help grow our community and multiply your impact.
- Join other members in the Giving What We Can Community Facebook group.
- Find more ways to get involved with Giving What We Can and effective altruism.
- Discuss effective giving and effective altruism on the EA Forum.
You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok and subscribe to the EA Newsletter for more news and articles.
Do you have questions about the pledge, Giving What We Can, or effective altruism in general? Check out our FAQ page, or contact us directly.