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Lucas Moore

10% Pledger Lucas Moore shares how Peter Singer's ideas shook his sense of what's "normal" and inspired him to take the 10% Pledge — and why it's been one of the best decisions he's ever made. 

How Peter Singer’s ideas transformed my life

! We're encouraging pledgers to share their stories, quotes, memories, and hopes for the Pledge and for Giving What We Can. Kicking things off over on our side, here's a story from our very own Effective Giving Global Coordinator and Incubator Luke Moore! We hope it hits home for you as much as it did for us :) 

When I first encountered Peter Singer’s work back in 2017, it felt a bit like a moral earthquake. The ethical ground I knew shifted beneath my feet, and I suddenly found myself seeing the world through a radically different lens. For years, I had lived with a sense of general discomfort about inequality, but it was abstract, something I thought about in passing but didn’t feel compelled to act on. Singer’s ideas shook me out of that complacency. He didn’t just present a theoretical case for why we should care about the suffering of others; he made it personal. He showed that, if we’re honest, we all have an 

 to act — and that the moral cost of inaction is far higher than we typically acknowledge.

Singer’s central insight is deceptively simple. He uses the metaphor of a child drowning in a pond. Most of us would have no hesitation jumping in to save that child, even if it meant ruining our clothes or being late for an important meeting. The morality is crystal clear: the child’s life is worth more than our inconvenience, or the cost of replacing our laptop and clothes. But then Singer makes a more troubling point: every day, people around the world are drowning in poverty and preventable diseases, and we are ignoring it. Just like that child in the pond, they need help. Yet unlike the child, they aren’t right in front of us, and we don’t feel the same moral urgency to act.

For me, the shift happened when I realised the stark inequality that comes with being born in a high income country. I wasn’t wealthy by any stretch, but simply by the fact that I was born in the UK, I was among the richest people in the world. That realisation hit me with some force. Why wasn’t I, and everyone I knew, doing more? Here I was, with access to resources that could dramatically improve the lives of others, and yet I had been living as if this disparity just didn’t exist. The wealth and security I took for granted — the ability to go to the doctor, access to education, to live in a safe home — were luxuries that far too many people will never experience.

For many of us, the privilege of living in a high-income country can make global inequality seem abstract. It’s easy to feel that the problem is just too large, too distant to have any real bearing on our lives. But that’s exactly what Singer challenges us to reconsider: just because we don’t see the suffering up close doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And just because it’s far away doesn’t mean we don’t have a moral responsibility to do something about it.

Once you accept the idea that we should help, the next question becomes, how? The obvious answer might be to donate to charity, but not all charities are created equal. This is where Singer’s work connects to something deeply practical: the importance of effective giving. Not all donations are equally impactful. It’s not just about giving more; it’s about giving wisely.

Take malaria, for example. A bed net costs just a few pounds, and yet it can protect a child from a disease that kills around 600,000 people each year. It’s hard to think of a more cost-effective intervention, and yet most people have no idea that something as simple as a bed net could save a life. This is where Singer’s philosophy becomes more than an abstract moral principle: it becomes a call to action. It’s about recognizing that, when we give, we should give to organisations that have a proven track record of turning donations into life-saving interventions.

This idea of “effective altruism,” which is central to Singer’s work, changed how I thought about giving. It wasn’t enough to give a small amount here and there to whatever charity seemed worthy, or asked. I began to research where my money could have the most impact. I came across organisations like GiveWell, which evaluates charities based on their cost-effectiveness at improving lives, and I saw just how much more could be done with even a modest amount.

This was a moment of real personal reckoning. I couldn’t ignore the fact that, as someone with access to fantastical resources (by global standards), I had a responsibility to act. Singer had made the moral case — and the practical case — for why I should give more, but also why I should give smarter.

Singer’s work introduced me to Giving What We Can, an organisation that supports a global movement of people committed to giving effectively and significantly. Seeing so many others who had already taken the 10% Pledge — committing to donate 10% of their income to highly effective charities for the rest of their lives — inspired me to take that step myself. Taking the pledge didn’t just feel like a moral decision; it felt like a step toward consistency. I had been thinking about these issues for years, but the pledge was the moment I decided to stop just thinking and start doing. It was the moment I said: “I can make a difference, and I will”.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned through this process, it’s that the biggest obstacle to giving is often inaction, not a lack of resources. For most of us, the question isn’t whether we can afford to give; it’s whether we’re willing to prioritise the lives of others over fleeting luxuries that ultimately matter far less.

Singer’s work helped me see that we can — and should — be doing more to help others. It’s easy to feel like we’re too small, too distant, or too overwhelmed by the world’s problems to make a real difference. But the truth is, when we choose to act, the impact is larger than we realise.

That’s why I’m inviting you to take the pledge too. By doing so, you’ll commit to donating a portion of your income to the most effective charities out there. It’s not about making a grand gesture or feeling morally superior. It’s about making a consistent, thoughtful decision to join a global movement and together help solve some of the world's biggest problems.

Peter Singer’s ideas were a turning point for me, and I believe they can be for you too. Take the pledge. Start giving. Because we all have the power to make a difference, and now we know how to do it.

Grace Adams

Giving What We Can is celebrating our 15th birthday!

Since Giving What We Can was formally founded in 2009, with just 23 founding members, the community has grown significantly – and we’re approaching 10,000 10% Pledgers (hopefully in the next couple of months)! The community as it stands today has now donated over $250 million and is predicted to donate over $1 billion across the lifetimes of our members.

If you’re a pledger, join us in sharing stories this week:

To celebrate our community’s impact over the last 15 years, we’re hoping to light up the internet for the next week with everyone’s stories and quotes. We’re inviting all of our pledgers to share (or re-share) your stories about pledging, photos from the early days, what the pledge has meant to you, or even your hopes for Giving What We Can and the 10% Pledge in the future. We’ll then compile a bunch of these stories and photos (and anything else we get) to highlight how powerful it can be to give significantly and effectively.

This is not only a great way to reflect on your giving and the community but also to show your friends and networks what the Pledge is all about – and hopefully encourage some of them to join us during next month’s Pledge Week (December 16th-22nd) as we near 10,000 lifetime pledges.

Post on social media tagging Giving What We Can and share your thoughts/story about pledging (anything from what motivated you to take the pledge to the story of how you found about it and how it's impacted your life so far!) along with your hopes for the future of Giving What We Can. (Bonus if you include a photo of you holding your pledge and/or wearing your pin – you could take a current one or share something from the past!)

If you don’t use social media, submit a quote and photo to 

 so we can share your story on our blog and social media.

You can find some example post ideas and more information 

Don’t forget to add a diamond to your LinkedIn or X accounts to show you’re a pledger! Several new pledgers have mentioned the diamonds as one of the reasons they’ve pledged!

And most importantly, we hope you enjoy seeing memories and reflections from across the community during this exciting anniversary.

The last 15 years have shown that there are thousands of people who are willing to take giving to the most effective charities seriously, and who are willing to give a significant amount of their income away in pursuit of creating a better world for those now, and in the future.

We hope the next 15 years will bring us significant growth, and show that giving effectively and significantly can truly become a cultural norm.

Thank you for your continued giving, and for your continued support of Giving What We Can.

P.S. Here’s a throwback to the GWWC website in 2010 – that Toby Ord coded himself!

David Kozak

Matti Wilks

Nick Fitz

Seth Holoweiko

Announcing Sjir Hoeijmakers as the new CEO of Giving What We Can

We are writing to share exciting news: on Tuesday the 11th of November, the boards unanimously voted to appoint 

 as the new global CEO of Giving What We Can.

Sjir was appointed after a rigorous recruitment process. The search committee received applicants from a wide pool, ultimately interviewing five final-stage candidates. Sjir excelled in each stage of the process, showing remarkable character, competence, and humility throughout. He has a strong understanding of the effective giving community and has already excelled in temporary roles as Acting and Interim CEO this year. The committee also received feedback from a large number of stakeholders, including the boards, the GWWC team, funders, and partners. Throughout this process, it became clear that Sjir will be a highly capable leader for the organization and help guide GWWC and the team to reach their ambitious goals.

We’d like to congratulate Sjir on his new role, and we look forward to this next exciting phase for Giving What We Can under his leadership.

GWWC Team

Can money buy happiness? A study by two Nobel Laureates suggests it can – but only up to a point. 

Everyone knows the adage "money can't buy happiness" – does it hold up under scrutiny?

Can money buy happiness? A review of new data

This article is based on a 2021 blog post by 

. It was updated in November, 2024 to reflect new research and some takeaways for charitable giving.

e knows the adage "money can't buy happiness", although few of us seem to believe it. While we might chase fortune in the hopes of increasing wellbeing, it is clear that being wealthy does not guarantee happiness; at least anecdotally, there are many who are tremendously wealthy, yet entirely unhappy. But what does the data say on the relationship of money and happiness? Can we link increases in income to wellbeing, and if so, in what contexts? 

Here’s a summary of some often-cited data on the 

 in high-income countries. (Note that respondents surveyed in these studies were primarily from the U.S.)

Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton find that money can buy happiness, but only up to a point. This well-known study found that emotional wellbeing rises 

 with income. In layman’s terms, this means that as income increases, wellbeing increases too – but at a slower and slower rate. Khaneman and Deaton’s data also suggested that once income surpasses about $75,000 per year, wellbeing stops increasing altogether. However, more recent research has shown that the log-linear relationship persists well beyond 75K for most people — though there is likely a flattening effect around 100K for the least happy people (see study 3).

Matthew Killingsworth challenges Kahneman and Deaton’s finding in a paper entitled "Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year” Note that Killingworth also found a log-linear relationship, meaning that it takes a 

 increase in income to observe a relatively small happiness boost, especially at higher income levels. For this reason, in our 

2021 video on Money and Happiness (below) 

we jokingly renamed Killingsworth’s paper to: “Money barely increases happiness above 75,000 per year – unless you really value money, and even then not by much.” However, we wish to clarify that:

 The 75K threshold identified in the 2010 Kahneman study does 

 hold up under new research (see Killingsworth & Kahneman, 2023)

The remapping of the Killingsworth data (at 3:13 in the video) that we suggested could show a plateauing in the happiness-income relationship at $200K USD per year was not meant to imply that this is good evidence against a continuing log-linear relationship, particularly considering the small sample sizes in the high income groups. 

That said, consistent with a log-linear relationship, the effect of extra income is certainly much smaller at high incomes. Additionally, the observed increases in happiness correlated with even significant extra income are quite small. 

Therefore, the key takeaways in the video below — that there are diminishing returns to income gains and that that spending on others with less income is generally a much better bargain —  do hold true, even given the new 2023 research, which for the most part, overturned the finding of any sort of "plateau" or "threshold" except for in a small (very unhappy) subset of the population.  

Can money buy happiness? A review of new data. (2021 Video)

Killingsworth and Kahneman team up in what’s known as an “adversarial collaboration” to try to get at the root of why their data showed different things. They found that one’s starting level of happiness affects what will happen to that happiness as income increases. For the least happy people, income does increase happiness up to a point (around 100K) but then ceases to have any effect. Conversely, for the most happy people, once income surpasses 100K, the happiness boosts also increase! For the majority of people, however, the log-linear relationship between income increases and happiness persists, meaning that the overall takeaway (more money does make you happier but not by very much) seems to persist across all three studies. To make this more concrete, a doubling of income (whether below or above 100K and no matter the starting level of happiness) was associated with a happiness increase of 

Okay, so what does this mean in terms of giving to charity? Should we be worried that giving to others might markedly decrease our wellbeing?

Based on the data above, the answer seems to be no – you’re unlikely to experience a decrease in wellbeing from giving to others, even if you give more than average. The effects are so small that – even if they happened to be causal – you’d have to give more than half your income away to feel even a 2 point decrease in happiness (and that’s on a 100 point scale!) Of course, if you give so much so as to not be able to meet your basic needs, that could very well affect your wellbeing, but as long as you can safely donate, it’s unlikely that sacrificing some income would lead to any noticeable decrease in happiness.On the contrary, it will probably make you happier.

 that prosocial spending (i.e., spending money to benefit others) improves the spender's happiness. In one experiment, participants were given money and then randomly told to spend it on themselves or others. As it turns out, those who spent it on others reported higher levels of happiness at the end of the study. And anecdotally, we hear often from Giving What We Can members who have taken the 

 that it’s actually made them happier to know that they are living up to their values and having a concrete impact in the lives of others.

So one reason to give is that it will probably make you happier than the other ways you could spend your money (cough, cough…hedonic treadmill).

Personal happiness aside, let’s talk about what these findings mean for the 

 of your charitable giving. All of the studies above supported a log linear relationship between income gains and happiness boosts (with the exception of a plateau for the least happy and a sharp increase for the most happy). This means that generally, doubling someone’s income is associated with around the same increase in happiness, 

In other words, according to these observed trends, doubling Jane's income from $500 to $1,000 increases Jane's happiness by the same amount as doubling John's income from $100,000 to $200,000 increases John's happiness. So that $100,000 increase for John could instead be used to increase the happiness of 200 others like Jane by the same amount.

With a few caveats (the data is correlational, the studies looked specifically at high-income countries), this means that our money goes a 

 further when we send it to high-impact interventions overseas…or even just to organisations like GiveDirectly who use it to increase the income of the world’s poorest! (And it seems plausible that increases in wellbeing may also be much larger if that increase in income makes up the difference between being able to afford basic needs and 

How can you use your money to increase happiness?

Given the very small increases in happiness we can expect to experience even with substantial increases in our income in richer countries, it seems that chasing ever-increasing amounts of money is an ineffective way to find happiness for ourselves. On the other hand, giving to highly effective charities could be a great way to increase happiness all around, especially if this money provides basic needs and security that would otherwise be lacking. And if the experiences of 10% Pledgers are any indication, making a commitment to increase the wellbeing of others will probably make you happier too. 

Note: Some of the research/analysis in these readings may now be out of date, given the new adversarial collaboration described above. 

Elizabeth W. Dunn, Daniel T. Gilbert, and Timothy D. Wilson, "

If money doesn't make you happy then you probably aren't spending it right

Everything you need to know about whether money makes you happy

Everyone knows the adage “money can’t buy happiness,” — but does it hold up under scrutiny? Here's what the data says. 

James Rayton

Nina Friedrich

On October 23rd, we kicked off our joint webinar series “Effective Giving and Your High Impact Career Path”. Our first session focused on addressing two of the most common concerns people have about effective giving. Building on these insights, we're excited to announce our next webinar: "Leveraging Your Career Beyond Effective Giving" on November 29th at 5pm GMT.

Effective Giving & Impactful Careers: A Webinar Series

This is a joint post by James Rayton🔸 from 


On October 23rd, we kicked off our joint webinar series “Effective Giving and Your High Impact Career Path”. Our 

 focused on addressing two of the most common concerns people have about effective giving. The discussion offered practical insights and evidence-based responses to these widespread hesitations. Here's what we covered:

This concern often stems from misconceptions about how much one needs to give to make a difference. Our discussion highlighted that:

Many people in high-income countries are 

Giving can start small - even 1% of income through a 

, from giving what you won't miss to setting aside a fixed percentage

 and life satisfaction, especially when done thoughtfully and within one's means.

We explored how this concern often arises from past experiences with charity or media coverage of ineffective aid. We discussed how:

 can identify those that are exceptionally effective

 can help ensure donations are directed effectively

Join Our Next Webinar: “Leveraging Your Career Beyond Effective Giving”

Building on these insights, we're excited to announce our next webinar: 

"Leveraging Your Career Beyond Effective Giving"

We'll explore practical strategies for expanding the impact of effective giving beyond your own personal donations, discussing how to leverage your personal and professional networks in a way that works for you:

Starting conversations about effective giving

Building giving circles within your networks

Advocacy e.g. social media outreach and simple strategies to start a conversation about effective giving.

This kind of advocacy and communication about effective giving is an amazing way that we can all 

. For every person who follows our lead, we are multiplying our impact and making it easier for the next person.

Whether you're new to effective giving or already actively involved, this session will provide valuable tools for expanding your impact through your networks.

 helps people give more effectively to the world's most pressing problems. 

 enables working professionals to maximise their positive impact. Together we’ve signed a pledge partnership to promote effective giving. 

Two GWWC staff members describe their visit to the charity Suvita, which sends SMS reminders to caregivers in India to increase childhood vaccination rates. 

A Visit to Suvita in India

), recently had the privilege of spending a day with 

. During our visit, we met with nurses, community health workers, and caregivers along with their children, gaining firsthand insight into the inspiring work Suvita is doing to improve vaccination rates in India.

In 2023, there were over 22.2 million children globally who missed out on at least one vaccination before their first birthday. And even though India's overall vaccination rates are relatively strong, the country's vast population means that a significant number of these undervaccinated children live in India.

Interestingly, it's not a question of supply. India is actually very well-supplied when it comes to vaccines; indeed, vaccines are offered for free in most cases. The problem is ensuring they are used. This means that increasing vaccination rates is actually incredibly tractable — the challenge lies mostly in getting the message out to parents and caregivers, a demand-side problem that Suvita is tackling head on.

Suvita's approach combines SMS text message reminders with the support of local community ‘influencers’. This strategy is inspired by findings from a 

, which identified this combination as one of the most cost-effective ways to promote immunisation. Suvita’s mission is simple yet ambitious: to “work towards a world in which every child achieves full access to their basic vaccinations.”

To date, Suvita has successfully delivered a total of 40.6 million SMS reminders to families and pregnant women. It has recruited more than 9,800 community influencers across Maharashtra and Bihar, reaching the caregivers of a remarkable 1.5% of the world’s children born each year. Meeting with Suvita staff gave us a deeper understanding of the scale and impact of their efforts.

Our visit began early when we were picked up by members of the Suvita team—Sheetal, Michael, and Dharmendra—and driven to a hospital facility on the outskirts of Pune in Maharashtra state. There, we met S.M. Bansode, a dedicated nurse, as well as Nayana Baban and Bharti Abade (two community health workers) responsible for administering vaccines and ensuring that families were aware of their children’s vaccination schedules.

We spoke with several caregivers who had brought their children to the clinic for routine immunisations. Many showed us the SMS reminders they received from Suvita, explaining how these messages prompted them to attend the routine immunisation session. One mother told us that the moment she received the reminder, she contacted her local health worker to confirm her child's immunisation appointment. While it’s difficult to know if she would have made the appointment without this nudge, evidence from 

 suggests that these reminders do significantly boost vaccination rates by addressing the primary barrier—

Heading back to the Suvita office in Pune, we heard about Suvita's plans for future growth as well as its continued and deepening engagement with governments at state and national levels, to further support the government in boosting immunisation access over the long term. Hearing about this made us optimistic about Suvita’s potential for increased reach – we’re excited for Suvita’s work to impact more communities as it continues to grow.

As we reflect on our visit, we feel immensely grateful for the chance to experience the direct impact of Suvita's work on the ground. Seeing caregivers motivated to protect their children's health – supported by a network of committed health professionals and community ambassadors – reminded us of the importance of our work at Giving What We Can, where we’re driven by the goal of helping others as effectively as possible. It’s inspiring to see organisations like Suvita transforming lives with relatively simple, scalable solutions. This is a powerful example of how thoughtful, evidence-based interventions can make a tangible difference in the lives of others and, crucially, do so cost-effectively.

Everyone who features, or whose child features, in this article has given their approval and consent in advance of publishing. 

Blog

How Peter Singer’s ideas transformed my life

Giving What We Can is celebrating our 15th birthday!

Announcing Sjir Hoeijmakers as the new CEO of Giving What We Can

Can money buy happiness? A review of new data

Effective Giving & Impactful Careers: A Webinar Series

A Visit to Suvita in India

The "Progressive Pledge”

GWWC Newsletter: October 2024

GWWC Newsletter: September 2024

Leadership Transition at Giving What We Can: A Message from the Board