BlogGWWC Newsletter: July 2024

July news: Our pledge’s new name & a request for your insights

It’s been a big month! We renamed the 10% Pledge, Rutger Bregman released a video endorsing the pledge, MrBeast uploaded a video with GiveDirectly, and so much more happened - but first:

We need your help – for science! (Well… research)

We want to better understand how to get more people across the world to give to effective charities. So, we are running a study to improve our understanding of what facilitates or stops people from giving to effective charities or pledging.

We need around 200 people who have taken the pledge and 200 who have not taken the pledge to participate in this study by taking a 15 minute survey.

While this is an ambitious goal, it's important for us to meet it. A better understanding of what facilitates or stops pledges helps us base our work and strategy on evidence, something we care deeply about.

If you take part in the study, we will also directly follow up with you and send you a document that compares your responses to each question to the average responses of all participants. This should give you some interesting information about how some of your beliefs, conceptions, and answers compare to others!Once again, we will be very grateful if you take the survey.

[Take the survey]

There are some more great updates and news down below!

With gratitude,

Grace

Motivations for Pledging

Here are some of our favourite responses from people who took a pledge last month:

What motivated you to take a pledge with Giving What We Can?

  • By signing this pledge, I hope to contribute to establishing a culture of donating in my social environment. Katarina Hahn from Germany
  • I want to reduce astronomical suffering both in the near term and long term future, for both human and non-human animals, and expand our moral circle to promote welfare more widely. Ethan Terrill from the USA
  • After donating 10% over the last year without pledging, I have found that I have had no reduction in the quality of my life. It's a no-brainer! Sudhanshu Kasewa from the UK
  • I want to ensure some of my resources are directed to effective impact, and this commitment device will help it actually happen, and may help others to do the same! Jérémy Perret from France
  • Because I acknowledge the harm that wealth inequality causes and am enthusiastic to see how much further my money can go elsewhere. Kevin Xia from Austria

Upcoming Events

GWWC Vancouver Picnic

Summer is here, and we'll be hosting a relaxed picnic in Dude Chilling Park, complete with vegan snacks and food. We'll bring some board games and a Frisbee to enjoy the park and the sun. Feel free to bring more snacks and games to share with the group. Some of us have just returned from EA Global London, fresh with ideas to help increase donations to high-impact charities. Come and enjoy a chill picnic in the sun—everyone is welcome!

RSVP here. July 28th, 11am - 1pm PDT at Guelph Park, 2390 Brunswick St, Vancouver, BC V5T 3L8

GWWC London Summer Picnic (Attempt #2)

As the July picnic was forced inside thanks to the fine British weather, GWWC London is hosting an extra picnic at the start of August. Hang out, chat or play some frisbee in the sun with other Giving What We Can 10% pledgers, trial pledgers, further pledgers and effective givers.

Bring your own picnic blankets, snacks, games and, if you’re so inclined, crafting materials (Gemma will be bringing her watercolours and some other materials for others to use). We’d also like to explicitly encourage you to invite along a friend who might be interested in effective giving. Families and the pledge curious are welcome!

RSVP here. Sun, Aug 4 at 8 – 11 am EDT at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, UK

News & Updates

GWWC

Community

  • We recently spoke with GWWC pledger Christoph Hartmann from Amsterdam who shared how effective giving unites his nerd and hippie tendencies, how being a pledger has made donating much easier for him, and that he sees his 10% Pledge as part of a portfolio of ways he tries to effect change in the world: through his resources, work, voice, and actions. Read Christoph’s member profile on our blog.

Cause areas

Animal Welfare

  • Faunalytics has published a research round-up in collaboration with the Open Sanctuary Project, gathering together research insights to help farmed animal sanctuaries do their valuable work.
    • Faunalytics is also accepting applications for a Content Manager to oversee and maintain their Research Library, help develop and edit content, and support the Content Director to drive the overall vision and execution of Faunalytics’ content plan. Applications are due July 31st.
  • The Humane League UK published its quarterly impact report for Q1 of 2024. We picked out some highlights!
    • Campaigns by THL UK helped convince Morrisons and Lidl to commit to giving their chickens 20% more space, improving the lives of an estimated 114 million chickens annually!
    • The organisation achieved an impressive 318 million potential media impressions through extensive media coverage of their campaigns, significantly raising awareness about animal welfare issues.
  • Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) is hiring for a Communications Director who will be accountable for establishing and executing strategic marketing and communications plans. Check out the full job description and apply here!

Global Health and Wellbeing

  • New Incentives published a new photo blog, A Day in the Life of Hauwa Ibrahim, a Mother from Kwamarawa Village, a story about a dedicated and resilient mother impacted by their work to incentivise child immunisations. Read about how this impacted Hauwa, a mother of eight, who previously almost lost one of her children to measles. You can see pictures of Hauwa and her kids – certain things can transcend continents, culture, and circumstances: a mother’s desire for her child to be healthy and a baby’s simple contentment playing with plastic kitchenware.
  • GiveDirectly showed Beast Philanthropy’s video to the featured Ugandan community! The team reported back that 100% were satisfied with the video, that they were happy to see their community’s joy and success and appreciated this visit to their market. The community also gave actionable feedback for next time, which you can read in GiveDirectly’s full report.
Villagers watch video projected onto a wall

Villagers watch the Beast Philanthropy video featuring their community

Global Catastrophic Risk Reduction

Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators

Taking the 🔸10% Pledge to give effectively could be one of the most meaningful things you ever do – at least Rutger Bregman thinks so.

How to add orange or blue diamond emojis to your profile to show you are a 10% or Trial Pledger with GWWC

Still wondering about the 🔸 and 🔹emojis popping up in your feed? These are all people who have taken the 10% Pledge (formerly known as the Giving What We Can Pledge) or the Trial Pledge to give a percentage of income to high-impact charities. If you have taken a pledge, please join us in displaying the diamond proudly!

Have any feedback on our newsletter or communications? Share your thoughts here.

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