Hello and welcome to our February newsletter!
I’ve got an ask for you today, but first some context…
In the spirit of Infectious Generosity, (yes, that’s a reference to Head of TED Chris Anderson’s new book featuring a call to take the Giving What We Can Pledge!) our team at GWWC has been thinking about how we can make effective giving more infectious, especially using the power of our community.
If you’ve seen our video about how change happens (an oldie but a goodie!) you know we created the Giving What We Can pledge to help change the norms around charitable giving — making it much more common for people in high-income countries to give what they can to help others so that together, we can better tackle some of the severe inequality and suffering in the world. And if you’ve taken the pledge yourself, maybe you’ve seen firsthand how your action has inspired friends and family in their own giving choices.
We often say it, but I find it incredible to reflect on just how powerful your voice and actions can be: inspiring just one other friend or family member to donate effectively, or pledge, could double the positive impact that you have. Imagine if you sparked 10 people to pledge – that is more than I could ever afford to give!
…So here’s the ask: I’d love to hear from you about any way you feel you could contribute to spreading the word, what might be blocking you from doing so, and how we can empower you to continue helping us on our mission of making giving effectively and significantly a cultural norm. Feel free to email me directly with your thoughts or share them via this form.
And for anyone who wants to share their story…
We’d also love to feature more stories from our community on our blog and on our social media! We often hear from people that personal stories helped them feel confident in taking a public giving pledge and/or finding a standard of giving that felt right to them, and we’d love to celebrate our community across the globe by sharing your story. Tell us a bit about why you took the GWWC Pledge, and your journey with effective giving.
We are grateful and excited to have you co-creating a better world with us – for all of its inhabitants, now and in the future.
With gratitude,
– Grace Adams & the Giving What We Can team
P.S. Thank you to our community members who spoke about their pledge or donations in the last month, we've featured a few of you at the end of this email - check them out for inspiration on how you can talk about donating yourself!
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?
- “I simply love humanity.”
- “I'm in a position of great privilege relative to most others in the world, and feel an obligation to help others and donate in a way that does the most good possible.”
- “I believe I should share what I have because it's sheer luck that I have privilege and nothing else. I want my children to know that sharing with others is important.”
- “Weil ich durch den „Verzicht“ auf einen Teil meines Gehaltes das Leben von vielen Menschen verbessern kann, und das ohne, dass ich merkbar schlechter gestellt bin. Ein klassisches Win-Win.” Translation: “Because by “foregoing” part of my salary, I can improve the lives of many people without being noticeably worse off. A classic win-win.”
Upcoming Events
All the events that we list are open to anyone interested in effective giving!
Oxford
Tues 27 Feb from 6:30pm at Cohen Quadrangle B&B, Exeter College, Walton Street, Oxford, UK
Raise Oxford and EA Oxford are hosting a talk Maximising Charitable Impact and will be joined virtually by Rob Mather, CEO of the Against Malaria Foundation, and Grace Adams, Head of Marketing at Giving What We Can. Learn more and RSVP.
Online
Sat 2 March at 10 am CET (check your timezone here), join the Google Meet.
Our GWWC volunteers Imaan and Tjeerd are hosting a global social meet-up! The aim is to connect like-minded individuals worldwide to make a positive impact together. The event will focus on the theme “Doing More Good Together,” exploring the power of collective action and how donations can amplify their impact. You will have the opportunity to share insights, learn from others, and discover effective strategies for supporting charities and creating meaningful change on a global scale. Join to ignite your passion for philanthropy and connect with a diverse community of changemakers. Join via this link.
Berlin
Fri 8 March from 7 – 10 pm CET at Teamwork, Müllerstraße 138D, 13353 Berlin, Germany
For International Women’s Day in Berlin, individuals of all genders are invited to join a conversation about diversity, equality, and inclusion in the EA community. The event schedule includes a presentation and Q&A session, speed meetings and structured discussions. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Additionally, there will be a march for Women’s Day earlier in the day, starting at 11:30 at Oranienplatz, with a meeting spot to be announced. Please RSVP here
Toronto
Tues 12 March 12 6:30pm-8pm at Centre for Social Innovation Annex in the “front porch” area of the building (just inside the front doors)
There is a new local GWWC group starting in Toronto, which is having their first event in March! This is an informal social for donors, pledgers and adjacent communities interested in GWWC. This first GWWC Toronto event will provide an opportunity to mingle and ask questions, as well as provide input for what kind of events Alex, the GWWC Toronto group organiser will run later this year. RSVP here.
Melbourne
Sat 23 March at 10am at MPavilion, Melbourne
Join the GWWC Melbourne community for a social coffee at MPavilion next the to NGV on Saturday 23rd March at 10am. We'll connect with other people who are passionate about effective giving, and discuss what other events you'd like to see GWWC Melbourne host in 2024. At MPavilion there's a coffee cart, quilts to sit down on and mystery grey scale ice cream to try! RSVP here
News & Updates
GWWC
- We are so grateful to announce that our operational funding match is fully funded! Thank you so much to each of you who donated and to Meta Charity Funders for generously providing funding for this match. Reaching our US$ 200K goal has unlocked the matching funds, and we are more motivated than ever to keep working to inspire people to give more and give more effectively.
- We've published a new comparing charities page which discusses five principles you can follow to 100x your impact. This resource reflects an updated approach to charity comparisons.
- We are still hiring a researcher to help us identify the most effective donation opportunities for a variety of world views, and recommend these to our donors! We decided to extend the deadline and now applications close on March 2nd. Apply here.
- Chris Anderson's new book Infectious Generosity has a whole chapter encouraging readers to take the GWWC Pledge! He has also taken the Pledge with the new wealth option to give the greater of 10% of income or 2.5% of wealth each year.
Community
- The EA and Judaism Intro Fellowship is an 8-week virtual program you can do alongside school or work that explores the core ideas of effective altruism and their relationship to Jewish tradition, texts, culture, and history. Learn more and apply by March 10th here. https://eaforjews.org/fellowship.
- GWWC pledger Dustin Moskovitz shared his reflections on ‘The Long Journey to Doing Good Better’ – philanthropy, decision-making in the face of uncertainty, his approach to strategic cause selection, and the need for ongoing reflection and adaptation in the pursuit of doing good.
- GWWC pledger Marcus Abramovitch shared a breakdown of exactly how much he donated in 2023, to which organisations and why. Take a look for an insight of his donation rationale, his approach to diversifying donations, and expresses his encouragement to contribute meaningfully to causes you believe in. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EkKYqeAy3ArupKuYn/my-donations-2023-marcus-abramovitch
- Leadership changes at One for the World: GWWC pledger Jack Lewars is stepping down as Executive Director to launch a consultancy offering bespoke donation advice for large donors. Emma Cameron is taking on the role of interim Managing Director, and One for the World is accepting applications for the next Executive Director here!
- GWWC pledger James Brown published this creative explainer of diminishing returns that suggests it is more than an economic principle, but also an opportunity for creating more happiness for everyone involved. By sharing resources with those who have less, individuals can optimise overall joy, as happiness is non-zero-sum and can be contagious.
Cause areas
Animal welfare
- The Humane League is pleased to share that UK supermarket Morrisons has committed to giving all of its own-brand fresh chickens 20% more space by November 2024, reducing the suffering of an estimated 50 million chickens annually. Additionally, The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW) recently met to discuss legislation for farmed fish slaughter, aiming to introduce new legal protections for up to 77 million fish slaughtered annually in the UK.
- The Fish Welfare Initiative shared their 2023 year in review, which includes scaling their farmer program to over 100 farms, finishing construction on experimental ponds to be used in future research with their local university partnership, and improving the lives of an estimated 450,000 fishes.
- Farmed Animal Strategic Team (FAST) announced the launch of their Animal Advocacy Forum, a new platform aimed at increasing discussion and enhancing collaboration within the animal advocacy movement.
- Faunalytics is accepting applications for a new People & Operations Director role. Applications are due March 1st.
Global health and wellbeing
- Helen Keller Intl reached more than 35 million children across 13 countries in Africa with lifesaving vitamin A in 2023. They are also officially bringing their services to Madagascar, which now marks 14 countries where they will ensure children under five receive critical vitamin A supplementation. They have released their 2023 annual report.
- New Incentives has set an ambitious goal to enrol 1.8 million infants in 2024. As the organisation continues to increase demand for routine immunisations, it also works closely with government partners to support vaccine supply efforts.
- You can catch up on GiveWell’s recent events online: CEO Elie Hassenfeld’s discussion with Neil Buddy Shah, CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) about the CHAI Incubator (here) and Elie’s conversation with journalist Matthew Yglesias, co-founder of Vox and creator of Slow Boring, about GiveWell’s top charities and latest research here.
- GiveWell’s Director of Research Teryn Mattox wrote a guest essay about the effectiveness of kangaroo mother care (KMC) for the ParentData Substack.
- GiveWell has also recently updated its reports on two of its top charities: the Against Malaria Foundation and Malaria Consortium.
- The Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP) recently published its 2023 Annual Review reflecting on the progress in their programs this past year, and detailing ambitious plans for the year ahead.
- Teaching at the Right Level Africa is organizing a series of webinars for partners in government and other organizations to improve foundational learning skills across Africa. They will also participate in the CIES conference to share experiences scaling and adapting the TaRL model across contexts. On International Mother Language Day, TaRL Africa celebrated linguistic diversity in classrooms.
- Open Philanthropy is seeking social science research in global health and wellbeing, on land reform, health, migration, education, science and metascience, and global development. Open Philanthropy has also added forecasting as an official grantmaking focus area.
- High Impact Engineers emphasise their particular aptitude to contributing to global health and development – read more here.
Global Catastrophic Risk Reduction
- Greg Colbourn is starting a funding circle aimed at slowing down/stopping further AGI development, due to concerns about near-term x-risk. There are many funders focused on AI Safety, but none so far focused on slowing / pausing / stopping AGI. Individuals willing to commit significant funding are invited to join to discuss and coordinate donations towards this cause (funds won’t be pooled).
Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators
- Ambitious Impact (AIM, formerly Charity Entrepreneurship) has rebranded to encompass its classic CE program along with new programs focusing on grantmaking, research, and effective giving. The organisation believes that creating pathways for other career paths, similar to what they have done for nonprofit entrepreneurship, is the most effective way to double their impact. They have opened applications for their upcoming CE Incubation Program and Research Program, with the deadline of April 14.
- The AIM Grantmaking Mental Health Funding Circle will hold its spring round in April, with applications due March 31st and decisions expected in early May. Grantee applicants can follow the instructions here to apply.
- Effektiv Spenden has initiated a new fund, named "Defending Democracy," in response to the surge of interest in defending democracy sparked by CORRECTIV's report on a secret far-right meeting in Germany on January 10. They have also helped launch Power for Democracies, a charity evaluator focused on democracy promotion.
- GiveWell is hiring for senior roles: Head of People Operations and Head of Communications.
- Giving Green recently had an in-person event in London with 11 climate funders, advisors and partners. The goal was to highlight their approach to high-impact philanthropy, while opening up the discussion to allow funders to share their own values, approaches and constraints. Catch up on the presentation deck here.
- Animal Charity Evaluators is now accepting applications for their 2024 Movement Grants. Please visit their website to view the application guidelines, timeline, and a list of previous grant recipients. Apply by March 17! You can also read about what they achieved through grants previously here.
- Founders Pledge Climate is currently recruiting for a Climate Communications Manager to increase our reach and communicate our work (apply here) and an Applied Researcher to contribute to our research agenda and grantmaking (no job ad yet, reach out here).
Finally, advocacy from our members
As promised, here are some wonderful examples of our members talking about their donations and pledges!
Are you following us on Instagram?
Have any feedback on our newsletter or communications?
Share your thoughts here.
Thank you!
Thanks again for taking the time to read our newsletter! As always, here are some useful links to help you maximise your charitable impact:
- Read about where the GWWC team donated in 2023.
- Review our giving recommendations.
- Report your donations with your pledge dashboard.
- Share our ideas to help grow our community and multiply your impact.
- Start conversations with our community in our online community space.
- Find more ways to get involved with Giving What We Can and effective giving.
You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok to hear more from us throughout the month!
Do you have questions about the pledge, Giving What We Can, or effective giving in general? Check out our FAQ page, or contact us directly.
Until next time, keep on doing good!