Want to increase the impact of your donations? Take a giving pledge.

If you’re already donating to effective charities, you might ask: why take a public giving pledge? After all, we might think it’s easier to remain uncommitted and anonymous — to continue donating without publicly committing to anything formal.

But at Giving What We Can, we think it’s really important to develop a culture of giving which focuses on what most helps the beneficiaries of charity — and we think that's two-fold:

• How much is donated
• How much it helps — or put another way, the effectiveness of the donation
  

In our view, taking a giving pledge is likely to increase both of the two bullets above — the amount and the effectiveness of donations. And in fact, some recent research suggests we're onto something:

Let's say though, that you're confident you'll continue to donate an amount in line with your values and that you'll reason well about where your money can have the greatest impact, even without taking a Pledge. Is taking the 10% or Trial Pledge still useful?

In short — yes:

Taking the Pledge helps get closer to a cultural norm.

Aside from being a tangible way to make a concrete impact in the lives of others, the 10% Pledge is part of a broader mission: to change the norms around charity so that it’s typical and universal for those who can afford it to give a portion of their resources to those who need them most — making things a little more equal.

We think a large part of what’s enabled us to grow from a couple philosophers talking about our responsibility to help others to almost 10,000 people who have pledged to give at least 10% of their income to highly-effective charities are the "early adopters" who have stepped up to lead by example.

It's no secret that we take our social and behavioural cues from others. And the desire to be part of a cultural shift in the way charity is approached is a big reason why some people take the 10% Pledge. As 10% Pledger Martin Jacobson wrote recently:

"The insight that actions determine norms also leads to a very natural next step: we can change what is normal...we are not only rule followers but also rule makers."

We go into more depth about the power of the Pledge to shift cultural norms in our video exploring how change happens.

And by the way, you don't even have to talk or post about the Pledge to help shift the norm/inspire others to give. Just being a "body in the room", or in this case, a name on a long list (now longer thanks to you!) helps add credibility and credence to the idea that donating effectively and significantly — in a way that has tremendous impact in the world — is within our power.

Taking a Pledge can increase both the amount and effectiveness of charitable support.

Here are three reasons why:

1. Commitment
2. Community
3. Culture

Commitment

Taking a pledge can work as a form of 'pre-commitment', a psychological strategy for sticking to goals we may otherwise be tempted to give up.

The idea, as formulated by Nobel prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling, is to make it more costly or difficult for your future self to give up on your goals. Examples of this include signing up for a year’s gym membership at a time (so that it feels wasteful if you later fail to attend) or giving friends or family a deadline for when they should expect work from you (so you lose face if you put it off too long).

There is increasing evidence that pre-committing can help people stick to their goals. Psychologist and best-selling author Robert Cialdini even included pre-commitment ("Consistency") in his widely-cited seven principles of persuasion from his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

And it makes sense in the realm of charitable giving too. Once you have taken a pledge, giving is no longer simply a matter of charity, but of keeping your promise. The prospect of breaking a promise will make most people more likely to stick to their giving goals, and that can only be a good thing.

Listen to member Akhil Bansal talk about how the pledge helps him commit to his values:

“I think it’s incredibly valuable to make a commitment to something that you think is important. I think that arguably there might be times in my life…where I might not be able to make this 10% commitment every year but having that as my goal and aspiration every year was something that I thought was really important to do.”

Community

By forming a group, we can accomplish difficult goals that we might have trouble achieving alone. Joining a community with a strong identity is recognised by psychologists as one of the more effective means of inspiring positive behavioural change. We encourage each other, and are motivated in part by a desire not to disappoint.

It's usually easier to take positive action when you know you're not the only one. (Think of, for example, how much more likely you are to show up at the gym if you have a workout buddy!)

Another advantage of being part of our community is access to a range of people with different experiences and expertise, all of whom share the desire to find the most effective ways to make the world a better place. It allows us to pool our knowledge and share our insights, to the benefit of everyone.

Listen to member Catherine Low talk about how community makes giving easier and more rewarding:

“I found it really fulfilling to be part of a community, of a whole bunch of people trying to do the most good with their resources…It feels like being part of an amazing mission and that’s so much more fulfilling. So that community is really important for me.”

Culture

We are incredibly sensitive to the behaviour of those around us. There is a well-documented phenomenon called the Bystander Effect, where people fail to come to the aid of others in distress because the people around them are also doing nothing to help. The opposite effect also exists: We are more likely to act altruistically if we know that others are already doing so.

For example, there’s evidence that when we see fuller donation boxes, we are more likely to give. And other research suggests similar conclusions, such as one study in which participants who observed “generous” donors gave more than observers of “stingy” ones.

One result of this "social sensitivity" is that people are more likely to give to charity if they know that a large percentage of their peers do, and less likely to do so if they believe that giving is unusual.

Unfortunately, because charity (especially a significant commitment to charitable giving)is often treated as a private matter, we can easily get the impression that it is something unusual, which makes us less likely to give ourselves.

The reason that we ask our members to take a pledge publicly and allow their names to be made public is that by doing so, we seek to normalise giving (and effective giving in particular), encouraging those around us to give more than they otherwise would. We want to inspire people and help to create a more generous culture in the developed world.

Listen to member John Yan talk about creating a cultural norm:

“There should be a culture shift. In the ideal world we should live in where it’s just more normalised to give your excess away to those who need it a lot more than you do.

You shouldn’t be as private about your giving — how much it is and where you give it to — as we currently are, because it also helps spread a good social norm that will make the world better.”

Join our community

Join the Giving What We Can community by taking a pledge to donate a meaningful portion of your income (or wealth) to help improve the lives of others. It can help you to live up to your values, meet like-minded people, and inspire others to follow suit.

Learn about our pledges

Not ready to pledge? You can also donate to an effective charity, sign up to our newsletter, connect with our community online or in person, or get in touch if you’d like to discuss anything.