BlogNovember 2020 Newsletter
Blog post

November 2020 Newsletter

Luke Freeman
6 min read
25 Nov 2020

As the 2020 giving season heats up we're here to ensure you're informed and ready to give effectively!

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This edition of our newsletter includes information about our December meetups; updates from Giving What We Can; relevant updates for effective giving; a selection of interesting articles; upcoming events you can join; and some ways you can help!

This is the online edition of our November 2020 email newsletter (subscribe here).

Upcoming Events

There's a lot happening over the next few weeks -- we hope you can join us!

More events are available on Facebook and our Events page.

News & Updates

Giving What We Can

Member Profile: Michael Aird
"I'm motivated to give because there really are some cost-effective ways to improve the lives of those people and animals, now and into the future. ... This ability to improve lives makes giving feel to me both like a responsibility (with great power comes great responsibility) and like an exciting opportunity (which helps me perk myself up)."

Pledge Drive 2020-2021
Our pledge drive is back for 2020! It's a great time to invite people you know to learn more about effective giving, to reflect on your own giving, and to think about your giving plans for the next year. One of the easiest ways to advocate for effective giving is to invite people to the Facebook event.

How To Buy Happiness by Julian Hazell
"Even in a purely self-interested sense, giving can be one of the best uses of our money. Effective philanthropy offers serious bang for our buck."

Badges & Photo Frames
Advocate for effective giving by displaying our new member badges on your website, or Facebook profile photo frame overlay. Thanks to our volunteer Nicoleta Faina for her work designing these!

The altruists who give thousands from their salaries to charities
Four of our members were featured in a national UK newspaper, talking about their experiences donating to help improve the lives of others.

Member Blog Post: Andy Trattner
"April 2020 was perhaps the most impactful month of my life. I made a decision to act in a certain way, to realize certain values. To take the opportunity that fell into my lap four years ago, and instead of waiting any longer to magically become a rich philanthropist one day and think through the meaty questions all at once, to go ahead and decide I have enough right now."

Effective Altruism Survey
Help Giving What We Can and other EA organisations inform our work and better understand the actions, values, demographics, and ideas of our community.

We have updated our Giving Recommendations, published a new guide to Charity Evaluation, and made significant updates to our Recommended Videos, Books, Podcasts, Articles, Event Guides and Share Our Ideas pages.

Grantmakers, Evaluators and Incubators

Animal Charity Evaluators have released their 2020 recommendations (including a new top charity) and also announced the grantees of the fourth round of ACE Movement Grants.

EA Funds have released their donor lottery for this giving season and they want your feedback to help improve the product. The Global Health & Development Fund also recommended a $198,320 grant to the Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention.

Founders Pledge have released a Climate Change Fund (now available on EA Funds) and updated their climate change recommendations. They also released a report on investing to give.

GiveWell have released their 2020 recommendations (including a new top charity).

Community

Desperation Hamster Wheels is an excellent post by Nicole Ross about the importance of self-care and sustainability for people who are driven to be impactful

EconTalk interviewed Rob Wiblin from 80,000 Hours about charity, science, and utilitarianism.

"When you shouldn't use jargon and how to avoid it" talk summary from Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours.

Excellent list of takeaways from the EA Student Summit by Akash.

What can effective altruism learn from the social movements that ended slavery and launched environmentalism? Historical Case Studies by Mauricio.

New Spanish regranting organisation, Ayuda Efectiva, has launched. This post explains their goals and how you can help.

EA Radio has released more podcasts including talks from events like EA Global.

Edo Arad writes about how we might improve prioritization among scientific projects to align better with societal goals.

Effective Altruism Organisations October Updates includes updates from 21 organisations within the EA community.

Donating

Where are you donating in 2020 and why? Learn how other members of our community are donating this year, and share your own donation decision.

Tip: Install the Amazon Smile browser extension and start making Amazon donate 0.5% to your favorite effective charity.

Tip: Add a charity as a beneficiary to your retirement fund or life insurance.

Using the tax system and stock market to donate more: a few basic strategies for US taxpayers.

Interesting reflections (and ensuing discussion) about reconciling seemingly disparate value systems for people who value financial independence and early retirement (FIRE) but also value donating to help others.

Animal Welfare

Center for Reducing Suffering explores whether animal advocacy (or, more generally, expanding the moral circle) should be a priority for long-termists.

Vox's Kesley Piper interviews Peter Singer about his new book "Why Vegan?" and covers the movement's progress and what's ahead.

Lewis Bollard talks about doing the most good for animals post-COVID-19 (transcript).

France has announced a ban on using wild animals in circuses, on keeping dolphins and killer whales in captivity in marine parks, and on raising mink on fur farms.

Global Health & Economic Development

Myanmar has eliminated trachoma!

The number of people without access to electricity dropped from almost 860 million in 2018 to 770 million in 2019!

Can we drive development at scale? An interim update on economic growth work.

A Canadian study gave $7,500 to homeless people. The results show the power of cash transfers to reduce homelessness.

The proportion of children under five years of age chronically infected with hepatitis B dropped to just under 1% in 2019 down from around 5% in the pre-vaccine era!

Long-term Future

How Close Is Humanity to the Edge? New Yorker article covering existential risk and profiling the work of Toby Ord (Giving What We Can co-founder) and his book The Precipice.

Climate Change as a possible existential threat: Future of Life Institute interview with Kelly Wanser.

Stefan Schubert lays out some reasons to be optimistic about EA Long-termism.

Securing Prosperity: Is economic growth inherently risky, and how do we maximize the chances of a flourishing future?

Subjective Well-Being

Happier Lives Institute has released a new problem area report on pain as a cause area.

Careers

Probably Good has launched! A new organization that provides career guidance intended to help people do as much good as possible.

Share Our Ideas

A great way to multiply your impact is to simply tell people about effective giving. Here are just a few ways you can help advocate for effective giving:

  • Invite people to our events, especially our Pledge Drive during December and January.
  • Run an event or give a talk about effective giving (e.g. at work or school, religious or community group, book or social club).
  • Link to us from your website, social media, blog, email signature
  • Gift donations to effective charities to friends and family as presents (or ask for them as presents)

More ways to advocate

Useful Links

For more news and articles, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, or subscribe to the EA Newsletter.

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.