Hello and welcome to our March Newsletter!
We've recently released an update on our strategy as an organisation. Make sure to read it if you'd like to hear more about our current plans, our vision for the future, and how you can help us achieve our goal of creating a world where giving effectively and significantly is a cultural norm.
In the strategy update, you'll also see we're hiring: we are currently looking for a software engineer, seeking expressions of interest for a senior researcher and executive assistant, and welcoming any general expressions of interest.
If you're in the UK, don't forget that the end of the fiscal year is just around the corner, ending on April 5th. Now is a great time to finalise any tax deductible donations through EA funds.
Donate to highly effectives charities and funds
We're also still on the lookout for members who will be available in Oxford April 11-14 or London 15-18 for EA Global and would like to be in a promotional video about effective giving and the pledge. Fill out this form to let us know if you're interested.
We are really excited about how Giving What We Can and our community can make the world a better place for all its inhabitants, for generations to come, and hope you are too.
Like much of the world, we are devastated to see Ukraine attacked by Russia. Many of us are thinking about how to use our resources to best help those affected by the war at this time. This thoughtful article from member and journalist at Vox, Kelsey Piper, titled How you can help Ukrainians, makes some recommendations on where you can donate, and also discusses some of the difficulties in donating during these crisis situations. We continue to encourage regular thoughtful giving and support our current giving recommendations, in service of our vision of a world where a safe, happy and healthy life is lived by all.
Read on below to learn more about Giving What We Can co-founder William MacAskill's new book, What We Owe The Future, which is now available for pre-order.
-Grace Adams & the rest of the Giving What We Can team.
Pre-order What We Owe The Future
William MacAskill, co-founder of Giving What We Can and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford, has a new book coming out on August 16th that is available now for pre-order.
Early pre-orders are very important in the world of publishing, so if you plan on buying the book at any point, we strongly encourage you to pre-order it now!
If you pre-order before April 30th and fill out this form, you'll have a chance to have one of 8 one-on-one calls that Will is having with readers to discuss the book.
You can pre-order the book here in the US or here in the UK (it should also be on Amazon in most other countries).
William is one of the co-founders of the effective altruism movement, which guides much of our guidance on where to donate. His new book, What We Owe The Future, makes the case for longtermism, the view that positively influencing the longterm future is a key moral priority of our time. We just released a video on the ideas behind longtermism, which you can watch here.
If you have any questions about ordering the book, feel free to email abie@forethought.org.
Peter is a new member who took the full pledge after trying giving out, this is a great strategy to see if the pledge is right for you!
Ways you can support us!
- Reviewing our work: please contact our researcher Michael Townsend if you are interested in this.
- Joining our team (we're hiring!): we are currently hiring a software engineer, seeking expressions of interest for a senior researcher and executive assistant, and welcome any general expressions of interest.
Attend An Event
Meetups
April Meetup (Americas/Oceania)
- Apr 2: 21:00 UTC (New York: Sat 5:00 pm, Sydney: Sun 7:00 am)
- RSVP via facebook
- Register
April Meetup (Europe/Asia)
- Apr 3: 08:30 UTC (London: Sun 9:30 am, Mumbai: Sun 2:00 pm, Singapore: Sun 4:30 pm)
- RSVP via facebook
- Register
Open Forum
Our open forum is an event where you can come along with questions about effective giving or just come along to meet others interested in effective giving. Alternates between Americas/Oceania and Europe/Asia.
April Open Forum (Americas/Oceania)
- Thurs Apr 21: 09:00 UTC (London: 10:00 am, Mumbai: 2:30 pm, Sydney: 7:00 pm)
- RSVP via facebook
- Register
In person Oxford Meet up
- Thursday 14th April 5.30pm BST, exact location TBC
- RSVP via Facebook
In person London Meet up
- Monday 18th Apr at 12pm BST, exact location TBC
- RSVP via Facebook
News & Updates
Effective altruism community
- One of the world's most popular podcasts, Stuff You Should Know released an episode called "What is Effective Altruism?".
- 80000 Hours has launched a new podcast called 80k After Hours featuring a wider range of content than the original podcast typically covers.
- 80,000 Hours updated their job board with 250 new high-impact jobs.
- It's perfectly okay to be an imperfect effective altruist, Julian Hazell, Giving What We Can.
- Effective Altruism: Young Canadians taking charity to the extreme, Krista Hessey, Global News.
- We were profiled by the University of Oxford.
- What psychological traits predict interest in effective altruism?, Lucius Caviola, David Althaus, Stefan Schubert, and Joshua Lewis, EA Forum.
- Lessons and results from workplace giving talks.
Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators
- The Future Fund has been announced, EA forum.
- New grantmaking program: supporting the effective altruism community around Global Health and Wellbeing, Zachary Robinson, Open Philanthropy.
- Open Philanthropy is hiring for various roles, including:
- Four different roles on the Longtermist Effective Altruism Movement-Building Team: Program Officer, Effective Altruism Community Building (Global Health & Wellbeing), Director of Operations, Business Operations Lead and Internships in Cause Prioritization
- GiveWell is seeking a Senior Program Associate to join its research team.
- GiveWell is also still looking for excellent candidates for its open Senior Researcher, Senior Research Associate, and Content Editor positions.
- GiveWell has published the following new research materials:
- Pages on two grants: on a $1.2 million grant to Malaria Consortium to monitor and evaluate work in Nigeria and a $120,000 grant to Oxford University to support research into spillover effects of GiveDirectly's cash transfer program.
- Notes from a conversation about tuberculosis with David Dowdy of Johns Hopkins University plus notes on why it's deprioritizing research into micronutrient powders, school feeding programs, and generic hepatitis C medication
Cause areas
Animal welfare
- GFI U.S. welcomes new president Ilya Sheyman, as CEO Bruce Friedrich goes global, Good Food Institute.
- Debating Peter Singer on Wild Animal Suffering, Humane Hangouts, YouTube.
- Most animal cruelty is legal on the farm. A judge is questioning that., Kenny Torrella, Vox.
- Meat Tax: Why Chickens Pay The Price, Animal Ask, EA Forum.
- Sam Bankman-Fried and Peter Singer sit down to discuss animal rights, climate change, effective giving, and other topics of interest.
Global health and development
- Karen Levy on fads and misaligned incentives in global development, and scaling deworming to reach hundreds of millions, Rob Wiblin and Karen Levy, 80,000 Hours Podcast.
- AMF agrees to fund 6.8 million nets for distribution in Chad in Q1 2023, Rob Mather, Against Malaria Foundation.
- New IPCC report underscores importance of rapid emissions reductions, David McCabe, Clean Air Task Force.
- CATF welcomes Alex Breckel as Director of Clean Energy Infrastructure Deployment.
Long-term future
- The Future is Vast: Longtermism's perspective on humanity's past, present, and future, Max Roser, Our World in Data.
- Experimental longtermism: theory needs data, Jan Kulveit & Gavin Leech, EA Forum.
- Important, actionable research questions for the most important century, Holden Karnofsky, EA Forum.
- The biggest funder of anti-nuclear war programs is taking its money away, Dylan Matthews, Vox.
- Why the expected numbers of farmed animals in the far future might be huge, Tse Yip Fai, EA Forum.
You can now support Giving What We Can's operations using EA Funds
This funding helps us to inspire donations to high impact charities
Useful Links
- Review our giving recommendations.
- Report your donations with your pledge dashboard.
- Share our ideas to help grow our community and multiply your impact.
- Join other members in the Giving What We Can Community Facebook group.
- Find more ways to get involved with Giving What We Can and effective altruism.
- Discuss effective giving and effective altruism on the EA Forum.
You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok and subscribe to the EA Newsletter for more news and articles.
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.