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Giving More

Seeing how much good they can do, some of our members decide to give more than 10% of their income to their chosen aid organizations. There are several ways that they can do this. Firstly, as the Pledge to Give sets only a lower limit on giving, they can simply choose to give more some years, so long as they never give less than 10%.

Alternatively, some choose to formalize this arrangement, pledging to give a higher fraction of their income each year, such as 20% or 50%. In this way, they don't just give more, but make a commitment (to themselves and others) that they will continue to give at this higher rate.

Finally, some of our members choose to give more in quite a different way. They feel that the best way to work out how much to give is by thinking about how much to keep. They work out the smallest amount of money that they can realistically live on, and pledge to give away everything above that level. Thus, in addition to the Pledge to Give, they also make what we call the Further Pledge.

 
 

The Further Pledge

I recognise that I can use part of my income to do a significant amount of good in the developing world. Since I can live well enough on a smaller income, I pledge that from today until the day I retire, I shall give everything I earn above a fixed baseline to whichever organizations can most effectively use it to fight poverty in developing countries. I make this pledge freely, openly, and without regret.

  
     

For example, someone might decide that she can get by on only $20,000 each year. The basic idea is that she would then budget $20,000 for herself each year and give away everything else to the cause she thought most worthy. There are actually a couple of complications needed in order to make this work smoothly and they are outlined below.

Where the Pledge to Give is something like the historic tradition of tithing, the Further Pledge is something like a vow of poverty — living with little, for the sake of others. This level of commitment is not in any way required of our members, but we warmly welcome those willing to make such a pledge and it provides a coherent option for those members who want to do even more.

 
 

The Further Pledge Calculator

Your current age:

Age at which you expect to retire:

Average annual income for the rest of your career:

Your proposed baseline (after tax):

Country for tax purposes:

 

Total you would earn:

Average annual donation:

Total you would donate:

Lives you could save:1

Years of healthy life you could save:2

Years of school attendance you could produce:3

 
     
 
 

Reference:

1.

Tuberculosis can be cured for $20, and deaths from TB prevented for $150–$750 (see the GiveWell page on the Stop-TB Partnership). We have used the midpoint of this range to calculate this figure.

 
     
 
 

Reference:

2.

Experts on global health measure the burden of a disease in terms of Disability Adjusted Life Years (or DALYs) which is the number of years of healthy life lost due to premature death or disability (see more information on DALYs). The most effective health interventions cost only $3 for each DALY prevented (see our page on neglected tropical diseases).

 
     
 
 

Reference:

3.

Treating children for neglected tropical diseases produces an extra year  of school attendance for each $3 (see the J-PAL study , but note that this doesn't include the possible need for extra teachers if more class members turn up). Amazingly, this is the same intervention as the one above, so $3 can produce a year of school attendance and prevent a disability adjusted life-year worth of ill-health.

 
     

Boring Complications

In order for the Further Pledge to be true to its spirit, a few technicalities need to be added:

  • Income Tax: For someone to end up with exactly $20,000 for herself she would actually have to give away everything above $22,176 (assuming she lives in the US). She would then pay exactly $2,176 in tax, leaving her with the correct amount of money. This is tricky to work out by hand, but we provide a simple web form to calculate it for anyone who is interested.
  • Inflation: If we didn't adjust for inflation, then the baseline would get smaller each year in real terms. The number of dollars thus needs to be increased in line with inflation, so as to keep the value of the baseline constant.
  • Dependents: Some people have children or elderly relatives to support. If so you should determine a budget for such support each year (for instance, based on the median cost of support in your country), but such costs don't count towards your own living allowance.
  • Certain other expenses: There are expenses which it is best not to count towards your personal limit. These include essential work expenses (like a compulsory training course or uniform), educational expenses, and payments on pre-existing debts. It would either be unfair or counterproductive to count these. Of course you can't put everything on this list and it has to be thought out carefully. We have more details for those who are interested.

If you ask to join Giving What We Can, we will send you a guide that elaborates on the above points, making it easy to see exactly what the Further Pledge involves and to work out whether or not it is for you.