August 2021 Newsletter

Welcome to our August Newsletter!

We are delighted to announce that we are expanding our remote team. We invite you to apply to join our team in our mission of inspiring donations to the world's most effective organisations:

In other news:

We launched a partnership with Giving Multiplier (currently limited to US charities).
Positive Impact Society Erasmus PISE wrote about their recent Pledge Party event on our blog. Please get in touch if you want to organise one in your local area in January 2022.
We recently released videos on choosing a charity, choosing a cause, and why we recommend taking a public giving pledge.
Congratulations to member Marcus Daniell who won a bronze medal in tennis and is using his public profile to advocate for effective giving.
Congratulations to member Dr Lucia Coulter of the Lead Exposure Elimination Project who was recently profiled by the Mayo Clinic.
We recently launched our TikTok account -- we'll be trialling providing updates on effective giving there now too (as well as our blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube). If you're familiar with the platform and want to help, please reach out.

We hope you enjoy the rest of this newsletter, which covers our upcoming online events, the latest from the effective altruism community, and news and updates about relevant cause areas.

I just took the @givingwhatwecan pledge to donate at least 10% of my income to effective charities for the rest of my life. I turned 30 yesterday, and have made a habit in the last few years of using my birthday to think about my regular giving. This year the pledge feels right.

— alexrjl (611/1000 handstands) (@lxrjl) August 24, 2021

Attend An Online Event

Come along and meet other people who are committed to effectively using their resources to improve the world:

GWWC Online Meetup (Americas/Oceania):
Social meetup, 1-on-1s with members
September 11: 23:00 UTC
GWWC Online Meetup (Europe/Asia):
Social meetup, 1-on-1s with members
September 12: 09:30 UTC
Effective Giving Open Forum:
Ask anything, discuss donations, meet effective givers
September 16: 00:00 UTC

If you have any questions or want to discuss your donation decisions with other members or our team, we recommend registering for an Open Forum event. See all our events.

News & Updates

Effective altruism community

'Is effective altruism growing? An update on the stock of funding vs people' by Ben Todd, 80,000 Hours.
'Six virtues for real-world utilitarians' by Stefan Schubert and Lucius Caviola.
Virtual Programs applications are open until August 29 if you want to join a free interactive online course on effective altruism.
80,000 Hours are offering a free one-to-one careers advice service. Their advisers can talk through your career options, introduce you to mentors or others in your field, and help you work out promising next steps. If that sounds interesting, you can apply to speak to the team.

Evaluators and grantmakers

GiveWell spoke with Dr Schellenberg of World Health Organisation GMP as part of its investigation into malaria vaccines.
The EA Infrastructure Fund and the Long-Term Future Fund are calling for funding applications.

Cause areas

Animal welfare

Member Bruce Friedrich from the Good Food Institute was on the Rich Roll podcast discussing how remaking meat can help animal welfare and other causes like climate change, pandemic prevention, and antibiotic resistance.
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall reveals what studying chimpanzees teaches us about human nature.
'Prop 12, California's cage-free eggs and bacon law, explained' by Kenny Torrella, Vox.
'How Do You Convince People to Eat Less Meat?' by Jan Dutkiewicz, New Republic.
'Why chicken is taking over plant-based meat' by Megan Poinski, Food Dive.

Global health & development

Alexander Berger from Open Philanthropy was on the 80,000 Hours Podcast discussing how to improve global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways.
John Halstead reignites discussion on economic policy in low-income countries on the EA Forum.
'The best way to avoid future Covid19 variants is to vaccinate the world' by Kelsey Piper, Vox.

Long-term future

'Politicians need to pay attention to existential risks' by Toby Ord and Angus Mercer in Wired.
Holden Karnofsky discussed on the 80,000 Hours Podcast whether we are living in the most important century and wrote on his blog.
'Betting on the best case: higher end warming is underrepresented in research' by Florian et al. on the EA Forum.
'Forecasting transformative AI: what's the burden of proof?' by Holden Karnofsky, Cold Takes.

You can now support Giving What We Can's operations using EA Funds:

Donate

This funding helps us to inspire donations to high impact charities.

Help Spread Effective Giving

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

Run an event or give a talk about effective giving (or invite us to dial in remotely).
Give donations to friends and family as gifts.
Wear a t-shirt (or pin, hat, etc.) that advocates for effective giving.

Spreading effective ideas and growing our community helps us make progress on some of the world's most pressing problems. Importantly, it also enriches the lives of the givers. It can take courage, but it's worth it!

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 or LinkedIn groups.
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.