January newsletter: Some incredible projects we funded together

As we begin a new year, we’ve been reflecting on 2024. It was a challenging year for many, with crises at home and globally. And there’s certainly more of that to come in 2025.

But despite those challenges, we aren’t powerless.

One thing that gives me hope is the number of people who truly care about helping others – who refuse to stand by and do nothing in the face of overwhelm, and who (even though they can’t solve the world’s problems all by themselves) commit to doing something concrete and meaningful – something that is sure to touch the lives of others.

And – if this community is any indication – that number of people is steadily increasing.

• In 2024, 874 people decided to give at least 10% of their income over the course of their working life to improve the lives of others and the world at large. This is a notable ~50% increase from 2023. 
• We also had another 802 people sign a Trial Pledge, where they customised their commitment – choosing how much of their income to give and how long their commitment should last.
• Further, 2024 saw at least $36m USD move through our donation platform to support highly effective charities and high-impact programs.

Together, we’re pushing back on the narrative that there’s no point in trying and that there’s nothing we can do to improve the world. Instead, our community helped fund:

Anti-malarial medicine that helped children in extreme poverty avoid malaria, increasing the chance of healthy, happy, fulfilling lives

A caregiver administers a dose of SMC medicines to a child. Burkina Faso. Credit: Sophie Garcia/Malaria Consortium

A suite of initiatives to improve the welfare of farmed animals across the world through advocacy, community building, policy shaping, and legislative work

Read the EA Animal Welfare Fund’s grant reports

Bioweapons prevention workshops that shaped the Biological Weapons Convention, helping influence key discussions on disincentivising bioweapons

(An 18-month grant begun in 2023)

Read Longview’s Emerging Challenges Fund 2024 Report

A program designed to improve community-based TB treatment and monitoring in children under 5 in India

Read GiveWell’s report on their grant to CHAI

Ensuring that key AI safety, governance, and research organisations have a seat at the table to define legislative checks on AI development

Read Longview’s Emerging Challenges Fund 2024 Report

…amongst so many other things.

If I leave you with one thought at the start of 2025, it’s that your donations given to effective charities are making a real difference, and your contributions are creating a healthier, happier and safer world for its inhabitants.

Onward!

Grace Adams & the Giving What We Can Team

Motivations for Pledging

Here are some of our favourite responses from people who took a pledge last month:

Conference: EA Global: Bay Area 2025

Applications for EA Global: Bay Area 2025 are still open, and the deadline has been extended to Feb 9th due to a large number of incoming applications! Last year's conference was focused on existential risk, but this time around it will be a regular, cause-neutral EA Global. Apply now!

News & Updates

GWWC

• Our research team is about to undertake our next impact evaluation – and we need your help. We’d be grateful if you could take a moment now to record your donations in your Pledge Dashboard. You will help us gain valuable insights into our collective impact and see your personal giving stats! It’s extremely important to us to consistently and rigorously evaluate our work, and we use the key insights to inform our strategic plans going forward so we can continue driving more resources to the most effective organisations and causes.

Community

• 10% Pledger Felix Werdemann wrote My Donations for a Sustainable Food System, in which he discusses his reasons for donating over €10,000 in the past year to Good Food Institute and ProVeg International. Felix discusses how supporting these organisations (and more broadly, a commitment to donating a portion of your income to effective charities) can help fight numerous problems, from climate change and pandemics to animal suffering. Read it in English or in German.
• Looking for a fun (and cost-effective) way to raise funds for EA charities and promote EA principles to a wider audience? Create and submit a short video about your favorite effective charity to the charity video competition Project for Awesome by February 8! Past submissions have resulted in $3500 per video, and last year the Against Malaria Foundation, GiveDirectly and ProVeg International each won over $37,000!

Cause areas

Animal Welfare

• Faunalytics released a new study titled “What Vegan Advocates Can Learn From The Social Spread Of Quitting Smoking. It explores how social connections and relationships may drive the adoption of plant-based diets, offering insights for advocacy and future research – you can read it here.
• Wild Animal Initiative has fieldwork underway for its house sparrow welfare research project. The project launched last year to explore how varying environmental conditions affect the welfare of a common animal, the house sparrow. The research team recently gathered in person to collaborate and work on methods for the study – you can read the full update here.

Global Health and Wellbeing

• Malaria Consortium
  • Published its World Malaria Report video and news piece highlighting its efforts of “doing more together” to beat malaria.
  • Contributed to this article about a surge in malaria cases due to lack of funding, the effect of covid-19 on health systems, political instability, developing resistance to anti-malarial drugs and insecticides, and other challenges.
  • Is recruiting for several positions in finance, digital health, and compliance. You can find all the job listings here.
• New Incentives
  • Provided 8.7 million cash disbursements to caregivers in 2024 – more than all cash transfers it made during the past five years.
  • Had its work in Bauchi State covered in Prime Progress. Read Cash for vaccines: How a reward program boosts child immunisation in Nigeria: Part 1 and Part 2.
• Helen Keller Intl published a 2024 year in review, sharing the ripple effects of its work in 2024. Find the photo essay here.
• Against Malaria Foundation, one of our recommended charities, is now a registered charity in Portugal: AMF - Associação Against Malaria (Portugal). If you are a donor in Portugal wanting to make a tax deductible donation to AMF, head to their website to learn more and donate.
• Family Empowerment Media (FEM) is expanding its radio programs about family planning to new countries where its intervention can cost-effectively improve maternal health.
  • FEM has opened an application round for implementing partners for proofs of concept and is accepting applications from the following countries: Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, The Gambia, India, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Rwanda, and Togo. Learn more and apply here by February 7.
• Teaching at the Right Level Africa
  • Shared an update on its progress in several countries: In Zanzibar, the Ministry is set to roll out a TaRL pilot following successful workshops in late 2024. In Eritrea, TaRL has developed materials in nine local languages and is preparing for teacher training. In Ethiopia, materials workshops concluded in December, and master trainers are gearing up for a pilot.
  • Is offering an Advanced Course on implementing TaRL programs. Find more information and apply here by Jan 30.

Global Catastrophic Risk Reduction

• 80,000 Hours wrote a summary of developments in AI capabilities, safety and governance in 2024 including evidence that AI continued to advance rapidly in 2024, and important findings about AI safety and risk.
• GWWC co-founder Toby Ord also wrote about scaling in AI. You can read The Scaling Paradox here.

Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators

• GiveWell:
  • Launched a public Request for Information to identify organisations that could implement cost-effective water chlorination programs. GiveWell hopes to fund small-scale pilots to demonstrate operational feasibility and consider follow-on grants to scale the programs if the pilots prove successful. The deadline for responses is March 7, 2025. You can read the full announcement here, which includes directions for applying and/or submitting questions.
  • Published a blog post sharing the cross-cutting research team's strategy and focus areas.
• Open Philanthropy is hiring:
  • A Policy Advisor/Senior Policy Advisor to lead its US AI policy efforts. The role involves developing/executing strategies to advance beneficial AI policies, building coalitions across the AI policy ecosystem, and directing strategic funding ($10-30M) to high-impact initiatives.
  • Operations Coordinators and Associates in San Francisco and DC to support work across all its cause areas
• Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) published its 2024 Year in Review. In 2024, ACE granted nearly $3 million for highly impactful and promising work, recommended eleven charities, and awarded Movement Grants to 30 innovative projects. Read more about ACE's achievements here.
  • ACE’s Influenced Giving Reports showcase the counterfactual funding moved toward its Recommended Charities and Movement Grantees. Between January 2019 and March 2024, ACE estimates that it influenced $20,000,000 that would not have otherwise been donated to its Recommended Charities and $2,600,000 that would not have otherwise been granted to Movement Grants grantees!
• Founders Pledge is hiring an Applied Researcher (Global Catastrophic Risks) to join its research team, identifying and evaluating high-impact funding opportunities to guide effective giving. Learn more and apply here.

We love seeing our community sharing stories about what pledging means to them and spreading the word about effective giving. We are stronger together! Thank you to Luke Furness for helping normalise the concept of giving generously to effective charities!

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Useful Links

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