Blog post

March 2021 Newsletter

8 min read
30 Mar 2021

Welcome to our March newsletter!

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This edition contains information about:

  • Our new study
  • Member motivations
  • Upcoming events
  • Updates from our community
  • News about our top priority cause areas
  • Ways you can help advocate for causes you care about

Study: What makes our members unique?

In an effort to better understand our members, we are collaborating with researchers from Yale University's Mind and Development Lab. If you have taken one of our giving pledges, we would really appreciate you answering a ~15-minute survey about your beliefs and attitudes. Your responses may help us to recruit new members and raise more for effective charities.

Begin Study

Have questions about the study? Contact the study lead, Matti Wilks, at matti.wilks@yale.edu.

Why do people pledge to give effectively?

"I didn't know that giving can actually work. Once I learned about that, the realisation fell into place that there was nothing more useful I could possibly be doing with that money." - Rachel B, Germany
"I'm usually motivated by the idea that there is someone out there who has been spared from having something terrible happen to them because an action that I took. Or an animal has been spared from having to come into existence and live a life full of suffering. Or I have taken some kind of action to help build an amazing future for sentient life." - Rupert M, The Netherlands
"I live a pretty great life with plenty of food and medicine and friends and I'd like more people to have that too. Pretty crazy that we live in a world where people are dying of hunger and diseases that we collectively have the wealth to fix. Hope my money helps get us a little closer to a world where everyone is having a great time. Happy to be helping!" - Ted Sanders, USA

Thanks to those who replied to our last newsletter to tell us why you're motivated to use a portion of your income to help others.

Attend an Online Event

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

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.

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News and updates

Giving What We Can

  • Want to work with us? Applications close on March 31 for our Developer/Technical Product Manager role.
  • In our new article "Measuring Global Inequality," Julian Hazell and David Holmes compare a few of the most commonly used measures of wealth and point out some of the subtleties that can arise in the study of wealth distribution.
  • In "Why should we donate money to charity?" Julian Hazell explains how donating helps others, ourselves, and makes the world a fairer place.
  • Read our latest member profile, in which Carlos Tkacz explains how his giving philosophy was shaped by his education, rock climbing experience, and religious upbringing.
  • Do you work in the personal finance industry (e.g., as a wealth manager, financial advisor, accountant, etc.)? We'd love to speak with you about how we can best help our members to donate effectively, and about spreading effective giving ideas within your industry. Please reply to let us know.
  • Please follow us on Youtube so we can reach 1000 subscribers and unlock more features.
  • Missed our February newsletter? Our top three links were: our new video about Giving What We Can, our t-shirts and other gear you can use to spread the word, and our volunteer application form.

Community

Cause Area Updates

Animal welfare

Climate change & environment

Global health & economic development

Improving institutions

Long term future

Other

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:

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!

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped."
-- Robert F. Kennedy

You can follow us on TwitterFacebookLinkedInInstagram, or YouTube 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.