This edition of our newsletter includes information about our November meetups; updates from Giving What We Can; relevant updates for effective giving; a selection of interesting articles; upcoming events you can join; and some ways you can help!
This is the online edition of our October 2020 email newsletter (subscribe here).
November Meetup Events
Next weekend (November 7-8) we invite you to meet up with people in the Giving What We Can community from around the world, hear what's going on, and discuss a range of topics.
Americas / Oceania
Saturday 7pm EST / Sunday 11am AEDT
Special Guest: Catherine Low, Centre for Effective Altruism
Europe / Asia
Sunday 9:30am GMT / Sunday 5:30pm SGT
Special Guest: Arden Koehler, 80,000 Hours
News & Updates
Giving What We Can
Effective Giving Advocacy Challenge
Want to advocate for effective giving but don’t know how? Sign up and we’ll email you with an action you can take each day to make a difference this giving season!
We have soft-launched our Company Pledge with four companies including Australian trade services provider Give Industries, European impact-streetwear brand Studio-1X, American meditation app Waking Up, and Australian technology research & venture builder ISOLABS. These companies will donate at least 10% of their profits to effective charities.
Hey you. Yes, you. You can make a difference. by Julian Hazell
“It is common to think that our ability to help the needy is inadequate when we compare ourselves to the ultra-rich, especially when we consider issues that seem too big to solve… Thankfully, that isn’t the case. Let me show you the how, and then the why.”
Member Profile: Catherine Thomas
“I like the idea that people will give together. I hope the pledge will start to build that social norm toward redistribution, specifically for basic needs and effective charities… I appreciate that there's this mechanism that facilitates the giving process really easily. It makes me feel more whole — less divided — as an individual because it aligns my values with my actions.”
Do you have a burning question about effective giving, pledging to give, Giving What We Can, or effective altruism? Want to make a suggestion or discuss an idea? Just keen to meet others interested in effective giving? Join us for Giving What We Can's Open Forum hosted on the third Thursday/Wednesday of each month.
Grantmakers, Evaluators and Incubators
- Animal Charity Evaluators have released updates from their Movement Grants recipients.
- Charity Entrepreneurship has just announced five new EA charities with high potential for impact. Hundreds of ideas researched, thousands of applications considered, and a two-month intensive Incubation Program.
- EA Funds Global Health and Development Fund recommended a $198,320 grant to the Centre for Pesticide Suicide Prevention.
- Founders Pledge have released a write up on psychedelic-assisted mental health treatment.
- GiveWell have disbursed $23.3 million in flexible funding to their top charities this year and recently granted $15.3 million to the Against Malaria Foundation which is estimated to save 3,000 lives.
- Open Philanthropy have made 13 grants recently with a total value of $7,004,000.
Related Reading
- Giving Multiplier is a new donation platform to introduce people to effective altruism. You give to any charity that is important to you and to a highly effective charity—and Giving Multiplier adds to both of your donations.
- Giving Tuesday is back with donor-matching this December 1st. Facebook’s $7 million Giving Tuesday donation matching opportunity has been announced! Sign up for updates and instructions on how to maximize the chance of getting your donations doubled.
- Match for More has launched an initiative to connect professionals who leverage employer donor-matching opportunities towards effective charities. Become an inaugural member for 2020!
- The Life You Can Save audiobook is available for free on all major podcast platforms Giving What We Can is featured in Chapter 5 (read by Stephen Fry).
- How much a single vote can matter?
- What actually is the argument for effective altruism?
- AI governance and the theory of impact.
- Faunalytics infographics show the 10 products that could have the greatest impact for animals in the U.S. if they were replaced with plant-based or cultivated alternatives.
- Rwandan study finds that cash transfers help recipients more than job training.
- COVID vaccine human trials may be held in the UK (and ~37k people have volunteered).
- Togo is the first African country to end sleeping sickness as a public health problem.
- Poland is set to ban fur farming.
- Pneumonia vaccine price has dropped by 43%, expanding the protection. against one of the world’s deadliest diseases for millions of children.
- Factory farms are an ideal breeding ground for the next pandemic – one researcher says we are “playing Russian roulette.”
- ACE wrote about the value of building alliances between social movements, in particular how the animal advocacy and environmental movements could work concurrently toward their shared goals.
- Which countries have experimented with basic income and what were the results?
- Tens of thousands of women die and hundreds of thousands of babies are stillborn due to malaria according to new study.
- Charity Navigator acquired ImpactMatters and will start including cost-effectiveness in their ratings – read further discussion about the announcement.
- Thankyou write 'The giving system’s broken, we helped break it.' explaining their move to focus more on effectiveness and impact, even if it's 'unsexy' and harder to market.
- The case for taking AI seriously as a threat to humanity. A very accessible article about AI risks.
- Science has been in a “replication crisis” for a decade. Have we learned anything? Bad papers are still published, but some other things might be getting better.
- How factory farms are making the antibiotics we use less effective against disease. Two scientists explain the public health risks posed by factory farms — and how we might solve the problem.
- Fin Moorehoue wrote a review and summary of Moral Uncertainty.
- Getting money out of politics and into charity: an idea to match donations to opposing political campaigns and send the money to charities instead.
- Animal Ethics has launched the Hindi version of its website.
- Human Compatible by Stuart Russell has been published in Chinese.
- Faunalytics published a guide to using social norms messaging effectively for advocacy.
- Gates Foundation 2020 Goalkeepers report shows how we regressed on many of the sustainable development goals for the first time.
- Our World In Data has an interactive overview of greenhouse gas emissions – they also joined up with YouTube channel Kurzgesagt to make a video about climate change.
- BBC covered the topic of whether we are living at the 'hinge of history'.
- How much computational power does it take to match the human brain? A new report by Open Philanthropy.
- Looking for a job with a social impact? First stop is the 80,000 Hours Job Board, next look at this list of social impact job boards collated by Tom Wein.
Upcoming Events
- GWWC Meetups: November 7th/8th (Sat/Sun)
- GWWC Open Forum: November 18th/19th (Wed/Thurs)
- EAGxAsia-Pacific: November 21st-22nd (Sat-Sun)
Can you help?
Want to help spread the word about effective giving?
Join our Effective Giving Advocacy Challenge, share our ideas, or offer to volunteer.
Do you have a personal blog or website?
Consider helping us spread the word by (a) writing something about Giving What We Can; or (b) linking to us in your sidebar or footer (e.g. What are the best charities to donate to?, Are you on the global rich list?, I’ve taken a giving pledge!).
Feel like sharing your effective giving story?
Help inspire others by telling the story of your experience, and why you give.
Did you want to write for our blog?
Email us to suggest a topic you’d like to write about, or ask us for ideas.
Do you want to run an effective giving event within your workplace, school, or community group?
We’d love to help – simply email us to let us know.
Useful Links
- Review our giving recommendations
- Report your donations with your pledge dashboard
- 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 on the EA Forum
For more news and articles, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, or subscribe to the EA Newsletter.
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.