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Luke Freeman

July 2021 Newsletter

Thanks to those of you who participated in our member motivations research! 

why people pledge to give a meaningful portion of their incomes to effective charities

We have further research to do, but at this stage, a few things seem pretty clear as motivators:

People with means have an enormous opportunity to help others;

They can have a much bigger impact if they donate effectively;

Committing to act on this opportunity can help them to follow through on their plans to give; and

Following through can help bring meaning and purpose to the lives of these committed effective givers.

 who recently shared her effective giving story on our blog.

 is a great way to inspire others to also give effectively.

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.

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

:
Ask anything, discuss donations, meet effective givers


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. 

'The most successful EA podcast of all time'

 by Aaron Gertler, Centre for Effective Altruism

 three full-time fellows for a one-year fellowship to cover topics of global importance

'What would you do if you had half a million dollars?'

 asks Patrick, winner of the $500k donor lottery

'Key Lessons From Social Movement History'

hiring two roles in global health & wellbeing

Animal Charity Evaluators have provided 

updates for their 2020 ACE Movement Grants recipients

'Cultivated meat was once a vision, now it's becoming a reality'

'France bans killing day-old chicks, sparing 50 million chicks annually'

'Bezos, Gates back fungus-based meat as next big alt-protein'

8.1 million nets for distribution in Nigeria

How to improve global health and wellbeing in clear and direct ways

 according to Alexander Berger from Open Philanthropy on the 80,000 Hours Podcast

'The world is making progress on clean water and sanitation, but is far behind its target to ensure universal access by 2030'

Cold Takes blog has been launched by by Holden Karnofsky form Open Philanthropy. Some of the posts include: '

'All Possible Views About Humanity's Future Are Wild'

'The Duplicator: Instant Cloning Would Make the World Economy Explode'

'Digital People Would Be An Even Bigger Deal'

follow Welsh Government and back the Well-being of Future Generations Bill

A post shared by Giving What We Can (@giving_what_we_can)

Members sharing why they have pledged to give effectively. 

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

 certificate and put it on your wall, desk, or shelf.

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. 

Join other members in the Giving What We Can community 

 with Giving What We Can and effective altruism.

Discuss effective giving and effective altruism on the 

Do you have questions about the pledge, Giving What We Can, or effective altruism in general? Check out our 

Rickey Fukazawa

Rickey shares why she took The Giving What We Can Pledge in 2019, what she'd say to people on the fence, and why she gives now instead of later.

Member Profile: Rickey Fukazawa

We recently spoke with member Rickey Fukazawa from Sydney, Australia. She shared with us why she took The Giving What We Can Pledge in 2019, what she'd say to people on the fence about pledging, and why she gives now instead of later.

I was trying to decide how I can do the most good for the resources I have.

 and then I joined Effective Altruism Sydney.

. I thought for a while and did my research. And I already had enough thinking that I wanted to take an action.

Something I could do immediately was give and, well, Giving What Ce Can made sense.

And it's one of the clearest things you can do, the most impactful things you can do, an actionable thing: because thinking is one part, but the action is really important. So I thought, "What can I do right now?" And I thought to myself: "I can give, okay, I'll give". I took The Pledge because I think Giving What We Can makes sense. It's a good pledge to have.

A pledge keeps you accountable, keeps you motivated and it's about a community that's involved in it, so they inspired me as well.

What would you say to someone on the fence about pledging?

I think: "do it". I think I was on the fence as well.

If you're afraid to do the 10%, just starting from somewhere is good as well. But for me, I personally trust myself right now with the decisions after I've had thought enough. Maybe make a deadline of how much you're going to think up to about the decision and then make that decision. But for me, by the time I had thought through everything, it was the most quick thing I could do actionably. It made sense to me and I had read enough through what was the most effective way to give. So from there, it was just about making that decision and after you've made that first decision, um, automating the payment just through your bank account is simple. And you really won't think about it after that. Once it's automated, it's done.

Why are you giving now, instead of later?

If you're too worried about: "oh, do I give now, do I give later?" I think I prefer just doing it monthly and giving now. Because if you think about it too much, you're going to prolong that decision. And at some stage, for me, I feel like I might "value drift" or something might happen.

I trust myself right now more than future Rickey.

Why pursue giving as a way to have an impact?

I think at any point in my life, because of the luck I have, just the fortunes I have, just being born in a fortunate family, no matter where I am in my career pathway, I'll always be able to give.

" series which profiles a selection of the Giving What We Can community. The Giving What We Can is a community of people from all walks of life, with different perspectives and motivations for giving – all united by their desire to make a significant commitment to use their income to effectively helping others. Read more 

 to help inspire others to give more, and more effectively.

For more information about Giving What We Can we recommend you check out our 

June 2021 Newsletter

Welcome to our June Newsletter which covers Giving What We Can news and updates, upcoming online events, the latest from the effective altruism community, and news and updates about relevant cause areas.

 with a series of industry and cause area talks, as well as bespoke video articles covering 

" Julian Hazell and Michael Plant reviewed new data on income and happiness.

10 reasons why we should donate to the most effective charities.

Andrew Leeke and Surbhi Bharadwaj released two new 

Do effective animal advocates only care about farmed animals?

Does aid make low-income countries dependent on handouts?

 and whether we should be private or public about giving to charity.

 how The Good Place helped him to take The Pledge, and invited Michael to join him in his commitment to effectively helping others.

 shared why they took The Pledge and made the case for people to join them. 

 and gave three workplace talks on effective giving.

 inspired more than 10 students to make a giving pledge --- 

: Ask anything, discuss donations, meet effective givers
July 15: 10:00 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. 

Member J.S. Winchell started a discussion on whether 

digital marketing is under-utilized in effective altruism

How to do good better: The case for effective altruism

" article was published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Lotte de Lint shares why effective altruism would benefit from 

more engagement with creative disciplines

The EA Giving Tuesday donation matching initiative has released their 

Women and Non-Binary Altruism Mentorship (WANBAM) is accepting 

 of their website for donors in The Netherlands.

 launched with the aim of promoting effective giving through rabbis and the Reform movement. Please 

 if you can help in their effort to spread effective giving.

 for those wanting a structured approach to planning a high-impact career.

latest updates from 18 effective altruism organisations

announced the recipients of over $1 million

 in the latest round of their Movement Grants.

When will we get the Impossible Burger of cheese?

European Parliament overwhelmingly backs ban on caged animal farming

Facial recognition tech is coming for pigs. Can it tell if they're suffering?

With support from NOAA, alt seafood could help sustainably meet the growing demand for seafood

More than 40 carbon capture projects have been announced across 13 different European countries

Bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives vote reinstates methane standards

How a lead-removal charity startup (co-founded by GWWC member Lucia Coulter) changed a nation's policy in under three months

Another victory in humanity's war against mosquitoes

Guaranteed income is graduating from charity to public policy

Pakistan is leading the way in establishing domestic financing for deworming programs

Holden Karnofsky from Open Philanthropy has published a 

 for people seeking careers focused on long-term impact.

EA-affiliated researchers published a report, 

, to help the UK avoid disaster when the next extreme risk rolls around.

2018--2019 Long Term Future Fund Grantees: How did they do?

Humanities Research Ideas for Longtermists

 with Giving What We Can and effective altruism.

Discuss effective giving and effective altruism on the 

Do you have questions about the pledge, Giving What We Can, or effective altruism in general? Check out our 

Julian Hazell

Michael Plant

Can money buy happiness? A study by two Nobel Laureates suggests it can – but only up to a point. 

Can money buy happiness? A review of new data

Everyone knows the adage "money can't buy happiness," although few of us seem to believe it. It is clear that being wealthy does not guarantee happiness; there are many who are tremendously wealthy, yet entirely unhappy. Of course, anecdotal evidence is sometimes misleading, so we have 

 on what data suggests about the relationship between money and happiness.

The best-known theory on this topic is that money can buy happiness, but only up to a point. This comes from a study by two Nobel Laureates, 

, which found that emotional wellbeing rises with income. However, it rises logarithmically. That is, as an individual's income increases, their wellbeing increases at a slower and slower rate. And after income surpasses about $75,000 per year, Kahneman and Deaton's data suggests, wellbeing stops increasing altogether.

 challenges this finding: the paper, entitled "Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year," gives us reason to think that we should take a closer look at the link between money and happiness, with an important caveat. As we argue in this piece, a more accurate title for this paper might be: "Money barely increases happiness above $75,000 per year — unless you really value money, and even then not by much."

In 2010, Kahneman and Deaton's study examined the link between income, emotional wellbeing, and overall life evaluation. Kahneman and Deaton's study relied on a survey of 450,000 American respondents that contained questions about emotional wellbeing, life satisfaction, and reported family income. After examining the data, the pair famously concluded that happiness remains basically unchanged once household income exceeds $75,000, though overall life evaluation keeps improving. The key conclusion is that incomes over $75,000 buy life satisfaction, but not happiness.

Conversely, Killingsworth’s recent study takes advantage of technology to revisit the relationship between income and happiness. The new study used a smartphone app to periodically ask a large sample of people how they felt throughout the day on a continuous scale from “very bad” to “very good.” By contrast, the 2010 study asked people to recall how they felt in the past. As Killingsworth points out, the 2010 study’s methodology is “vulnerable to memory errors and biases in judgement.”

 Contrary to Kahneman and Deaton’s study, Killingsworth found that happiness and life satisfaction continue to increase with household income, even after income surpasses $75,000.

Does that mean that money makes a big difference in happiness and that you should go work at Goldman Sachs? Not so fast. Note that Killingsworth’s graph uses a logarithmic x-axis for income (echoing Kahneman and Deaton 2010) and the y-axis uses z-scores, a measure of standard deviation that won’t have much intuitive meaning to anyone unfamiliar with statistics. Here’s the data for experienced wellbeing, but plotted with different axes.

Blog

July 2021 Newsletter

Member Profile: Rickey Fukazawa

June 2021 Newsletter

Can money buy happiness? A review of new data

Why should we donate to the most effective charities?

Does aid make low-income countries dependent on handouts?

Do effective animal advocates only care about farmed animals?

Donating anonymously: Should we be private or public about giving to charity?

How much money should we donate to charity?

May 2021 Newsletter