Stay up to date with Giving What We Can's blog. Featuring the latest news about our community, how to donate effectively, charity evaluation, community events and more!

Blog

Giving What We Can's blog, featuring the latest news from our community.

Donate

Pledge

footerNavigation

About us

Contact us

Our team

Our values

Our members

Our events

Transparency

Our mistakes

Our impact

Donate to Giving What We Can

Careers

Leave feedback or make a complaint

About

Our best charities

Take a giving pledge

Get involved

Make a bequest

Videos, books, podcasts

FAQs

Learn more

Press kit

Media coverage

Case studies: People who pledge to give

Media

Footer Navigation

topNavigation

Our research team’s 2026 recommendations

How we choose which charities to recommend

Other places to donate

Create a fundraiser

Best charities

The 10% Pledge

The Trial Pledge

Pledging vs. donating

View all pledgers

Pledge motivations

Share your pledge to inspire others

Giving pledges

About our research

Browse our guides and resources

Connect with our community

Read our blog

Help others discover effective giving

Birth Lottery (New)

How Rich Am I

Research and resources

Who we are & what we do

Our structure

Mistakes

Top Navigation

Guest Author

 If you want to learn more about the largest global generosity movement, look no further. Learn all you need to know about #GivingTuesday at Giving What We Can.

What Is the Giving Tuesday Movement? | Giving What We Can

Understanding the #GivingTuesday Movement

As the leaves change colour and the days grow shorter, the air grows cooler and crisper. It's a time of year when the leaves crinkle under your feet, the smell of pumpkin spice wafts from storefronts, and the giving spirit is in the air. For many, the month of November is a time for reflection and giving back.

So this Giving Tuesday, take the time to reflect on what you're grateful for and then find a way to give back. But what is Giving Tuesday? How can you make the most of this charitable day? In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at Giving Tuesday, its origins, and how you can make the most of it. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about Giving Tuesday.


Giving Tuesday, sometimes referred to as Charity Tuesday, is a global day of giving that falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States. The day is dedicated to giving back to the world and celebrating generosity. People use Giving Tuesday to support causes by making donations, volunteering their time, or spreading the word about good work being done across the globe. Charitable organizations, non-profits, and individuals use social media to share information about how people can get involved using awareness campaigns like the hashtag #GivingTuesday. In fact, this charitable day is often stylized outside of social media as #GivingTuesday or GivingTuesday for the purposes of 

The idea behind this day of charity is to kick off the holiday giving season and show support for the organizations that make the world better. It's a day to come together and give back. Since its inception, #GivingTuesday has grown into a global movement. In 2017, more than $300 million was raised online for charitable causes on GivingTuesday. Especially if you give to 

, it’s an excellent way to give back and make a difference.


Giving Tuesday has been celebrated annually on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving since 2012. The movement was founded by 92nd Street Y, a cultural and community centre in New York City, in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. GivingTuesday was inspired by the popular shopping events 

 and Cyber Monday, two of the busiest shopping days of the year, which take place in the United States the day after Thanksgiving. In the years since its launch, #GivingTuesday has grown into a global movement with millions of people participating in more than 150 countries.

There are many reasons why you should donate on #GivingTuesday. First and foremost, donations made on GivingTuesday go a long way in helping charities and causes reach their fundraising goals. In fact, in 2020, Americans gave more than $471 billion to charitable organizations.

Donating on GivingTuesday is also a great way to support the 

 and help them continue their important work. By donating on GivingTuesday, you're helping to ensure that these organizations have the resources they need to make a positive impact in the world.

Finally, donating on GivingTuesday is a way to show your support for the global giving movement. By making a donation on GivingTuesday, you're helping promote philanthropy and encouraging others to give back as well.

How can you make the most of Giving Tuesday?

GivingTuesday is a popular day for giving, so it's essential to plan ahead if you want to make sure your donation goes to a charity of your choice. Many charities have donation pages set up online, so be sure to check their websites before making a donation. You can also use our resources at Giving What We Can. 

 is a community of effective givers who want to help you maximize your charitable impact. We provide guidance on how to give effectively, how to donate to the world's most effective charities, and how to pledge a portion of your income to highly effective charitable organizations.

Spreading the word is another effective way to make the most of this big day. Tell your friends and family about GivingTuesday and encourage them to donate to their favourite charities. As we've mentioned, you can also use social media to spread the word. Hashtags like #GivingTuesday and #givingseason can help get the word out.

Even if you don't have much money to spare, giving your time can help you make the most of GivingTuesday. There are many ways to give back, and you can find a charitable institution that suits your interests and skills.

No matter how much or how little you give, every donation counts, and your donation can go much further when given to 

. So be generous and give what you can to make a difference if you want to make the most of this charitable holiday.


Choosing a charity

When looking for a charity to donate to, there are a few things you should consider. First, think about what you care about most. Do you want to donate to a charitable institution that helps nonhuman animals, one that helps kids, or one that helps the environment?

Once you know what type of charity you’d like to donate to, you can start researching specific charities. You can find information on a charity’s website, or you can use our list of 

. These organizations work on a range of causes, with some using established, evidence-based strategies and others using more innovative or speculative approaches with the potential for greater impact.


You should also make sure that the charity is registered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Checking this information is easy to do. You can simply type the charity’s name into the IRS’s charity database. That said, we suggest not stressing too much about tax-deductibility — 

it’s usually more important you choose the 

whether it’s tax-deductible or not. Finally, keep in mind that people can generally do a lot more good with monetary donations than donating food, supplies, or time. Every donation you make maximises the amount of good you're doing for the world.


As you can see, GivingTuesday has helped establish an entire season of giving, whether that's donating money, goods, or even your time. The campaign has become a global movement that's helped change the way people think about charitable giving. No matter what you do, just be sure to try to do something. GivingTuesday is a great opportunity to make a difference in the world, and it's a chance to support the charitable institutions and organizations that are important to you. So, what are you waiting for? Get involved in GivingTuesday today!

Grace Adams

Munich GWWC/EA Event - December 2022

Get-Together unter gemeinsamer Schirmmherrschaft von EA Munich/EA Germany/GWWC/Effektiv-Spenden

19:30 Begrüßung durch Patrick Gruban und Sarah Tegeler, Co-Directors Effective Altruism Germany

Zusammen mit EA Germanys neue co-directors Sarah Tegeler und Patrick Gruban laden wir (GWWC) zu einem informellen Treffen ein. Für Interessenten gibt es ein kurzes, einleitendes Video um 19:30 und wir beantworten Ihre Fragen. Für alle ist es die Chance, weiterere GWWC/EA Mitglieder und Pledge-enden kennenzulernen und gemeinsam auf das bisher erreichte sowie neue Ziele für 2023 anzustoßen! RVSP Bitte bei Karen.Kaboth@gmail.com Tel +49 (0) 1722885450

Social & Intro Talk by EA Munich/EA Germany/GWWC/Effektiv Spenden

19:30 Introduction to Effective Altruism (optional)

Join us for a social gathering together with the new EA Germany co-directors Sarah Tegeler and Patrick Gruban. For those new to Effective Altruism, we’ll show an introductory video at 19:30 and answer your questions. Otherwise, just mingle, talk and enjoy free drinks and pizza together with other GWWC/EA Members, Pledge-takers and friends and celebrate all we've reached so far as well as the new outlook for 2023! RVSP please to Karen.Kaboth@gmail.com Tel +49 (0) 1722885450

October Newsletter 2022

Hello and welcome to our October Newsletter!

Our favourite season is almost upon us…Giving Season! We are preparing for our biggest year yet, and we are excited to help more people learn about the incredible impact that effective giving can make.

Join our biggest event this year: Effective Giving Day

The world can be an overwhelming place with all the global challenges we are facing but effective giving gives us the tools to make an outstanding impact, as an individual, but especially as a global community.

Join us for Effective Giving Day this year and discover how you can create up to 100x more impact with your donations. You will hear from experts about how you can find charities that do the most good and get their recommendations on where to donate across a variety of causes.

Effective Giving Day will also feature guests including GWWC co-founder William MacAskill and bestselling author Rutger Bregman who will talk about how effective giving has become an important part of their lives.

If you have questions about charity, giving or high impact causes, we have the experts to answer them! 

 by November 10th and we’ll select some to be answered during the event.

After the event, join us online for a Gathertown event or if you prefer - attend an event in your city (make sure you RSVP to find out about in person events)!


Join Effective Giving Day 2022 on Monday 28th November (29th November for Asia/Pacific) and do more than you thought possible.


We want you to participate in this year's Giving Season campaign!

We’re looking for our community to join us in showcasing how empowering it can be to do good through giving effectively. We want to feature community members talking about why they’re motivated to give effectively and how it’s made a difference to their lives!


Just a short 10 to 30 second video recorded on a smartphone would be fantastic. 

Submit your video here by the 7th of November

 and be involved in sharing effective giving with the world!

Get us to talk at your workplace or community group!

Many people start thinking about how to give back towards the end of the year. If you’d like us to host a talk or workshop at your workplace or with your community group about effective giving over the coming months,

! We are excited to share the ideas of effective giving with new people and have found talks and workshops to be impactful.

We’re excited to continue our mission to create a world where giving effectively and significantly is a cultural norm this Giving Season!


-Grace Adams & the rest of the Giving What We Can team

This month we’ll speak with Anam Abdulla, Senior Manager of the Deworm the World Initiative at Evidence Action. Well known in the EA community for its cost-effective impact, Deworm The World delivers mass school-based deworming programs to parts of the world that most need it. Join us for this Q&A session to learn more about Evidence Action and the Deworm The World Initiative.

 (New York: 5:00 pm; San Francisco: 2:00 pm, Sydney: Sun, Nov. 13, 9:00 am, Auckland: Sun, Nov. 13, 11:00 am)

This month we are joined by Carlita Bevege, the Associate Director, External Relations for Evidence Action. Evidence Action is an organization that scales evidence-based and cost-effective programs, including Dispensers for Safe Water, Deworm the World, as well as running an accelerator program for selecting and assessing “ready-to-scale” interventions. Please join us for this Q&A session to learn more about the work that Evidence Action does and the impact of the programs they run.

 (London: 9:30 am, Munich: 10:30 am, Mumbai: 3:00 pm, Singapore: 5:30 pm)

Our open forum is an event where you can come along with questions about effective giving and/or to meet others interested in effective giving. This event alternates between Europe/Asia and Americas/Oceania each month.

 (London: 7:00 pm, Munich: 8:00 pm, New York 2:00 pm, San Francisco: 11:00 am)

Isn’t poverty just a symptom and not the real problem we should be addressing?

GiveWell finds the world’s best charities. Here’s how they do it.

Today, we can do more good than ever before. So why aren’t we?

Climate change & Africa: Lily Odarno, Clean Air Task Force

Find audio-only versions of new YouTube content on the 

#11 - Neil Buddy Shah: A deep dive into GiveWell’s work

If you’re in the USA and are planning to donate during this giving season, EA Giving Tuesday is a great opportunity for you to maximise your donations! Facebook will be offering donation matches starting from 6am (EST) on the 29th of November. You can learn more about this on the 

A new introductory essay on Effective Altruism

 was recently published on EffectiveAltruism.org.

, a list which features people that “embody the question Future Perfect asks every day: How do we make the future a better place for everyone?”. Everyone on this list is deserving and it features some of our members including founding member, economist 

 of the Lead Exposure Elimination Project.

announced the winners of the EA criticism contest

A critical review of GiveWell's 2022 cost-effectiveness models

Methods for improving uncertainty analysis in EA cost-effectiveness models

Population Ethics without Axiology: A Framework

 answering some of the questions it's gotten from donors about the 

 for a chlorine dispenser program, Dispensers for Safe Water, and about its overall 

. Chlorination appears to be a promising way to reduce child mortality in areas with unsafe water. Since recommending the grant for Dispensers for Safe Water in January of this year, GiveWell has been exploring other chlorination interventions, such as 

 it recommended to Malaria Consortium for seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC), and a 

 to Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) to fund the construction of additional trailbridges as part of a study of B2P's program. B2P builds trailbridges in rural communities to help residents access schools and markets, which GiveWell believes may increase household income.

GiveWell strongly encourages followers of its work to 

consider applying for its Senior Researcher position

, or sharing the opening with someone who may be interested.

Animal Charity Evaluators turned 10 as well as recently released a new 

 for animal charities to help them become more effective.

Supreme Court grapples with animal welfare in a challenge to a California law requiring pork to be humanely raised

Battery hen and animal testing laws could be scrapped because of Brexit, warns RSPCA

 discuss wild animal welfare as a problem profile

learning more about what they hope to achieve

Fifty Two, which delivers news through journalism and art from the Indian subcontinent presents 

Keep up to date with New Incentives with 

 with Trevor Noah talking about future generations.

Read about some of the people who are leading the way in protecting the long0term future in 

 for an ICTA-UAB project that will study how to escape from a growth economy and ensure social welfare and planetary sustainability.

The carbon-free energy resource you’ve never heard of: superhot rock energy

Lily Odarno from Clean Air Task Force

 by setting up a recurring donation to a highly-effective charity today! 

 to help grow our community and multiply your impact.

 with Giving What We Can and effective altruism.

Discuss effective giving and effective altruism on the 

 for more news and articles.

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

Caroline Wood

‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’

This popular saying is often used to illustrate the argument that, over the long-term, it is more efficient to address the fundamental issues causing a problem rather than relying on ‘quick fixes.’ For example, the effective altruism (EA) community, along with other organisations which work to alleviate poverty, has occasionally been criticised for focusing on short-term solutions instead of tackling the root causes of poverty. Sometimes these interventions are given the (rather derogatory) name ‘band-aid’ solutions, implying that they merely cover up the superficial symptoms of poverty like a bandage would, without doing anything to improve the underlying situation.

But is this really fair? After all, achieving systemic change takes time, and may even eclipse the lifetimes of those suffering right here and now. Sometimes, a quick-fix might actually be the most empowering thing you can do, and be 

the first step that helps break the cycle of poverty

 found that children who received deworming treatment had significantly fewer school absences, and earned 13% more income as adults, compared with children who did not receive the treatment. Given that deworming treatment costs less than $1 US per child per year, the researchers estimated the social rate of return to be 37%. Not bad for a band-aid surely?

Nevertheless, it’s true that a lack of strategy or long-term thinking can allow problems to perpetuate, or even get worse. For instance, providing food to the hungry through charity-funded food banks 

may shift the responsibility from governments, making them less compelled to introduce state support

. Similarly, although camps for refugees and displaced people are a quick solution to save lives and provide food, water, shelter, and medical care, they are incredibly costly to run, undignified, and can lead to long-term dependency. Paul Spiegel, a former senior official at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 

 would introduce policies to give displaced people work permits, besides access to educational and healthcare systems within their host countries.

Perhaps the ultimate band-aid example comes from ‘

’ itself: the charity supergroup founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia. This culminated in the legendary 1985 Live Aid concert, which raised $127 million, sparking real hope that this would start to reverse Ethiopia’s desperate levels of poverty. But 35 years later, 

Ethiopia remains a ‘Humanitarian Catastrophe’

, crippled by drought, famine and conflict. 

, key reasons for this include lack of investment in broad, long-term policies for agricultural development, managing natural resources, and credit/insurance.

When we consider the examples above, it can seem obvious that the most effective strategy would be to tackle the major causes of suffering - as the fifteen-year 

 aimed to do. These addressed eight grand challenges, with the first being to ‘eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.’ And indeed, the goals definitely made some progress towards this: within the project’s timeframe 

the number of those living in extreme poverty

 halved, reducing the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015. However, several reasons mean that addressing the root causes of poverty that remain will be much, 

1. Poverty looks very different depending on where you are

In some countries, while only a small proportion of their population lives in poverty, this translates into large 

 numbers. For instance, the countries with the highest numbers of people living below the poverty line are India, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, 

which have a combined total of over 280 million people

. But there are many smaller countries that have higher 

 levels of poverty: in South Sudan and Burundi, for example, 

around 80% of the population lives below the poverty line

. On top of this, each country has its own unique combination of political systems, infrastructure, environmental resources, cultural traditions, and foreign policy. Improving people’s livelihoods as quickly as possible will therefore require an individual, tailored plan for every region.

2. Poverty is now concentrated in extremely challenging environments

Most (96%) of those living in extreme poverty 

live in countries that are environmentally vulnerable, politically unstable, or both

the largest recipient countries of international humanitarian aid are burdened with protracted or recurring crises

. In these circumstances it is difficult, if not impossible, to plot a route out of poverty, and this is typically well beyond the scope of a charity or NGO to deal with. 

Writing for Vox, journalist and EA advocate Kelsey Piper put it this way:

“… there’s no doubt that it’s significantly more complex to identify the best ways to do good in [lobbying and advocacy work] than it is to identify the best ways to distribute bednets.”

3. Solving poverty is not a linear process

Unlike giving a child a vaccination or installing a well, solving poverty isn’t a simple ‘once it’s done, it’s done’ process. The overall success of the Millennium Development Goals wasn’t felt everywhere, 

with some areas experiencing little change and 30 countries seeing the number of people living in extreme poverty actually increase

. Furthermore, sudden conflicts and political instability can rapidly undo decades of slow policy change, 

4. Assumptions about the best way out of poverty aren't always correct

Blog

What Is the Giving Tuesday Movement? | Giving What We Can

Munich GWWC/EA Event - December 2022

October Newsletter 2022

Isn’t poverty just a symptom and not the real problem we should be addressing?

Have us talk to your workplace/group this Giving Season!

Member Profile: Timeo Williams

September Newsletter 2022

Should charity begin at home?

Member Profile: Fernando Martin-Gullans

Announcement: Renaming of legal entity to Effective Ventures Foundation