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Luke Freeman

Member Motivations: Why people pledged to give 10% of their income to effective charities

As of July 2021, over 6,000 people have taken 

 to give at least 10% of their lifetime incomes to highly effective charities.

Given without focusing on charity effectiveness; or

So why have they committed to taking significant action to effectively help others? We asked them.

Why people pledged to give 10% of their income to effective charities

Our team at Giving What We Can has taken on the mission of inspiring donations to the world's most effective organisations. One way in which we do that is by building a community of people who've pledged to give a meaningful portion of their income to effective charities.

To build this community, it is important to understand why people have taken (and upheld) an effective giving pledge. In a world of information overload, our attention is limited. We often only have a few seconds --- or even just a glance --- to reach someone, so understanding our existing members' motivations is an important first step in understanding what might motivate other people to join a community of people committed to giving more, and more effectively.

This might seem straightforward, but we discovered that there were so many different motivations that it was hard to know which ones were most important to lead with. Without a clear understanding of the most compelling messages, we could be missing out on significant community growth -- and thus potentially missing out on billions of dollars that could be donated to highly effective charities.

To understand the strongest motivations of our members, we started by looking at two data sources:

The pledge sign-up survey (where people left comments about their motivations in the "anything else to add" field) and;

We then coded these statements with relevant keywords that captured the underlying messages.

For example, the statement: "Being financially in a luckier position than most of the world, I feel like it is a moral duty to contribute to the good for humanity in general" was grouped with similar messages that were coded with keywords like "moral duty", "income inequality", and "financial stewardship".

Once themes emerged, we tried to capture these themes in various key messages.

In some cases, we included two very similar messages if we wanted to tease apart two similar ideas that had an important distinction (for example, income inequality creating an obligation to help others versus an opportunity to help others).

This resulted in a list of 25 key message statements, which represented most of the motivations identified.

We then asked our members to rate these statements on a five-point scale from "not at all motivating" to "highly motivating", and also by picking their top three motivations.

 124 members responded. Note that our sample is subject to selection bias, and please understand this work as an exploratory project, not as a formal study.

The 25 statements fell broadly into four motivational categories, which we labelled as inequality, emotion, effectiveness, and convenience after doing an exploratory factor analysis.

Two statements seemed to resonate with our members more than the rest: these were the two related to global income inequality.

The Opportunity Framing: "Because I was lucky enough to be born in a relatively wealthy nation, I have the opportunity to help those who need it."

The Responsibility Framing: "Because I was privileged to be born in a relatively wealthy nation, I have a responsibility to help those who need it."

This might be because this global income inequality messaging has been very prominent over the years at Giving What We Can. After all, the 

 and it also features on the homepage. This calculator shows that most people in high-income countries are in the top global 5% and that they could use that income to significantly benefit others.

What is particularly interesting is the difference in ratings between these two framings. The responsibility framing was almost twice as popular when members were asked to select three primary motivations. Almost half the members selected this motivation. However, the opportunity framing had a higher mean score because a small number of members gave the responsibility framing a very low rating. This suggests that the responsibility framing is more popular --- but also more polarising --- than the opportunity framing.

The next two highest-scoring statements were related to charity effectiveness:

GWWC's approach to giving is rational and impact-focused.

 are rigorously vetted and evidence-based

Impact appears to be a highly motivating factor and many members believe that the way to achieve that desired impact is by using evidence and rigour.

The effectiveness statements were incredibly closely followed by two statements that fell in the convenience group of statements, but both specifically focused on how making a pledge helps people follow through:

Making a pledge has helped me to act in better accordance with my own values.

Making a pledge has helped me build a long-term habit around charitable giving; it will keep me accountable over time.

Most of the emotion-related motivations ranked lower than the other groups of statements. However, they were still predominantly averaging "moderately motivating" or higher. The outlier of the emotion group was one that related to meaning and purpose. While its average score ranked 10th (out of 25), it was the third-most selected when members could only pick three motivations:

Making a giving pledge provides meaning or purpose in my life.

Yellow = Inequality, Green = Effectiveness, Blue = Convenience, Red = Emotion

This project was exploratory in nature. We have much more work to do before we can fully understand these motivations and which ones will resonate most with new potential members. In particular, we'd like to develop an understanding of the extent to which the motivations of our current members can also motivate new members. 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.

Please let me know in the comments what you think about this research, anything that resonated with you, or anything we might have missed.

To give you a bit of motivation I'll leave you with two open text responses written by Mike from the UK and Patrick from Germany, both of which resonated with me personally:

"We did not choose to be who we are, so if we are lucky, then we should be sharing that luck with others where we can." - Mike, UK

"It's motivating to know that you can help many humans and animals and being part of a group of people that also value this. Being an effective giver gives me purpose and has become an important part of my identity." - Patrick, Germany

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:

 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.

Blog

Member Motivations: Why people pledged to give 10% of their income to effective charities

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?