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

Share your pledge to inspire others

Motivations

Stories

Giving pledges

About our research

Browse our guides and resources

Connect with our community

Read our blog

Help others discover effective giving

Birth Lottery

How Rich Am I

Research and resources

Who we are & what we do

Our structure

Mistakes

Top Navigation

John Yan

"To me, the pledge is a gesture of commitment and accountability that manifests that. I hope to look back on this as one of the proudest things I’ve ever done."

Why I took the Giving What We Can Pledge - John Yan

John Yan | People who give effectively

 is a way of taking something we believe and “making it official”. John Yan shared with us how this process happened for him, and why he thinks this was an important thing for him to do. You can 

read more about John's decision to pledge on his blog

The idea of wanting to help, and that there were people in need, wasn’t new for John. But like many of us, it took some time to work out how to integrate this into his life as an adult.

“When I was a boy, I dreamed of becoming a super-genius inventor. I’d become ultra-rich and then use all my wealth to help those who needed it the most. Then I grew up and learned Bill Gates already sort of did that.
I grew up some more and learned about 

, and all these adjacent organizations.
I remember feeling inspiration and joy knowing I wasn’t alone in this activism.
And yet, it wasn’t until after college that I started to make it a greater part of my life. I started consuming the literature - I read the books, listened to the podcasts, browsed the forums, and went to the meetups”

Nearly four years later, John has a comfortable, stable job. Looking back through the lens of his values he decided it was time to make a stronger commitment.

. But I still recognize that I’m more reciting the convincing points made by the effective altruism community than I am integrating it into my life. I could talk about living my values and flowery principles, but at the end of the day I saw taking the pledge as putting my money where my mouth is. I believe I can exchange a small bit of my own welfare for that of others, at a tremendous rate, and I believed this before I met anyone else that did.
To me, the pledge is a gesture of commitment and accountability that manifests that. I hope to look back on this as one of the proudest things I’ve ever done.”

" 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 

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

Marcus Daniell

Professional tennis player, Marcus Daniell, has taken the The Giving What We Can Pledge to give at least 10% of his income to effective charities.

Olympian Marcus Daniell takes the Giving What We Can Pledge and founds High Impact Athletes

On January 4th 2021, I pledged to donate 10% or more of my annual winnings to effective organisations for the rest of my life.

This decision wasn't completely out of the blue. I began my giving journey in 2015 with a small, tentative donation, then the next year I took a 

 to donate one percent. That felt really good, so the year after I donated five percent. Over the years I steadily increased that percentage until, in 2020, I founded 

 and donated over ten percent. And now we're here.

The more I look into the charity world the more I realise that I won the birth lottery just by being born in a first world country. Compared to the global standard I have been extremely privileged my whole life. It makes sense that I should give a small portion of my own earnings to those who need it so much more than I do.

I want to set a positive example. I have a fervent hope that many others, both athletes and the general public, will join me in whichever way feels right for them.

Making a commitment public like this is a powerful way to hold oneself accountable. Now that I have told the world what I intend to do I expect to be called out if I don't do it.

I have been inspired by philosophers like 

 movement, who donate everything they earn above a living salary. Those two have had truly gargantuan positive impact as a result of their actions, speeches, and writing. I hope to add to their legacy.

Donating 10% of your income sounds scary, but it's really not scary at all. I don't need a fancy car or an expensive watch or even an extra barista-made coffee each day to be happy. Donating that 10% is not going to decrease my happiness, but it is going to make thousands of lives a whole lot better.

I strongly believe that those in the nonprofit world should walk the talk. I wouldn't expect anyone to donate or pledge if I wasn't donating or pledging myself.

Community. I am joining over 5,500 other 10% pledgers on 

, and knowing that I am just one person in a multitude of givers makes me hopeful for the future of this planet and its inhabitants.

I take deep pleasure in knowing that every success I have in my working life will ultimately end up saving or changing lives.

If you are interested in taking the pledge please do reach out to me. Even a 1% pledge is a beautiful life move that will benefit so many, including yourself. You can reach me at 

originally posted on the High Impact Athletes blog

 by Marcus Daniell, the founder of High Impact Athletes.

 is a meta-charity that channels donations to the most cost-effective, evidence-based, and impactful nonprofit organisations in the world. HIA harnesses the wealth and social influence of high-profile athletes to both spread the word about effective giving, and to create an ever-growing snowball of donations starting from the athletes themselves and growing amongst their followings.

Ben Chugg

2020 has been a challenging year. However, we are at an unprecedented time in history: we can do something about the abundance of suffering around us.

When unprecedented times meet unprecedented opportunities

For many, 2020 has been a challenging year.

The global disruption wrought by the pandemic has caused loneliness, estrangement, and sorrow. We have witnessed death and injustice, poverty and sickness. It is a rare person who has been untouched by tragedy. And yet, while the pandemic has brought some of the world's suffering into sharper focus, it also reminds us of the tremendous progress we have made.

We are at an unprecedented time in history: 

We can do something about the abundance of suffering around us

For most of our story, our ability to eradicate poverty, cure disease, and save lives was devastatingly limited. We were hostages to our environments, our biology, and our traditions. Finally, trusting in our creativity, we began to develop powerful ideas on how to improve life.

 to reduce animal suffering in factory farms. We've created democratic institutions to protect the vulnerable and reduce conflict.

Naturally, our progress has not always been smooth and has required the dedication of peoples and cultures worldwide. But our efforts are highlighted in the drastic 

. These are all staggering feats of human ingenuity.

The world is getting better, and with this progress comes an incredible opportunity --- an opportunity to do an amount of good heretofore unimaginable. A life can be saved for 

, and dramatically improved for just a few hundred. By donating to 

reduce the needless suffering of animals;

The collective ability to increase flourishing at such scale is new and something to cherish.

Of course, like all our knowledge, our ideas of how to best help the world are flawed. Our reasoning is prone to error, our methods prone to failure. But it is from our mistakes that we learn and improve.

By donating to effective causes, volunteering for effective charities, or dedicating your career to solving our world's problems, you can help continue the tradition of incremental improvement. You can help to grow our collective knowledge, thereby handing the next generation a slightly better world.

As we reflect on the year, let us remind ourselves of this opportunity before us. While we should not ignore ongoing suffering, nor forget the ones we've lost, we can be grateful that there are reliable ways to help and to mitigate similar tragedies in the future. So far this December, over 300 people have 

pledged to donate a portion of their income to effective charities

. Witnessing them take this opportunity is inspiring. Let's join them and help bring about an increasingly better world.

"Finally the horizon seems clear again, even if not bright; finally our ships may set out again ... the sea, our sea, lies open again; maybe there has never been such an 'open sea'." - Nietzsche

Juan Magasich

Giving What We Can member Juan Magasich explores why he decides to donate each and every month.

My end of month: Reflections on donating

It is the end of the month, so for me, it is the time to go over my income and expenses (a possibly futile way of telling myself that I have control over these kinds of things). I look over my major monthly expenses quickly, so it isn't too painful to contemplate, and, of course, I check out my salary. Then, I review other payments, like monthly lessons, loan fees, and, for almost two years now, my monthly pledged contribution to effective charities. I am generally a cautious guy, so every time I make the payment, I find myself asking the question: why?

Reaching adulthood is a difficult transition. It means worrying about what you eat, drinking those eight daily glasses of water, and so many other things that weren't concerns when you were younger. Also, money becomes an actual issue. Once you are making your own money, there seem to be two directions you can take. The first one is to spend, to "live the good life"- go out to nice restaurants, indulge your hobbies, and so on. On the other hand, you can also save money, hopefully in a smart way. The question behind these two aspects, really, is how can I use my money well?

For spending, the answer was quite clear for me: I will spend what I actually can, and on what I actually want to. Truth be told, for me there are not too many things I actually want to buy. It always comes down to the question "is it really worth it?", and the answer, quite often, is "no, it is not."

What about saving? When I first ventured into the jungle of adulthood, and still sometimes today, there were well-meaning, if slightly irritating, friends and family members who would remind me of the importance of putting my money to work. In my bank account, my cash was comfortably sleeping, not bothering anyone, working as a backup cushion but it was not being "useful." They urged me to take a more active approach to managing my money, citing term deposits, mutual funds, and the like. But for me, to be frank, the idea of making money to make more money for money's sake didn't really appeal either. I delayed researching investment options. After all, what I made was already enough for me, and I was managing to save a healthy amount each month.

A few years ago there was an author who really caught my attention, so I looked him up on the TED website (I am a nerd who likes spending time on sites like Quora, Ted, and other blogs). It was 

a short speech about something called "effective altruism"

Peter Singer: The why and how of effective altruism

Singer opened his talk by citing a UNICEF statistic that 69,000,000 children die every year due to preventable diseases. He then asked the audience directly: the moral question here is can we do anything about it? And he answered that question with an emphatic yes, as long as we reflect on how to do it effectively. This comment caught my attention, for I always associated altruism, first, with purely good intentions, and second, with some sort of a general occupation or full-time profession that was distant from my job as a litigant lawyer. But Singer argued that it is not just an issue of pure will and good intentions, nor a full-time job. He said there also has to be some thought about the how.

With these ideas in mind, I realized there were new possible answers to the questions I asked as I became an adult. In a first approximation, it had seemed that what I did with my money was an individualistic question - the question about "how can I use my money well?" appeared to be "how can my money be the most useful to me?" As I became aware of 

, though, the question became both simpler and more complicated: "how can my money be the most useful?"

"How can my money be the most useful" is a profound question. So let's say that I have $100 to spare monthly. I could spend it on a fine jacket that I really like, or on a new lens for my camera. I could take my girlfriend out for a (really!) nice dinner, or invite my brothers and parents for a meal. Any of these options would be nice, for me. But wouldn't that same money be better-spent on a vaccine for a child that cannot afford it, preventing a fatal infection? We can change the examples, but the question remains: how can my money be the most useful?

I started by describing my end-of-month routine (though it is usually more chaotic than the way I present it here!), and the thoughts that come along with it. Even though, every month, I continue to ask myself the same questions about how to spend my money, I continue to donate a portion of my salary. I want to acknowledge, though, that I keep asking myself about why I give, and that it is a difficult question to answer, much more difficult than the paragraphs above suggest. I want to acknowledge, too, that the framework I described depends on whether a person can afford these kinds of choices. Not everyone has the luxury I have to make the choice to give. It all starts from the point of individual abundance; otherwise, it is just not possible.

There are other questions that trouble me, too:

Why is it that individuals have to do this task of redistribution, and not our modern state?

Am I closing the door to an actual and more systematic redistribution of wealth?

Isn't the decision of "just" giving away money an easy way to clear my conscience?

What about the more human aspect, the attachment that every human relationship needs?

Does my contribution imply that other measures are not useful?

Where is the limit of the individual contribution?

Does this mean I cannot spend on things I like, but that are not really necessary?

These and other questions wash over me from time to time. I think this is only natural, for behind effective altruism there is a dense philosophical tradition related to 

, its offshoots, and its critiques. The good thing is that, if you are reading this, you are not the only one concerned with these issues. There is a global community of people with the same general concerns, who have probably asked themselves many of the same questions (and who might have come to different answers). We can connect with each other through groups like 

, pose these questions, and work through them together.

So, it is the end of the month. Here I am again, attempting to keep my finances under control, reflecting on why I spend the way I do, and on why I give. It is interesting for me to look back on the winding path that has led me here. I hope it may be interesting, and perhaps even inspiring for you, too.

Luke Freeman

2020 has been quite a year. It would be hard to find a single person who's remained unaffected by the turmoil of the pandemic. Our hearts go out to everyone impacted, and we deeply appreciate the support and commitment of this community. Your enthusiasm for making the world a better place is wonderful, touching, and inspiring.

December 2020 Newsletter

On a positive note, this year we've seen an incredible amount of generosity (our most pledges ever) and seen many good things happening in the world amongst it all (check out the 

As giving season comes to an end and the new year approaches, now is a great time to review the updated giving recommendations and 

For many donors we recommend using a charity regranting fund that allows donors to pool their money together to find outstanding giving opportunities. See our 

As we have conversations with friends and family around giving gifts, and new plans for the new year, it's also a fantastic time to talk about making a commitment to use your income to help others. Check out our 

 page for some tips on talking about effective giving.

Now is also a great time to reflect on your giving for 2020 and 

A lot has been happening over at Giving What We Can, here are the 

Our co-founder Toby Ord was featured in a Vox article all about Giving What We Can: 

This man has donated at least 10% of his salary to charity for 11 years running

We've been featured in a number of podcasts including 

We recently launched a publication about 

How to do the most good with your stimulus check if you don't need it

The behavioural science of donating to charity

: Why we sometimes fail to do the most good we can, and what can be done about it

Social change happens one person at a time, so start multiplying your impact!

: "If spending... can improve my life only marginally, and someone else's life considerably... then it makes more sense to spend it on someone else. I couldn't live with myself if I did nothing."

: "As long as there's that huge inequality, then I am motivated to keep donating a part of my income."

 in January, including two online Meetups (Jan 9/10) and an Open Forum (Jan 21).

Keep reading below for news & updates from evaluators, grantmakers, incubators, our community, and various cause areas!

. They also released the results of their survey to 

find the most promising avenues for new EA meta-charities

 have recent payout reports available for 

held an 'Ask Us Anything' on the EA Forum

the implications of Biden's victory on climate change donation recommendations

updates from 28 effective altruism organisations

 -- all the way from 80,000 Hours to Wild Animal Initiative!

 is a new network for people working in healthcare and interested in effective altruism.

In Sweden the new site geeffektivt.se launched to promote effective giving to a Swedish audience. With zero transaction costs you can support global health, climate and animal welfare charities.

The talks from Effective Giving Day are 

 (Women and Non-Binary Altruism Mentorship) is now accepting Expressions of Interest for mentees.

This Vox article by Dylan Matthews provides some 

effective giving recommendations for 2020

Giving money away makes us happy. Then why do so few of us do it?

: A short history of Giving Tuesday, the international day for giving back.

: The case for giving sooner rather than later

Is the pandemic making people more generous --- or more selfish?

 The data on how people are giving in 2020 may surprise you.

first country to approve a cell-based meat product

 has launched with a mission to develop a collaborative and effective animal advocacy movement in Africa.

How affluent people can end their mindless overconsumption

. Every energy reduction we can make is a gift to future humans, and all life on Earth.

, a new initiative incubated at IDinsight that aims to guide donations towards evidence backed climate change projects.

 has been launched and is open to donations from individuals via 

, allowing individuals to donate to the highest impact options in the climate space 

Vox author Kelsey Piper writes about reading The Life You Can Save during the pandemic: "

The world's problems overwhelmed me. This book empowered me

HLI have released a systematic review and meta-analysis on 

the impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle-income countries

how pandemics allow us to understand why our ancestors lived in poverty.

2021 is shaping up to be "the worst humanitarian crisis year since the beginning of the United Nations" 

says World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley

Good News: There has been a large decline in the number of people with lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease: 

from ~200 million people in 2000 to ~50 million people in 2018

Good News: Cambodia is closer to eradicating Malaria with a 

70% reduction in cases this year compared to last year

"Patient vs urgent longtermism" has little direct bearing on "giving now vs later"

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk released a report on 

promoting epistemic security in a technologically-advanced world

Toby Ord was published in The Economist: 

Blog

Why I took the Giving What We Can Pledge - John Yan

Olympian Marcus Daniell takes the Giving What We Can Pledge and founds High Impact Athletes

When unprecedented times meet unprecedented opportunities

My end of month: Reflections on donating

December 2020 Newsletter

What charity should you donate your stimulus check to?

The behavioural science of donating to charity: Why we sometimes fail to do the most good we can, and what can be done about it

How does change happen? The power of social proof in behaviour change & successful movement growth

Member Profile: Alexandra Berlina

Member Profile: Pippa Gilbert