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Alana Horowitz Friedman

We share and correct some common misconceptions about the Giving What We Can pledge. 

5 things you've got wrong about the Giving What We Can Pledge

How well do you know the details of the Giving What We Can Pledge? A surprising number of people we’ve spoken to — including many who know a lot about effective giving — shared some or all of these pledge misconceptions.

Misconception #1: If you sign the pledge, you have to donate at least 10% of your income 

 is a public commitment to donate at least 10% of your

 to the organisations that can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others. Giving 10% of your income each year is a good rule of thumb for most people, as it helps them stay on track with their lifetime pledge. However, there are certainly cases where it doesn’t make sense to give annually. Provided you continue reporting your income

on your personal pledge dashboard, the “Overall Progress” bar will show you where you are with respect to fulfilling your lifetime pledge.This way, you can continue to progress towards your lifetime pledge even if you need to skip a year.

While we recommend giving annually for most people

, here are two examples of cases where it might make sense to skip, bunch, or otherwise donate on a non-annual basis:

In some cases, donating every few years instead of every year is better from a tax benefit perspective. For example, if you live in the U.S., you often have to donate quite a lot in order to receive tax benefits for a particular year. Thus, some U.S. pledgers “bunch” their donations by saving the amount they would have donated and then donating a much larger sum every 2-3 years.

Not all years are equal from a finance perspective. Perhaps you were hit with a bunch of medical expenses this year, or you made a down payment on a house. While many pledgers are able to fulfill these commitments and continue donating, for some, it may make sense to skip a year and then “catch up” over the next few. Provided you remain serious about fulfilling your pledge, and are able to increase your percentage in the next few years to make up for the skip, this is perfectly reasonable and still very much in keeping with your lifetime income pledge!

Misconception #2: Only the charities on the Giving What We Can Platform count towards your pledge

 is a public commitment to donate at least 10% of your lifetime income to the 

organisations that can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others.

This means you can donate to any organisation you’d like, as long as you have good reason to believe it qualifies as a highly-effective organisation. (We do suggest familiarising yourself with the concepts of

 when deciding where to give, because the effectiveness part of the pledge is a key aspect of its impact.)

It’s also a more seamless experience to choose from the charities on our platform, because you won’t have to do any reporting; you’ll merely choose where to donate, set up recurring payments, and then these payments will automatically show up on your pledge dashboard and be counted towards your pledge. That said, you can absolutely donate to an organisation outside of our platform; you’ll just need to report it on the pledge dashboard yourself if you want to see your progress.

Misconception #3: The pledge is a legal document

We’ve used the word “pledge” to signify a serious commitment. However, this type of pledge is different from “pledge” as defined by the IRS or in a similar legal context. The Giving What We Can pledge is not legally binding. It is, rather, a serious commitment made to yourself and 

that you will donate at least 10% of income to the organisations you believe can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others. As such, you can:

Donate via a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). In fact, we have recently optimised our check-out process, making it much easier to 

While we see the pledge as a serious commitment, we hear from some that they are scared to take it because they don’t know what the future holds. We think, depending on the level of uncertainty you have, it’s usually better to pledge and give yourself the option of resigning if you need to than to never pledge at all. If your level of uncertainty is relatively high, we would recommend a trial pledge, which you can do for a set amount of time and then renew or increase if appropriate.

Misconception #4: There’s no plausibly good reason to sign the pledge if you’re already donating 10% or more

(Note: This isn’t to imply that anyone who doesn’t find reasoning similar to the below compelling holds a “misconception.” Rather, it’s intended to express that an argument can be made for the value of signing a pledge even if you are already donating.)

One of the primary reasons the Giving What We Can Pledge was created was to help influence the social norms around charitable giving, with the goal of making it common and expected for people in high-income countries to give a portion of their resources to help those in need. So while the pledge is a great tool for living up to your own values and holding yourself accountable, signing it is about much more than this: it’s about being part of a global effort to fundamentally change how people in high-income countries approach charitable giving.

video (an oldie but a goodie!) Here, we discuss the power of social proof in setting norms and influencing behaviour. Signing the pledge contributes to the goal of widespread adoption — the longer the 

, the more normal pledging becomes. And even before we get to the “norm setting” vision, we’ll be inspiring others to give more significantly and more effectively, helping to get to a better world.

The sceptics among us might think: that all sounds plausible in theory, but practically, how much good would adding my name really do? Well, that depends. Let’s say only one other person in your network hears that you took the pledge and is inspired to do the same. That could drastically increase the impact of your pledge, especially if this person wouldn’t have otherwise heard about the pledge and wasn’t already donating. (And this isn’t all that unlikely considering that awareness of the pledge in the general population is quite low.) If two people in your network were inspired to pledge based on your decision, that would be even more impactful.

 While one or two people might not seem like a lot, if you consider how much good 10% of even a modest income could do over someone’s lifetime, it should begin to feel more valuable. For example, around $200 a month donated to one of GiveWell’s top charities would be enough to prevent someone’s death…every two years. So if you got two extra people to donate this amount over the course of their lifetime (who wouldn’t have otherwise donated)

 that’s a lot of suffering and death prevented — not to mention anyone they might inspire to pledge down the line!

Perhaps you're also sceptical that anyone in your network is going to follow suit. Maybe you aren’t really planning to talk about the pledge, add it to your email signature, or post about it on social media. Or maybe you 

 planning to do these things but you don’t think they’ll make a difference.

even if you don’t directly inspire anyone else to take the pledge

, you’ll still be adding to the total number of pledgers and contributing to that goal of widespread adoption discussed above.

 In other words, down the line, your action (combined with the action of other similarly on-the-fence donors who didn’t see any value in pledging) could 

 greatly increase the number of people involved in this global effort to change the norms around charitable giving.

 And this could significantly move the needle: for example, imagine you come across something that seems interesting and compelling but only fifty people have done it. Now, imagine you come across something that seems interesting and compelling and 50,000 people have done it. In which case would you be more likely to sign up?

, you say? Well, I’d argue that — looked at from today’s vantage point — the marginal value of an extra name may be low, if you don’t expect anyone to follow suit. But looked at from some vantage point in the future, each of those names that contributed to reaching 50,000 or more pledgers played an extremely important role. This means that the marginal value of your signature will be 

Put another way, widespread adoption is a slow process, but being a first follower (the first person to jump on board, or in the case of the pledge, one of the first 10,000 or even 20,000 to jump on board) is one of the best ways to help achieve it. After all, it’s much easier — and much less impressive — to do something that nearly everyone is doing. So if you care about the marginal value of your contribution, it’s best to jump on board as early as possible.

And if you’re not convinced by the above, that’s okay. I see your marginal value…and I raise you a counterfactual. In other words, what’s the marginal value of 

 adding your name if you’re already donating? (See misconception #3 if you’re concerned about constraining your future self forever; see misconceptions #1 and #5 if you're concerned about flexibility.)

So maybe it’s time for a reframe: if you already donate 10% or more, perhaps there’s no good reason 

 to sign the pledge. After all, you’re already doing the hard part. And there may very well be quite a bit of value in making it official.

Misconception #5: There’s only one pledge

The Giving What We Can pledge actually has several options:

You can pledge exactly 10% of your lifetime income.

 of 10% of your income, if this amount is larger.

Outside of the standard Giving What We Can Pledge, there are also other pledge options that you may or may not be aware of:

 for people who aren’t quite ready for a 10% or lifetime commitment but are interested in making 

 commitment. The Trial Pledge allows you to pledge a custom percentage of income for a custom amount of time. You can then renew your pledge when it expires, either at the same level or with a gradual increase. Or, you can decide to upgrade to the full Giving What We Can pledge when you’re ready. Some people who wish to pledge a percentage of their income but don’t ever want to do 10% keep renewing their trial pledge for their entire career.

 where you can choose to live on a specific allowance and then pledge everything above that. Some people prefer this way of thinking about giving, as they find it easier to choose what they need to live on than to commit to giving away a specific percentage.

, where you donate 10% or more of company profits annually.


Additionally, both the Giving What We Can pledge and the Trial Pledge have a provision for students and others who are not currently earning a regular income. If you take either of these pledges while you are a student or unemployed, it is within the spirit of the pledge to give 1% of your spending money until you start earning an income, at which time you would then begin giving your pledged amount. 

So….how did you stack up? Or more accurately — how did 

stack up? We’d love to know just how common these misconceptions are so that we can improve our communications going forward. You can help by filling out this 

 (which just involves clicking yes/no/not sure to each of the five misconceptions we covered to indicate if you would have thought it was a true statement prior to reading this post.)

Check out our Pledge FAQs for more details!

80-year-old Bob Layne thought others should know about effective giving. So he made it happen.

, the learning center of his retirement community.

15, I heard a podcast with Will MacAskill discussing his newly published book Doing Good Better. I bought it immediately and after reading it I found it was a book that truly changed my life. It introduced me to a way of thinking about charitable giving that was logical, enlightening and motivational...I wanted for others to have a similar experience.”


Those are the words of Bob Layne, an 80-year-old retired professor who lives with his wife in a retirement community in Florida, one with a learning facility that presents courses and lectures for residents. After learning about effective giving, he decided others should know about it, and that he could help. He’s now giving talks on effective giving at the learning center of the 10,000+ member retirement community where he lives.


We were so moved to hear about Bob’s initiative that we asked him to write a short piece on it for our blog. Here’s what he wro

by Bob Layne

My presentation

nks so much  to Bob for his incredible initiative, and for sharing it with us! We're certainly inspired, and we think our readers will be too. 


80-year-old Bob Layne thought others should know about effective giving. So he made it happen.  

Grace Adams

Hello and welcome to our March newsletter!

This month, I wanted to feature an update from one of our recommended charities: 

When we’re donating to organisations working far away, it can be easy to forget just how much of an impact our money is having. So I found 

 in Nigeria particularly inspiring. The story follows two members of a mobile vaccination team, Idris and Abubakar, who are trying to reach the babies who have missed their last round of vaccines or haven’t yet presented to the clinic for vaccinations. I encourage you to 

And for a bit more context about New Incentives: In January 2024, New Incentives had 11,130 mobile vaccination teams go out across the nine states where they work. They have enrolled close to 3 million infants in the program since their inception.

We’re proud to recommend New Incentives as one of 

, and they are also a GiveWell top-rated charity. 

 that in 2022, $5000 USD donated to New Incentives would have prevented a child’s death.


We’re grateful to Idris, Abubakar and all the New Incentives staff and partners on the ground, across Nigeria.

There is lots more great news below. Right at the bottom is our new video “

”, which many people have told me they think is the perfect video to send to your families to explain effective giving!

Here are some of our favourite responses from people who took a pledge last month:

What motivated you to take a pledge with Giving What We Can?

“What counts as a little for me can go a lot further for others, and I feel an obligation to uplift people with what resources I have available to me.” 

“I pledged to myself some time ago. I was inspired to pledge on Giving What We Can to help spread the word and increase the impact.” 

“Because I believe this is the best way to help others, and that charity begins where we can help the most.” 

All the events that we list are open to anyone interested in effective giving!

Think like a consultant: How to maximise your ROI on charitable impact

 of Effektiv Spenden as the keynote speaker. The event will be particularly relevant for aspiring and current consultants who want to consider how to maximise their charitable impact within their future careers.

Despite being both preventable and treatable, malaria still kills about half a million children every year. WMD aims to raise awareness about this devastating disease and inspire commitments to take action against it. Want to observe WMD? Consider donating to Malaria Consortium (seasonal malaria chemoprevention) and the Against Malaria Foundation (bed nets to prevent malaria), two of our top-rated charities working on malaria prevention and treatment

We just published what might be one of the best introductions to effective giving we have ever produced! In our new mini-documentary-style video “

” we hit the streets to speak with Londoners about their views on charity, giving back, and where they thought they stood on the global income scale. Please help us share this video far and wide to spread awareness about income inequality and charity effectiveness – comments and social media shares are especially appreciated :)

The GWWC pledge, effective giving, and Chris's new book Infectious Generosity are all featured in this interview with TED’s Chris Anderson for the podcast 

, where they discuss how we can make generosity and kindness go viral. Both Liv and Chris are pledgers!

founder, ATP tennis pro and GWWC pledger Marcus Daniell is upping his giving game by donating 50% of all his prize money from his final year on tour. HIA is inviting everyone to donate alongside Marcus in their campaign 

 has launched with the aim of growing the effective giving community in Belgium! You can connect with Effectief Geven and donate in Belgium on their 

GWWC pledger Jo Duyvestyn has donated €35,617 since taking the pledge 10 years ago. To help her celebrate 10 years of giving, she’s running a fundraiser to raise 10% of her 10% – and it’s running for a few more days ❤️

, signed by renowned TV Naturalist and Co-op member Chris Packham and over 2000 other members, to encourage Co-op to embrace the full 

 (BCC). Co-op refused to accept the letter, but THL UK has continued to apply pressure on them to adopt the full BCC through other actions, such as a recent advert in The Guardian and a 

The Hidden Cost of Cheap Meat exposed by Peter Singer

’, in which Singer impresses upon viewers the problematic nature of our factory food systems and the underlying psychology that fuels them, and shares a path towards more ethical eating.

 documenting how it helps vaccinate hard-to-reach infants in rural Nigeria. Digital platform 

 about their program, dubbing it "cashvocacy".

celebrated a major milestone: they have moved over $100m to their recommended effective charities! They have also appointed new leadership to further strengthen the organisation’s mission and have updated their 

 to focus more intensively on the complexities of poverty.

The Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP)

. This person will be responsible for managing the successful delivery of the paint program in Pakistan, as well as developing and implementing new programs on spices and cosmetics.

. These positions are an opportunity to have a significant impact on 

Announced its upcoming bootcamp in Nairobi from June 3 to 14, aimed at empowering program implementers across Africa. 

 on April 4, focusing on the impact and spread of TaRL models in Sub-Saharan Africa. TaRL also shared that its team has been participating in CIES events and recently presented evidence at SALEX 2024, “Harvesting the Power of Evidence for Schools”, highlighting the organisation’s commitment to improving education across the continent.

 on promoting vaccinations through SMS text message reminders and Immunization Ambassadors who share information about vaccines in local communities.

Suvita also made their first foray into expanding SMS message reminders to additional states in India by visiting the state of Rajasthan to understand the routine immunisation context and explore potential partnerships.

The Next Black Death (or worse) | Most Pressing Problems

 to help illustrate how you can use your career to effectively aid this cause.

International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science

 (IBBIS) in the run-up to the Munich Security Conference. This first-of-its-kind organisation is dedicated to strengthening international biosecurity governance – including through providing tools, such as the 

, that will allow technological innovation to flourish safely and responsibly. You can read about the IBBIS launch and upcoming projects in 

explaining its grantmaking scope, and in particular, how and why it grants beyond the top charities list that it is best known for.

Is hiring for several positions, including newly posted 

Ambitious Impact (formerly Charity Entrepreneurship) 

. In 2023, Giving Green moved $11.2 million USD to high-impact climate initiatives, resulting in an impact multiplier of 19x.

 from Effective Ventures to become an independent organisation. This is one of its largest-ever hiring bursts, and the person in this role will play a key part in ensuring the organisation attracts the talent it needs to be successful.

You're richer than you realise

Have any feedback on our newsletter or communications? 

March Newsletter 2024

Explore your global income rank & the power of charity in our eye-opening video. Discover impactful giving & redefine wealth on a worldwide scale. 

Discover How "Rich" You Really Are: A Glimpse into Global Income and Charity

Recently, I hit the bustling streets of London to engage with everyday people about their views on charity, giving back, and where they thought they stood on the global income scale. The results were ... surprising! And the reactions? Even better. 

The experience was eye-opening, not just for the participants, but for me as well.  It was an opportunity to explore an often overlooked aspect of our lives — our income in relation to the rest of the world.  

Many of us live within our own bubbles, rarely pausing to consider our financial standing on a global scale. Yet when we begin to peel back the layers of our perceived economic positions, comparing them to the reality of global income distribution, perspectives shift and casual conversations turn profound. 

One particularly striking moment was when passersby found out what percentile of income earners they actually fell into (after first being asked to guess!) When people realised that someone with a seemingly modest income in London could be in the top 1.5% of income earners worldwide, they were nothing short of amazed — with some even thinking the calculator was malfunctioning! 

And this journey wasn't just about numbers or statistics. It was about understanding that even everyday people have the capacity to contribute to global well-being — a realisation that many found both incredible and empowering. 


As part of this pop doc, I also interviewed experts like Julian Jamison, a health economist, who helped us navigate the complexities of income distribution and its implications for charitable giving, and individuals like Habiba Banu, who has committed a significant part of her income to charity, based in part on similar realisations. 

Our discussions revealed a common thread: the misconception that our individual contributions are too small to make a difference.  Indeed, the video sheds light on how even modest donations can have a profound effect in low and middle-income countries, challenging us to rethink the way we view our ability to help.

As I reflect on the conversations and the lessons learned, it's clear that understanding our place in the global income scale isn't just an exercise in humility — it's a call to action. It's about recognising our shared responsibility to support those less fortunate and making informed decisions about how and where to donate.

This video is an invitation to join me in this ongoing conversation about income, charity, and the role each of us can play in making the world a better place. It's not about feeling guilty for what we have but about feeling empowered to use our resources wisely. 

Thank you for taking the time to engage with these ideas. I hope you'll watch "You're richer than you realise" and share your thoughts and experiences with us. Together, we can begin to bridge the gap between our perceptions and the reality of global income distribution, one informed decision at a time.

Transcript for "You're richer than you realise"

(Due to the vox pop style of this video, we'd recommend watching it rather than reading the transcript. Captions are available on YouTube.)

Do you think that people who are well off should be giving to charity?

Everyone could. I probably could more than I do, which is not very much

Is. So the top 30% should be giving to charity. Do you have a sense of how well off you might be compared to the rest of the world?

Yeah the whole world. No, don't Google it. Just give me a guess. And then, because we're about to look it up.

Okay, well let's find out. We want to check your income there.

And then just press calculate. All right. Tilly,

Today we are on the streets of London trying to interview some people about their giving, about charity and about how rich they really are compared to the rest of the world. Do you give to charity?

Blog

5 things you've got wrong about the Giving What We Can Pledge

80-year-old Bob Layne thought others should know about effective giving. So he made it happen.

March Newsletter 2024

Discover How "Rich" You Really Are: A Glimpse into Global Income and Charity

February Newsletter 2024

January 2024 Newsletter

Head of TED Chris Anderson signs new “Wealth Pledge” to give 2.5% of wealth to high-impact charities each year

Where are the GWWC team donating in 2023?

Giving What We Can is spinning out of the Effective Ventures Foundations

GWWC Operational Funding Match 2023