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Adam Steinberg 

Learn about Highgate School's first ever Charity Election!

Compassion at scale: Bringing effective giving to high schools

It’s a great success when secondary students come away from a school event feeling it brought meaning to their lives. With a myriad of distractions and an excess of energy, sometimes maintaining their attention is hard enough—especially late in the school year when, in many locales, the weather turns balmy and thoughts turn to exams or summer vacation.

To see them, then, take advantage of a meaningful opportunity in sunny June to stop and reflect, think critically about their own personal values and have meaningful conversations with their peers about major world issues—that would be something very special.

These were among the thoughts of Jenny Chapman, Biology teacher at Highgate School, London, as she read through the post-event reflections from her students after running a Giving What We Can Charity Election event at her school in June 2023.

One student explained that the event ‘made me more compassionate about helping people more distant from me.’ Another wrote, ‘My view on my own impact has changed. Improving the world seems more possible.’ Says Chapman, ‘The reflections really made me think this program was so worthwhile—that this is what it’s all about.’

Other school staff also approached Chapman to praise the event. She remembers one teacher saying, ‘This was sort of a lightbulb moment for me. It made me think about how I gift and how I think about charities.’

Only about a week long and often held across a set of classes like social studies or history, the charity election is an experience in 

: It puts students in the position of directing a pool of funds (in this case, sponsored by international charity Giving What We Can), and then challenges them to consider three worthy charities with very different approaches and causes.

To make a decision about which charity they believe should be supported, they consider the cost-effectiveness and evidence base of each charity through a brief process of discussion, reflection and guided research.

They are then invited to use the evidence and their reasoning to make their decision and vote to direct their ballot, each worth $2 (or its international equivalent), to just one charity. The school decides how the combined results of all student ballots will be allocated: winner-take-all, 70%-20%-10%, or in proportion to the vote. No matter what they decide, since the funds are sponsored, there’s no cost to the school.

In the run-up to the event, Chapman used 

 to estimate that if all her eligible students voted, the Highgate cohort could:

🌤 remove 2407 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere;

🧒🏼 help protect 6017 children from schistosomiasis; or

🤝 provide 96 months of basic income to someone in Uganda.

Part of the reason Highgate’s event was so successful was that Ms. Chapman put extra effort into its preparation. Though the program can be run straight out of the box with minimal preparation (through a provided slideshow, videos and worksheet), Giving What We Can encourages teachers to adjust it to their student cohort and teaching style. Wanting to make the experience deeper for her students, Chapman dove in and added her own activities to the ones provided, including one in which she had students list issues that were important to them in their everyday lives at school, like the quality of food in the dining hall or issues around school uniforms. For each, students then estimated the importance of the problem, its room for more attention or funding (‘neglectedness’), and how solvable they thought it would be. They then discussed how these factors could also be used to help them decide where to aim their efforts most effectively to 

The influence of this event is likely to carry on in another important way: At the beginning of each Highgate school year, the students propose causes that are important to them, and from these are chosen the school’s charities for that year: All fundraisers and volunteering support that year’s selection. Chapman explains, ‘As a result of the election, the person in charge of Charity and Partnerships at our school said they want to start getting students to include ideas about charity impact in student proposals about who to raise money for. So, in addition to their proposals, he will ask them to include a metric of charity impact.

‘This is massive, because it changes the ethos of how we decide where we will give—in this case, in school—and will become part of their decision process’—hopefully creating a lasting impact on students’ giving decisions later in life.

To learn more and apply for sponsorship at your school, visit the Charity Elections 

. If you have questions or want to support the programme financially, as a volunteer, or in some other capacity, please shoot us a quick note at charityelections@givingwhatwecan.org.

Charity elections are part of Giving What We Can.

Grace Adams

July Newsletter: Why people pledged + businesses donating effectively

Hello and welcome to our July newsletter!

There are some exciting things brewing at Giving What We Can, which I'll share in next month's newsletter, but this month I wanted to highlight some of our company pledgers, who are demonstrating that effective giving can take many forms!

 who have pledged to give at least 10% of profits to high-impact charities… and here are a few of them:

 is an educational publishing company that sells around 250,000 books a year and they've been able to raise £1 million GBP for effective charities by donating 50% of their profits. They are also raising awareness about effective charities through messaging in the front of their books.

What an incredible effort from Tom Greenway and the team at 3D Total!

Give Industries, a registered non-profit in Australia provides commercial electrical services. Their organisation gives 100% of their profits to effective charities!

 has proven that this is a sustainable business model and is continuing to grow.

Fluffy Torpedo in Melbourne creates some of the most unique ice cream flavours (including a Honey & Soy Sauce flavour) and donates 50 cents per scoop to a high-impact charity.

 is also spreading the word about effective charities in their store and provides copies of the book The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer for people to take home! (They even have our logo on the menu!)


I'm excited about businesses' ability to donate their profits to help others and advocate for a more generous society that seeks to make effective changes to some of our biggest problems.

Remember to check out why people pledged with Giving What We Can, upcoming events in London and New York, and lots of news below!

- Grace Adams & the Giving What We Can team

I'm going to try a new section of the newsletter, where we share some of the responses we received from people who took a pledge during the previous month about what motivated them to

Reading these answers always fills me with hope and fulfilment, knowing that thousands of people are motivated to give significantly to help others.


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

"I believe in positive change caused by radical kindness. I am privileged and loved in my current position, and, because of that, I have enough to share. Thus, I will share it."

"I have been given much, and so there is much to give."

"I want to have the biggest possible impact that I can in the world, and this is something that I want to continue valuing for the rest of my life."

"I believe the money I make can do far more good for others in desperate need than it could ever do for myself."

The picnic is open to anyone interested in GWWC, whether you have already signed a pledge or are simply curious about effective giving. Bring some food and maybe a blanket for a lovely social afternoon in the sun! (fingers crossed).

Date: Sunday, July 30th, from 12:30pm onwards

Come picnic with the kindest, most interesting people in New York City at Giving What We Can's first meetup in 2 years! Meet us in Battery Park for some great conversation, some great nibbles, and a lovely summer evening.

This picnic is open to everyone interested in giving most effectively to help others, and we'd love you to bring a friend or two who would enjoy meeting like-minded New Yorkers.

Date: Tuesday, August 1st, from 6 pm-9 pm

 from one of our co-founders, William MacAskill, provides some considerations for when an effective altruist should donate.

, which helps health facilities find and treat clubfoot, a debilitating congenital condition. After adjustments, GiveWell estimates that this grant will lead to about 3,700 cases of clubfoot successfully treated that otherwise wouldn't have been, and that will result in lifelong mobility gains and pain relief for the children treated.

GiveWell has published several new pages on grants it has recently recommended, including

 for Helen Keller International's support of vitamin A supplementation in Madagascar,

 to Sightsavers for its deworming program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and

 for core operating support to the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale (Y-RISE), which researches successful scaling of global health and well-being programs. If you'd like to sign up for email updates when new research materials from GiveWell are published, you can do so

, which aim to "build and strengthen the global animal advocacy movement."

 is now accepting applications to their 2024

! As in previous years, the program provides well-researched intervention ideas, 2-month cost-covered training, and funding up to $200,000.

. This person will help hiring managers at Open Phil hire top talent as seamlessly as possible and maintain/improve internal hiring systems. If you know anyone that would be a good fit for this, please encourage them to

! You can email Evan McVail (evan@openphilanthropy.org) with any questions or referrals.

 is conducting a survey of individuals giving £10,000+ per year or who might have the capacity to face uncertainties. They are seeking to understand this group's uncertainties around giving, what services would help these individuals donate more and better, and how they are making giving decisions. If you're in this category, they'd like to encourage you to

 with them. Your insights will be instrumental in helping them develop a program that A) will be of value to major donors and B) isn't already covered by other advisors in the space.

 the decision of the High Court in an ongoing case against the Government in which they are challenging the legality of fast-growing breeds of chickens. The High Court

96% of Co-op (a UK supermarket) members (over 32,000 people)

 for the supermarket to adopt the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) following a shareholder resolution led by The Humane League UK. Whilst the board agreed to give chickens more space, they refused to stop selling fast-growing breeds of chickens. The Humane League UK plans to maintain pressure on the Co-op until they fully commit to the BCC.

 has created a new Impact Calculator that calculates the potential impact of working in the Alternative Protein industry. You can

. They are also looking for pioneer users for their platform, which matches candidates with jobs in the Alt—protein industry. You can support their work by signing up and giving valuable feedback from a user perspective. Learn more

Cultivated meat has continued to gain traction in the US and

 The State of Global Policy on Alternative Proteins

 (LEEP) is hiring a Chief Operating Officer. The COO will be critical in helping LEEP dramatically widen its impact as it scales to 50 high-priority countries over the next few years. Read more about and apply for the position

 Oppenheimer and the risks of nuclear today

 platform is a crowdsourced charity evaluator for early-stage AI safety projects. It lets you play regrantor or harness the insight of expert regrantors. If you're interested in learning more,

 you can indicate your interest in using the platform to donate to these projects

Watch this short animation about why supporting global health and economic development is important!

Have any feedback on our newsletter or communications? 

 with Giving What We Can and effective altruism.

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

July Newsletter

Giving What We Can's June 2023 Newsletter

June Newsletter

Hello and welcome to our June newsletter!

Pop quiz! If you travelled to visit every person who's taken the GWWC pledge, how many different countries would you visit?

Answer: 

 🎉
With the newest addition of Uzbekistan 🇺🇿, Giving What We Can members are present in 100 countries worldwide! Turns out the idea of giving to help others effectively has universal appeal! 😉

Even though our movement is growing, we need your help - talking to your friends, family and colleagues is one of the best ways to help us change the norms around giving, which in turn means faster progress on some of the world’s biggest issues.

We’d love to know how we can help you talk to the people in your life about high-impact charities and how we can help you advocate. (We already have 

)

If you have any ideas about what you would find helpful, simply reply or send me a quick email at: grace.adams AT givingwhatwecan.org.

Below you’ll find loads of interesting updates from our partner charities and other news we think you’ll like!

- Grace Adams & the Giving What We Can team

Our Executive Director Luke Freeman recently 

 on the EA Forum about the role of individuals in helping to fund high-impact projects and charities as well as hosting 

an AMA (Ask Me Anything) about his work, life and more

Director of Research, Sjir Hoeijmakers published a post on the EA Forum with “

Four claims about the role of effective giving in the EA Community

 is a new non-profit democracy charity evaluator based in Berlin, Germany, and operating globally. They are looking to hire 5-6 democracy enthusiasts to form their ‘

’. The objective of the team is twofold: To build and execute a ‘knowledge-building roadmap’ that will lead to a growing set of methodologies for identifying highly effective pro-democracy interventions and potential NGOs to apply them. And to use these methodologies to generate giving recommendations for the international community of democracy-focused, effectiveness-driven donors.

 is still accepting mentee applications from women, non-binary, and trans people of any gender who are enthusiastic about pursuing high-impact career paths for the next day or two. On average, mentees and mentors meet once a month for 60-90 minutes. Magnify Mentoring offers mentees access to a broader community with a wealth of professional and personal expertise. You can find out more 

Updates to ACE’s Charity Evaluation Criteria in 2023

: Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) is entering its 2023 charity evaluation season! This is the time of year when ACE works to identify charities that can do the most good for animals with two years of additional funding. To provide more transparency and insight into its evaluation process, ACE is sharing some changes it made to its four charity evaluation criteria this year.

: One year ago, in 2022, ACE developed a 

 for the period of 2022–2024. This plan, created collectively by ACE staff under the leadership of the Acting Executive Director and approved by the board of directors, was the result of the hard work and dedication of a severely understaffed team. It represented what was needed then. Things have changed since last year. ACE added several talented individuals to their team, including new leadership and board members. ACE now has an 

 and is looking forward to testing its assumptions and delivering results.

GiveWell CEO and co-founder Elie Hassenfeld 

was interviewed on the 80,000 Hours podcast

 about newer areas of GiveWell's research—such as 

—plus critiques of its approach from the Happier Lives Institute and others.

 on the evidence for programs that provide chlorine vouchers for home water treatment and pages on its recent grant recommendations to 

 has released a new study in partnership with Sentient Media: 

Animal Agriculture Is The Missing Piece In Climate Change Media Coverage

. This report analysed recent climate articles from top U.S. media outlets to determine how often the media makes the connection between animal agriculture and climate change when reporting on climate issues, and how reporting on animal agriculture in relation to climate change misses the mark.

Lab-grown meat has been approved for sale in the US

, and two companies will be able to sell cell-cultured chicken to consumers.

 discovered that some of their Democratic Republic of Congo staff conspired with others outside the organisation to steal an estimated $900,000 USD, meaning that overall, ~1.1% of money delivered by GiveDirectly last year was lost to fraud. In GiveDirectly’s 

 to donors and recipients, they share that upon discovering the fraud, they immediately paused operations. Unfortunately, the risk of fraud in their work is 

, and while it is always disappointing news, we think GiveDirectly has done a commendable job in transparently reporting on the incident and their reaction to it. In addition to reading GiveDirectly’s response, donors could learn more about the topic by reading 

 and why they believe “openness about fraud — and a plan to fix it — is key to more effective philanthropy”.

large study examining the effects of cash transfer programs on population-level mortality rates

 was published in the journal Nature recently and showed that Cash transfer programs had the following observed effects: Deaths among women fell by 20% (which was largely driven by decreases in pregnancy-related deaths) and deaths among children younger than 5 fell by 8%.

. She gave a behind-the-scenes look at nearly a decade of piloting, testing, learning, and pivoting and gave a glimpse into the nuts and bolts of how and why the organization maintains 121 program monitoring indicators. 

Watch her talk or read a quick overview here.

's Chief Executive, James Tibenderana, joined Alicia Weng and Grace Hultquist from GiveWell's research team and Olivia Larsen from GiveWell's outreach team to discuss GiveWell's research on malaria prevention. You can access the 

video recording, audio recording, and written transcript here

 (FEM) recently completed a nine-month family planning campaign in Kano, Nigeria, reaching an audience base of 5.6 million over 2600 times; Rethink Priorities 

 FEM. They estimate FEM’s cost-effectiveness in the north of Nigeria may be as high as 60x that of cash transfers.

 partnered with Virgin Unite and Sir Richard Branson to eliminate parasitic worm infections in four countries. Last year alone, they helped distribute more than 150 million deworming treatments to nearly 50 million people. Watch as Sir Richard explains why this form of collaborative, hands-on philanthropy is integral to disrupting these parasites' hold on families, communities, and economies, 

, an organisation encourages that encourages people to pledge 1% of income to GiveWell's Top Charities, is looking to open new university and corporate chapters in the next few months! 

Read on if you're interested in starting a chapter or know someone who might be.

Member Akhil Bansal recently published a 

 as a potential high-impact cause worth exploring.

 that states: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

 on what you can do if you’re concerned about the risks of developing AI.

Have any feedback on our newsletter or communications?

Thanks again for taking the time to read our newsletter! As always, here are some useful links to help you maximise your charitable impact:

 for more news and articles.

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

GWWC Team

Rapid progress in AI: A call to action and what you can do

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

 by the Center for AI Safety from May 30, 2023 was signed by many of the world’s leading AI researchers and practitioners. Most notably, the “

, who received the 2018 Turing Award for their work on neural networks and deep learning. In addition to numerous other professors and scientists, the CEOs of leading AI companies such as 

 (CEO, Anthropic) as well as, for example, Microsoft founder 

 or Google’s Senior Vice President of Technology and Society 

Following this announcement, there has been a wave of major press coverage of the risks of AI development, including in the 

The statement revolves around a critical issue known as the "alignment problem." It refers to the challenge of ensuring that AI systems have goals and behaviours that align with human goals and values. The problem arises because AI is typically designed to maximise specific goals or complete assigned tasks. However, if the AI is not properly aligned or if the goals are not clearly defined, it may perform actions that go against the intentions of its human creators or society as a whole.

One simple example of this misalignment is when an AI is programmed with the goal of not losing in a game like Tetris. Instead of becoming skilled at the game, the 

, achieving the goal of not losing but not in the way intended.

A more concerning scenario is the infamous "

”. Imagine an AI system with superior intelligence (

) that is instructed to produce as many paper clips as possible. Focused on this goal, the AI might conclude that converting the entire world into a paper clip factory is necessary. Since humans would likely object to this plan, the AI might consider it necessary to eliminate human control, potentially endangering humanity itself.

While this is just a thought experiment, Professor Bengio's essay "

" provides a more detailed analysis of the potential emergence of AGI posing a threat to humanity.

While these risks may have seemed like distant science fiction, the 

 has made them more realistic and urgent. Leading scientists who previously thought these risks were far off now believe they could become relevant in much shorter timeframes, which has led to the creation of the recent statement.

Blog

Compassion at scale: Bringing effective giving to high schools

July Newsletter

June Newsletter

Rapid progress in AI: A call to action and what you can do

Che bello! Charity Elections continues to go global

Where to give Zakat effectively during Ramadan 2023

Member Profile: Michael Scott

February 2023 Newsletter

Turkey and Syria earthquake: Effective donation advice

Member Story: Western Pine Realty