Francesca Day

Giving What We Can is a secular organisation, but it welcomes people from all backgrounds, including people for whom faith is a part of their lives. Religious members of Giving What We Can often see their pledge as part of their commitment to model their life on the teachings of their faith. People from a range of religions, denominations and traditions have taken the Giving What We Can pledge — a few have shared their stories below.

If you would like to talk about the pledge with other religious members, please contact 

Stories from religious Giving What We Can members

Is there a faith-based community within Giving What We Can?

Yes! There are religious Giving What We Can members and effective altruists from around the world, who enjoy and active online community as well as local meet ups.

What about giving to my church/mosque/temple/religious community or evangelical organisations?

Giving to churches or charities focused primarily on evangelism does not count toward Giving What We Can's 10% 

. Some religious members choose to give to these charities in addition to their pledge.

Can I give to faith-based international development charities (e.g. Christian Aid)?

The pledge commits you to give the charity you believe will do the most good in the world. If you believe that a Christian international development charity will do the most good, giving to that charity would fulfil your pledge. We ask you to think carefully about which charity uses your money most effectively to make the world a better place, and consider the 

 provided by organisations like Giving What We Can.

Are any of the recommended charities faith-based?

Currently none of the Giving What We Can recommended charities are directly faith based. However, the founders of GiveWell-recommended charity 

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Giving What We Can for People of Faith

I joined Giving What We Can because I am a Christian.

 The Christian call to charity can sound almost clichéd at times, but the fundamental message is radical. Jesus tells us “love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31). This sounds obvious and easy – but Jesus makes it clear in the Parable of the Good Samaritan that our neighbour is not just people who live near us or people who we like, but every human being in the world. We are called to value each and every human being in the world as much as we value ourselves.

Applying this principle to charitable giving, we see that putting the odd pound in a collection bucket just isn’t going to cut it. If we really love those living with poverty, illness or oppression as we love ourselves, we will do everything we can to help them. We will make real sacrifices to help them.

Charitable giving is a focus of Jesus’ teachings. He tells us “Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys”. It is clear that Jesus had some fairly serious charitable giving in mind.

By sacrificing worldly goods to help those whose need is so much greater than our own, we build treasure in heaven, and we make the Earth a better place. Jesus is talking about big sacrifices here – He’s saying we should go as far as to sell our things to raise money to give to the poor! When we consider that we’re called to value them as much as we value ourselves, this idea doesn’t seem so silly.

Do I live up to these ideals? Absolutely not. I strive to model my life on Jesus’ teachings, and taking the Giving What We Can pledge is a step towards that goal. I have pledged to give 10% of my income to whichever charity I think most effectively helps those living in extreme poverty. 10% feels like a lot, but it shouldn’t. It feels like a lot because I haven’t succeeded in truly loving my neighbour as myself. Taking a public pledge to give helps ensure that my actions will live up to my ideals.

Why the focus on effectiveness? Now I’ve pledged to give this money, I have to choose where to give it. How should I choose? I should choose in a way that 

values every single human being as my neighbour

. Not just people who live near me, not just people who speak my language, and not just people suffering in ways that I might one day suffer. I should value the child in Ethopia dying of a disease I haven’t heard of as much as the lady down the road battling cancer.

With this in mind, I’ve decided I want to 

give to a charity that can help as many people as possible with my donation

. How can I work out which charity that is? It’s hard – there are several organisations researching this questions, but no definitive answers. Jesus does not give us lists of rules to follow – He tells us to love our God and love our neighbour and we have to figure the rest out ourselves. We have to figure out how and where we should give to best love our neighbour.

Jesus tells us “be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves” (Mark 10:16). We are called to give wisely and to give generously. We are called to love our neighbours by giving freely of all the gifts God has given us – our worldly possessions, our intelligence and our humility. For me, being a member of Giving What We Can is part of this commitment.

Christianity and Giving

Fran holds a PhD in Physics from Oxford University and a Natural Sciences degree from Cambridge.

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Francesca Day

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Giving What We Can for People of Faith

Christianity and Giving