George McGowan

The Giving What We Can Trust

Giving What We Can recently set up a charitable trust to help you ensure your donations reach the most effective charities. You can now donate to our top recommended charities by visiting 

If you want to give to charities based in other countries, such as Project Healthy Children, then we can get you Gift Aid on your donations - usually a very difficult process.

If you want to donate to multiple charities, you don't have to go to a donations page for each of them - you can simply give money to the trust and tell us how you want it distributed.

You don't have to choose between our top charities if you don't want to. You simply give to the trust and we'll allocate the money. We currently allocate money equally to each of our recommended charities, although if you would like to specify the proportion of your donation that each charity gets, you are welcome to do so.

You don't have to keep up with our recommendations: if you set up a standing order to our trust, then even if our recommendations change, your donations will go to our updated recommended charities. In this way, you can continue to go to the best causes without you changing your standing order.

It is a way of allowing Giving What We Can to monitor your donations, ensuring that if you are a member, you will not be expected to complete the giving review each year, saving you the time of tracking your own donations.

The process of donating to the trust is described in more detail on 

You sign up to the trust, letting us know what proportion of your money you'd like to give to which charity.

You then start giving to the trust, deciding how much you want to give and whether you want to give a recurring donation. You can give via bank transfer, cheque, PayPal or GoCardless.

We claim gift aid and send the money to the charity. We send the money to our charities quarterly by default. Although you are able to specify if you want your donation made at whatever time, and at whatever intervals you wish.

To clarify, there are only tax-benefits for people in the UK who donate through the trust. We may launch similar vehicles in other countries if the trust proves successful.

We'd love to hear your questions or comments! Please leave a comment or email 

George holds a degree in Philosophy from Oxford Brookes University.

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George McGowan

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