Welcome to our December Newsletter!
It's almost the end of the year --- we're wishing you a happy holiday and new year!
Many of us spend part of the holidays reflecting on how we can make a bigger impact in the new year. If there is one feeling we'd like you to take into 2022, it's a sense of excitement and optimism for the incredible opportunity you have to do good in the world by giving effectively.
In fact, we might be in one of the best periods in history to help others, as argued in this new article by Julian Hazell, a team member at Giving What We Can. Julian's main claim is that pairing a sense of enthusiasm with the wealth, technology, and knowledge we have in the present can allow us to do more good than most other altruists in the past could've dreamed of doing.
We'd also like to invite you to participate in our Pledge Drive. Whether you are a member already giving 10% or more, or whether you've just signed up to our mailing list, our Pledge Drive has at least one thing you can do to increase your impact in 2022.
In the meantime, here are some key important updates:
- This holiday season is a great time to donate to an effective charity and report your donations. Reporting your donations really helps us understand the impact that our community is making.
- Many of you have seen our Effective Giving Guide which we launched at the start of December. The holidays are a great time to share this guide with friends and family.
- Need a last minute gift? Use our gift card template this holiday season to give a donation as a gift.
- Join us for our annual celebration events in Madrid, Prague, London, Sydney, Cape Town, Munich, Seattle and Berlin, or host your own!
- A great way to introduce people to effective giving over the holidays is through Giving Multiplier. They have provided a special link to give you and your friends a high donation matching rate https://givingmultiplier.org/gwwc/24BC9A00
- We updated our homepage to include our new explainer video, Effective Giving Guide, and our research summaries for high-impact causes across global health and development, improving animal welfare, safeguarding the long-term future and advocating for effective altruism.
We hope you enjoy the rest of this newsletter, which covers our upcoming events, the latest from the effective altruism community, and news and updates about relevant cause areas.
I took the @givingwhatwecan pledge in August 2020. It's a bit trickier when you're a freelancer and your salary fluctuates month to month, so sometimes I donate more than 10% and sometimes less, but I'm extremely proud and grateful to be able to do it. https://t.co/64MvjbAf1S
— Catherine Bennett (@cfbennett2) December 2, 2021
Thank you to member Catherine Bennett for being an advocate for Giving What We Can, and sharing this recent BBC article featuring several of our members.
Attend An Event
We will be celebrating those who have made pledges in 2022 as well as the milestones of our members over the years in our Meetups and Celebration Events, we would love to have you join us.
- GWWC Online Meetup (Americas/Oceania)
Jan 8 22:00 UTC - 5.00pm New York, 9.00am (Jan 9) Sydney - GWWC Online Meetup (Europe/Asia)
Jan 9 9:30 UTC - 9.30am London, 3.00pm Mumbai - Effective Giving Open Forum (Europe/Asia)
Jan 20 9:00 UTC - 8pm Sydney, 9am London, 2.30pm Mumbai - Celebration Events
Jan 4: Madrid, Spain
- Jan 13: Prague, Czech Republic
- Jan 15: London, UK
- Jan 15: Sydney, Australia
- Jan 15: Cape Town, South Africa
- Jan 18: Munich, Germany
- Jan 25: Seattle, WA, USA
- Jan 27: Berlin, Germany
- Host your own!
- Book Club: Doing Good Better (5 week reading group)
- Apply now for 10:30am UTC and 7:30pm UTC
Jan 16, Jan 26, Feb 2, Feb 9, Feb 16
News & Updates
Effective altruism community
Giving What We Can has recently been featured on BBC News, BBC Radio 4's You and Yours (11:14-17:35), CardRates.com, Aussie Firebug Podcast, and KCRW's Life Examined
- Marcus Daniell was named 2021 Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Of The Year
- "How to know your donations are doing the most good" Opinion from Farhad Manjoo in the NYT
- Effective Crypto has been launched as a way for donors to use crypto to easily make donations to EA aligned orgs and initiatives
- "How to Give More Effectively" from The Happiness Lab podcast with Dr Laurie Santos, interviewing Prof Josh Greene of Giving Multiplier
- The why and how of starting and running a workplace/professional group, by Anneke Pogarell and Jona Glade, EA Forum
Evaluators, grantmakers and incubators
- GiveWell shares some of their staff members' personal donations for giving season 2021
- "Should charities spend your money now --- or save it to help people later?" by Giving What We Can members By Kelsey Piper and Siobhan McDonough, Vox
- Process Leading to our 2021 Recommendations, Animal Charity Evaluators
Cause areas
Animal welfare
- We Will Look Back on This Age of Cruelty to Animals in Horror by Ezra Klein, NYT Opinion
- Faunalytics' 2021 Year In Review, Faunalytics (new recommended charity for 2021)
- The "humanewashing" of America's meat and dairy, explained, By Jessica Scott-Reid, Vox
- How to eat less meat: A practical guide, By Allison Rockey and Kenny Torrella, Vox
Global health and development
- Reductions in Total Deworming Treatment Figures Represent Progress Toward Deworm the World's Goal: Here's Why from Evidence Action
- GiveWell's year-end community event recording
- The Against Malaria Foundation wraps up 2021 by looking at past distributions, future distributions, and other exciting developments
Long-term future
- Toby Ord was interviewed by Julia Galef for her podcast Rationally Speaking, where they discuss existential risk
- Founder's Pledge released their new report "Navigating the changing landscape of climate philanthropy"
- Andrew Yang was interviewed on the 80,000 Hours podcast about our very long-term future, and other topics most politicians won't touch
- Introducing a New Course on the Economics of AI, by Anton Korinek, EA Forum
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Useful Links
- Review our giving recommendations.
- Report your donations with your pledge dashboard.
- Share our ideas to help grow our community and multiply your impact.
- Join other members in the Giving What We Can Community Facebook group.
- Find more ways to get involved with Giving What We Can and effective altruism.
- Discuss effective giving and effective altruism on the EA Forum.
You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok and subscribe to the EA Newsletter for more news and articles.
Do you have questions about the pledge, Giving What We Can, or effective altruism in general? Check out our FAQ page, or contact us directly.