The next three videos in the "Everyday Heroes of Effective Giving" video series are out!
Recap: This project involves creating brief videos of around 10 minutes each that showcase portraits of EA participants folks from across the movement. We have so many great people involved in the EA movement, people who think hard and well about what cause to prioritize and who dedicate a significant portion of their money and time to advancing global flourishing in the most cost-effective manner. However, articles about EA participants typically feature the most dedicated folks, which contributes to those who don't reach such levels reluctant to call themselves EA members. So to advance the cause of celebrating all in the EA movement and recognizing the value of all movement members appropriately, we at Intentional Insights launched the "Everyday Heroes of Effective Giving" video series. These videos are meant to be widely shareable on social media to help inspire other folks with their personal stories, as research shows personal stories and emotional engagement are crucial to move people to engage in positive behavior change.
As I described in the initial announcement, every time we complete three videos, we will release publish a post on the EA Forum about them. So here are the next three videos, after the three we posted about with the initial announcement:
- The fourth video in the series features Jo Duyvestyn, an activist in the EA movement in Australia. I especially appreciate her description of how taking the GWWC pledge changed her life, and caused her to start a local EA group in Perth.
- The fifth video features Catherine Low, a teacher and EA activist in New Zealand. It's great to see how she has been taking advantage of the Students for High-Impact charity curriculum to promote EA to her students.
- The sixth video features Peter Livingstone, a US-based former mining engineer who very recently became an EA movement member and took the GWWC pledge. This is a perfect video to share with non-EA movement members to show someone who they can relate to as not a dedicated activist but just a typical and recent movement member.
For future developments with this series, we are planning to improve the backdrop situation for the interviewer by getting a black screen. We have also secured the domain http://www.givingeffectively.org/, and we plan to put these videos and other content there after we decide how to structure the website - we want to make it a key part of the EA Marketing Resource Bank as a venue for content about effective giving. If anyone wants to support these endeavors (the website or video series) with their programming/visual design/video skills, or with donations, please shoot me an email at gleb@intentionalinsights.org
I welcome your feedback about this project, in private emails to me or in comments here. My hope is that these videos will show the broad range of diversity across the EA movement, and help people understand that, even if they are not the most dedicated EA participants, they are making a welcome and valuable contribution to the cause of doing the most good effectively.
Also please consider sharing these videos. We have evidence that these videos moved a number of people who saw them to reconsider their giving and give both more and more effectively, just from observing the comments that people leave on the videos about their donations when the videos are shared on social media. So this is the kind of small action that can make a large impact in moving other people to give effectively.
I shared my "Everyday Heroes" interview on my Facebook page last week, and I really wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get, since I don't think many of my friends are even aware of the EA movement. All of the comments I received were positive and supportive, with a few even indicating this would increase their charitable giving. Here are a few comments:
"this has also made me add up what I've actually donated this year and I guess I need to step it up a bit". "You're spreading the word, so don't feel uncomfortable, Pete. Good on you, man!" "I'm going to show this to our family, Pete. What a role model as a neighbor and a friend!"
This feedback has convinced me to keep being public about my giving, and I hope it will inspire others to be public about giving as well.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Pete, glad that your Facebook friends were so supportive :-) This is what generally tends to happen when folks share these videos on FB or other social media.