Effective giving is a core part of effective altruism as a project — and we’d love to see EA groups, networks of people in the EA community, and individuals helping to promote it, this Giving Season.
There’s a lot less funding available to many effective charities than there was last year,and that means that we’re making less progress than we might have otherwise on pressing global problems. Increasing the funds raised for effective charities by promoting effective giving remains one of the best ways for many of us to prevent deaths and suffering now and into the future.
Below, I’ve listed some actions for both groups/networks and individuals to take. If you have any other ideas for promoting effective giving, we are all ears and would love to figure out how to support you! Feel free to share ideas with others in the comments!
Actions for groups or networks:
Ask us to host a talk for your group, workplace, social club, etc.
We’re excited about giving talks about effective giving to groups of more than 20 people online or in-person (in locations that are feasible for us). We can also connect you with other organisations or speakers!
We have a particularly good new talk that’s been really well received by several consulting and tech companies!
Fill out this form to let us know you’re interested
Host your own Giving Game, everyday philanthropist or fundraising event
GWWC will sponsor donations for each participant in a Giving Game and has training and materials to help you run this smoothly! We also have a long list of ideas for fundraising events.
Additionally, we think Everyday Philanthropist events could be a really great way to engage both new and existing givers. Here’s a brief explanation of how they work (from our event guide):
- Invite your attendees to help in making a real-world donation decision. One or more donors will play the role of a philanthropist and the attendees will help the donor decide on where they will donate.
- Ideally the donors will provide a document with what their intentions are (e.g. "most improve the lives of farmed animals") and some suggested charities to help guide the discussion. This works best if either the donor or event organising team provide good summary information on each of the charities.
This makes for a great end-of-year event, helps to showcase real people who make effective giving a part of their lives, and offers an opportunity for those without an income to also be involved in effective giving.
Giving Game materials and sponsorship request
How to run an Everyday Philanthropist event
Start a fundraising page for your group
You can request to set up a GWWC fundraising page for up to 3 of our supported charities. Why not set a target and encourage your group to ask friends and family to donate?
Create a fundraising page with GWWC
Host a pledge panel in the new year
Hearing from people about their experiences taking a pledge with GWWC can be a great way to answer questions that people might have about the pledge, or help someone feel that it’s more achievable and rewarding than they previously thought.
Actions for individuals:
Contribute a post to the EA Forum about your giving during Giving Season
Share your experience with giving and more during a themed week on the EA Forum. Your thinking could influence others to donate more, or differently — and we’d love to see a variety of opinions out there!
Themed weeks you might want to contribute to
Vote and discuss as part of the EA Forum’s Donation Election
EA Forum users will have the opportunity to vote on which charities will receive a portion of the Donation Election Fund (which you can also contribute to), as well as discuss on the Forum why your favourite charity should receive the funding.
Post on participating in the Donation Election
Share the latest giving recommendations with friends and family
Point your friends and family towards highly effective donation options this Giving Season. Giving What We Can will be releasing our new recommendations towards the end of the month!
Sign up to our mailing list to get the new recommendations once they’re released!
Start a fundraising page instead of asking for presents over the holidays
You can request to set up a GWWC fundraising page for up to 3 of our supported charities. If you’re not interested in receiving gifts, consider asking for donations instead — not only does this raise funds, it raises awareness of highly effective charities.
Create a fundraising page with GWWC
Ask us to host a talk for your group workplace, social club, etc.
We’re excited about giving talks about effective giving to groups of more than 20 people online or in-person (in locations that are feasible for us). We can also connect you with other organisations or speakers
Fill out this form to let us know you’re interested
Talk about your pledge in person or on social media
Especially around the new year, people are often looking to make commitments in line with their values. Reflecting on how the pledge has positively impacted your life, and suggesting interested friends and family take a trial pledge to begin with (perhaps 1% for a year or 10% for 6 months) could be a great way to help them find an impactful resolution.
Here’s a nice example from David Kile
Here are some more ideas of how to talk about your Pledge on social media
Hi! I have for some time contemplated a fundraiser for my birthdays but do not know how to get most impact? Is the most impactful process what you outline above in terms of setting up a fundraiser on your webpage and then sharing that on e.g. Facebook? I am asking as I think intuitively the Facebook integrated fundraiser function is more helpful in that it shows everyone in my network how much is raised and our progress towards the goal which hopefully inspire more of my non-EA friends to give, and to give more.
Moreover, I have been contemplating sharing personal fundraisers with other EAs: It seems there is potential value in EAs who are anyway donating, instead donating to a personal, effective fundraiser. That way, all the non-EA people in that person's network get to see the large amounts that individual is able to raise and this might make more people contemplate and hopefully even donate themselves.
In general, I feel like there is value in making EA donations much more visible to all the non-EAs in the networks of EAs. But I think perhaps you have done much more work on figuring out how to use EAs' networks to get even more donation and make giving and effective giving more of a social norm.