Legibility is tricky. I want to be able to easily explain my giving, so that when people ask for details on what I mean by “I give half” we don’t get into complex arguments about what counts. For example, if my work has a donation matching program, does that count? What if I do work for someone and ask them to donate instead of paying me? What about money my company puts into my 401k? Luckily the US government already has figured out a set of rules for this, so I can use them. When people want details on how I account for things, I can say “income” is “income on form 1040” and “donations” is “gifts to charity on form 1040 Schedule A”.
That’s really useful, thanks Jeff. I feel like I get into these kinds of discussions a lot (when discussing GWWC). I often find it frustrating, because it just doesn’t seem like what we should be focusing on. But at the same time I can see it being important for people to really know that the pledge has real substantive content, and that people stick to it.
Yes, being able to say “I’m part of a group who’s pledged to give 10% of their money to global poverty charities” is really clear, which makes it more approachable to say—partly because you don’t have to get into a complex explanation. 10% is a clear total similar to tithing, and the concept of and case for giving to global poverty charities is pretty well known.
Legibility is tricky. I want to be able to easily explain my giving, so that when people ask for details on what I mean by “I give half” we don’t get into complex arguments about what counts. For example, if my work has a donation matching program, does that count? What if I do work for someone and ask them to donate instead of paying me? What about money my company puts into my 401k? Luckily the US government already has figured out a set of rules for this, so I can use them. When people want details on how I account for things, I can say “income” is “income on form 1040” and “donations” is “gifts to charity on form 1040 Schedule A”.
That’s really useful, thanks Jeff. I feel like I get into these kinds of discussions a lot (when discussing GWWC). I often find it frustrating, because it just doesn’t seem like what we should be focusing on. But at the same time I can see it being important for people to really know that the pledge has real substantive content, and that people stick to it.
Yes, being able to say “I’m part of a group who’s pledged to give 10% of their money to global poverty charities” is really clear, which makes it more approachable to say—partly because you don’t have to get into a complex explanation. 10% is a clear total similar to tithing, and the concept of and case for giving to global poverty charities is pretty well known.