[Question] How much should you be expecting to earn in order to consider ETG?

[Jakub K. Nowak🔸]

E.g. does it make sense to consider ETG if you’re only expecting to be able to earn <$100k per year? What heuristics should one apply to answer this question?

[Imma🔸]

If animal welfare is a priority cause for you, the Animal Advocacy Careers’ Bottlenecks survey is helpful.

As another way of understanding this trade-off, we asked meta respondents the following question: “Imagine an individual who is skilled and motivated enough to be a good (but not outstanding) candidate for roles in effective animal advocacy nonprofits. I.e., after a few applications, they are likely to secure a role, but they are not likely to be substantially better than the next best candidate, at least in their first paid role. How much money would you estimate that that person would have to be able to donate per year, on average, to effective animal advocacy nonprofits, to be indifferent (from an impact perspective) between focusing on a career “earning to give” vs. a career in animal advocacy nonprofits?”[28] The average answer given was $28,200, with a range from $100 to $90,000.[29]

Don’t take these numbers literally. But it can give you some guidance.

It depends on the living costs, but my impression is that there are people earning (much!) less 100k/​year for whom ETG is the best they can do.

For other cause area’s I don’t know, sorry.

[D_M_x]

It will depend on what your alternatives are. If you could become a charity entrepreneur, I would expect this option dominates over your proposed path. Perhaps you are pursuing some other direct work options that you can compare to your option once you have received an offer.

But if there are no compelling direct work options (and for most people, there won’t be), earning and donating as much as you can is a great path! Donating $10k a year is a great start.

[Stan Pinsent]

It’s always good to give! Someone on $50k giving 10% can save ~1 life per year by giving to AMF. What could the downsides be?