It’s true that our donation distribution at Giving What We Can (GWWC) follows a ‘heavy-tailed’ pattern. According to our most recent impact evaluation, less than 1% of our donors contribute about 50% of our recorded donations.
Yet, I would stress that this doesn’t paint the complete picture of our impact. Although this less-than-1% represents a small-to-medium group of larger donors, the other half of our donations, spread among tens of thousands of other donors, is no less crucial.
Here’s some reasons why:
Direct impact of these donations: Each of us has an opportunity to save and improve lives using our donations. That’s a really important and valuable thing for people to do. It doesn’t matter if someone else is able to give more, your donations still have a direct impact and together you’re sharing in an even bigger collective impact.
Reliability and diversity of funding: Donations from a broader base tend to be more consistent year to year. For instance, we experienced a surge in donations from larger donors in 2021, but then witnessed a significant drop-off in 2022-2023. Throughout these fluctuations, the regular donations from our wider community provided a steady and reliable support to high-impact projects.
Spreading EA principles and causes: Every single one of our donors helps propagate EA principles and cause areas. In fact, a large grant we received previously was attributed to the influence we’ve had on donors’ career decisions—a direct consequence of their engagement with effective giving.
Discovering new opportunities and red teaming: Since the early days of GWWC and EA, people giving at ~normal levels who take their own giving seriously has led to a lot of research and thinking being done that’s been very helpful to the wider community (including larger donors).
Cultural change: Our main goal at GWWC is to bring about a shift in how society views giving. By reaching out to individuals early in their careers or even before they start earning, we can shape their perspectives on effective giving (plus, some of them may go on to earn a lot later). This not only promotes positive values but also puts societal pressure on high earners to follow suit. People count more than dollars when it comes to cultural change and advocacy.
So, while we’re very grateful for our large donors (and would like more of them!), every pledge and donation made through GWWC we find to be very valuable in many different ways. Each donation both has a very important impact itself (in how much it improves the lives of others) and also signifies a step towards normalising effective giving, and in those regards, every single donor and pledger contributes meaningfully to our mission.
Does most of GWWC’s impact come from a very few wealthy or high-income members?
Thanks Imma, great question!
It’s true that our donation distribution at Giving What We Can (GWWC) follows a ‘heavy-tailed’ pattern. According to our most recent impact evaluation, less than 1% of our donors contribute about 50% of our recorded donations.
Yet, I would stress that this doesn’t paint the complete picture of our impact. Although this less-than-1% represents a small-to-medium group of larger donors, the other half of our donations, spread among tens of thousands of other donors, is no less crucial.
Here’s some reasons why:
Direct impact of these donations: Each of us has an opportunity to save and improve lives using our donations. That’s a really important and valuable thing for people to do. It doesn’t matter if someone else is able to give more, your donations still have a direct impact and together you’re sharing in an even bigger collective impact.
Reliability and diversity of funding: Donations from a broader base tend to be more consistent year to year. For instance, we experienced a surge in donations from larger donors in 2021, but then witnessed a significant drop-off in 2022-2023. Throughout these fluctuations, the regular donations from our wider community provided a steady and reliable support to high-impact projects.
Spreading EA principles and causes: Every single one of our donors helps propagate EA principles and cause areas. In fact, a large grant we received previously was attributed to the influence we’ve had on donors’ career decisions—a direct consequence of their engagement with effective giving.
Discovering new opportunities and red teaming: Since the early days of GWWC and EA, people giving at ~normal levels who take their own giving seriously has led to a lot of research and thinking being done that’s been very helpful to the wider community (including larger donors).
Cultural change: Our main goal at GWWC is to bring about a shift in how society views giving. By reaching out to individuals early in their careers or even before they start earning, we can shape their perspectives on effective giving (plus, some of them may go on to earn a lot later). This not only promotes positive values but also puts societal pressure on high earners to follow suit. People count more than dollars when it comes to cultural change and advocacy.
So, while we’re very grateful for our large donors (and would like more of them!), every pledge and donation made through GWWC we find to be very valuable in many different ways. Each donation both has a very important impact itself (in how much it improves the lives of others) and also signifies a step towards normalising effective giving, and in those regards, every single donor and pledger contributes meaningfully to our mission.