Do you think this approach works across the board? In my personal experience athletes are quite self-centred and asking for anything for free is a shock to them. So far, bringing up a percentage pledge has scared the vast majority of the athletes I’ve spoken to, despite giving myself as an example of someone for whom it works and feels good. Most have shied away from a percentage, asking to donate a discreet amount and maybe come in at a 1% pledge next year or the year after.
Perhaps this response is only typical for tennis players who have to earn their livings through winning matches, which is never a certainty, rather than being paid a salary like in most team sports. I haven’t yet spoken to any team athletes about HIA.
Also, I see the point about ‘saintly’ and have changed it. Thanks!
I don’t have any experience with athletes, though I’d be surprised if they were unusually self-centred compared to other rich people.
Donating a % of winnings above a threshold might be better if income volatility is the worry. That’s the approach Founder’s Pledge and REG both use, which are also very relevant examples. (Note that FP started out with IIRC 2% as their default but now they don’t have a specific percentage and try to suggest the idea of donating much more initially.) I could imagine a pitch like “if you win X big competition, how about giving 30% of that?”
We do know that the EA pitch has worked best on finance, quanty and techy people so far, and it might be hard to extend.
One other thing I’d say is that when we’ve done outreach for GWWC, we’re always letting interested people come to us, rather than going out and pitching to people. I expect if I tried to pitch giving 10% to a randomly selected friend I wouldn’t get far. Instead we’d do something like host a talk about charity, or have a media article, or get introductions to people—so we were always working with a group who have preselected themselves into being pitched.
Though, I think David Golberg has had a lot of success with a more proactive approach at FP among tech entrepreneurs, so it’s possible, though I think even there he’d mostly screen people for interest in charity, or get warm introductions.
Thanks Ben, great comment.
Do you think this approach works across the board? In my personal experience athletes are quite self-centred and asking for anything for free is a shock to them. So far, bringing up a percentage pledge has scared the vast majority of the athletes I’ve spoken to, despite giving myself as an example of someone for whom it works and feels good. Most have shied away from a percentage, asking to donate a discreet amount and maybe come in at a 1% pledge next year or the year after.
Perhaps this response is only typical for tennis players who have to earn their livings through winning matches, which is never a certainty, rather than being paid a salary like in most team sports. I haven’t yet spoken to any team athletes about HIA.
Also, I see the point about ‘saintly’ and have changed it. Thanks!
Hi Marcus,
I don’t have any experience with athletes, though I’d be surprised if they were unusually self-centred compared to other rich people.
Donating a % of winnings above a threshold might be better if income volatility is the worry. That’s the approach Founder’s Pledge and REG both use, which are also very relevant examples. (Note that FP started out with IIRC 2% as their default but now they don’t have a specific percentage and try to suggest the idea of donating much more initially.) I could imagine a pitch like “if you win X big competition, how about giving 30% of that?”
We do know that the EA pitch has worked best on finance, quanty and techy people so far, and it might be hard to extend.
One other thing I’d say is that when we’ve done outreach for GWWC, we’re always letting interested people come to us, rather than going out and pitching to people. I expect if I tried to pitch giving 10% to a randomly selected friend I wouldn’t get far. Instead we’d do something like host a talk about charity, or have a media article, or get introductions to people—so we were always working with a group who have preselected themselves into being pitched.
Though, I think David Golberg has had a lot of success with a more proactive approach at FP among tech entrepreneurs, so it’s possible, though I think even there he’d mostly screen people for interest in charity, or get warm introductions.
I am imagining this conversation:
Marcus: you should donate 1% of your income
Athlete: I don’t want to commit to a percentage. How about a fixed dollar value for this year, and maybe a percentage later?
Marcus: Sounds good. How much you you make?
Athlete: I make $500k a year.
Marcus: How about donating 10k then? That’s a nice round number.