Why I donate – as a student
I recently took the trial pledge, and it’s been great as I finally feel like I’m doing something directly impactful for animals. The pledge had been on my mind for a while, but I always was unsure as it seemed slightly daunting, especially as a student, so I told myself I’d do it when I had a full time job.
However, after reading ‘On What Is Prevented’ by Bentham’s Bulldog, and reading about another student donating money in the comments, I took the trial pledge.
I’m a second year student now, and I think that I probably wouldn’t have been able to donate last year, as I was less effective at managing my finances, but this year I’ve budgeted a lot better, and stopped going out/ drinking, which has saved me a fair bit of money. I don’t donate a huge amount, but I think it’s still good to have a positive impact as well as building the habit, so that when I am able to increase my donation amount, there will be less friction.
Additionally, I find donating monthly as opposed to yearly helps motivate me too, and I would probably be too scared to donate a larger amount of money at the end of the year / just not manage to save it.
I also wrote a post on thinking about how to give good gifts – ‘Effective(?) Gift Giving’.
thanks for this bold and important move to give as a student! If you can build habits now it will make it so much easy when the money starts flowing in. I always considered myself “cash strapped” as a student but really i would have been better off getting into the habit of donating monthly like you are. Amazing job!
Thank you!