I think if I was investing to give with my GWWC 10%, I’d probably do so via a donor-advised fund, as that feels a bit more in-keeping with the pledge to me (as well as a bit more safe from value-drift)
That’s a very fair point about value drift. I still need to look into DAFs a bit more. The only reservation I currently have is that, to my knowledge, you can only give to charities from a DAF, and there are a lot of great giving opportunities that aren’t charities (GPI being one example).
As for being in-keeping with the GWWC pledge—I never interpreted the pledge as meaning you’re supposed to give at least 10% on a constant basis, but instead at least 10% over the course of your life. But I do accept the former strategy counters against value drift. I’m hoping to get back into frequent giving at some point in the near future!
EDIT: I’m wrong. The pledge FAQs says “The spirit of the Pledge is to donate on an ongoing basis, rather than letting “donation debt” build up over many years.” I can understand why they say this from a value drift perspective but as MichaelA says they don’t seem to address how best to “invest to give”.
If I recall correctly, in a Facebook thread in the GWWC group, Julia Wise indicated that she thought giving to a DAF would be in-keeping with the spirit of the Pledge, but (maybe) that just investing regularly with the intention of giving later wouldn’t be. But I may be misremembering, and I don’t know if this was codified somewhere, so maybe I/you/someone should reach out to Luke Freeman (who now runs GWWC) or start a public discussion about this.
That’s a very fair point about value drift. I still need to look into DAFs a bit more. The only reservation I currently have is that, to my knowledge, you can only give to charities from a DAF, and there are a lot of great giving opportunities that aren’t charities (GPI being one example).
As for being in-keeping with the GWWC pledge—I never interpreted the pledge as meaning you’re supposed to give at least 10% on a constant basis, but instead at least 10% over the course of your life. But I do accept the former strategy counters against value drift. I’m hoping to get back into frequent giving at some point in the near future!
EDIT: I’m wrong. The pledge FAQs says “The spirit of the Pledge is to donate on an ongoing basis, rather than letting “donation debt” build up over many years.” I can understand why they say this from a value drift perspective but as MichaelA says they don’t seem to address how best to “invest to give”.
If I recall correctly, in a Facebook thread in the GWWC group, Julia Wise indicated that she thought giving to a DAF would be in-keeping with the spirit of the Pledge, but (maybe) that just investing regularly with the intention of giving later wouldn’t be. But I may be misremembering, and I don’t know if this was codified somewhere, so maybe I/you/someone should reach out to Luke Freeman (who now runs GWWC) or start a public discussion about this.
Giving to a DAF is definitely within the spirit of the pledge and many members do this. We’ll be updating the big long FAQ page soon but in the meantime this is one of the FAQs on the Pledge page.