One of the misconceptions I had about the GWWC pledge has to do with the use of a donor-advised fund (DAF). It was always my thought that the pledge was designed to help people give meaningful sums of money sooner rather than later (e.g. donate 10% per year vs. just waiting till you die to make a large lump sum donation). I’ve now met a few people that have taken the pledge but have contributed most or all of their charitable giving to a Donor-Advised Fund as part of their pledge. And furthermore, they have yet to make any grants from their DAFs as they believe in the the prospect of Investing to Give. I haven’t quite fully formed my personal opinion of this yet, but I wonder how GWWC views these scenarios? Contributing to a DAF, of course, is a commitment in that those contributions are irrevocable and must ultimately go to charity. But with that said, in the unlikely scenario all pledge takers were contributing money to a DAF and not granting any funds in the near future, then this to me feels counterintuitive to the pledge itself. Any thoughts?
Hi Rebecca! As always, grateful for your support of people in the community and helping them get their finances sorted!
We do encourage people to give regularly as part of the pledge, and would generally encourage people who are using DAFs as part of their giving strategy to disburse funds from it regularly so that they are actively contributing to doing good in the world now, rather than later. I do think that it’s possible for people to strongly believe that waiting for a particular moment in time might be the best use of their funds, i.e. development or approval of a particular technology like a vaccine which could be consistent with The Pledge. People with different worldviews and reasoning might feel very differently about this so we generally leave some room for interpretation (In fact, there’s a whole forum topic on donation timingwith many years of discussion on this). My personal view is that people should give regularly, and allowing “donation debt” to build up for more than a couple of years is not ideal.
One of the misconceptions I had about the GWWC pledge has to do with the use of a donor-advised fund (DAF). It was always my thought that the pledge was designed to help people give meaningful sums of money sooner rather than later (e.g. donate 10% per year vs. just waiting till you die to make a large lump sum donation). I’ve now met a few people that have taken the pledge but have contributed most or all of their charitable giving to a Donor-Advised Fund as part of their pledge. And furthermore, they have yet to make any grants from their DAFs as they believe in the the prospect of Investing to Give. I haven’t quite fully formed my personal opinion of this yet, but I wonder how GWWC views these scenarios? Contributing to a DAF, of course, is a commitment in that those contributions are irrevocable and must ultimately go to charity. But with that said, in the unlikely scenario all pledge takers were contributing money to a DAF and not granting any funds in the near future, then this to me feels counterintuitive to the pledge itself. Any thoughts?
Hi Rebecca! As always, grateful for your support of people in the community and helping them get their finances sorted!
We do encourage people to give regularly as part of the pledge, and would generally encourage people who are using DAFs as part of their giving strategy to disburse funds from it regularly so that they are actively contributing to doing good in the world now, rather than later. I do think that it’s possible for people to strongly believe that waiting for a particular moment in time might be the best use of their funds, i.e. development or approval of a particular technology like a vaccine which could be consistent with The Pledge. People with different worldviews and reasoning might feel very differently about this so we generally leave some room for interpretation (In fact, there’s a whole forum topic on donation timing with many years of discussion on this). My personal view is that people should give regularly, and allowing “donation debt” to build up for more than a couple of years is not ideal.
Might also be relevant for people to read our FAQ on why give now rather than later? as well!