Last year’s new years resolution was to trial giving 10%. I’ve hit it!
For a long time I procrastinated, and ended up donating pretty much exclusively during December. This is mostly because, thanks to EA and a philosophy degree, it felt as though I would have to solve many intractable questions in order to donate at all. Forcing myself to stick to a commitment was the way out of this dead end. I think this has overall been valuable, even though it probably leads to sub-optimal donating (i.e., I didn’t give myself the option to wait until a great opportunity came up). My donations this year looked like this:
I currently like the idea of giving to Funds rather than directly, because it takes some of the evaluating effort off of me. However, I expect I will feel more involved in any wins that Legal Impact for Chickens (the only charity I gave to directly, because of their theory of change and this comment) has over the next year, so there may be a trade-off in sustainable motivation.
The main aim of my donating this year was to start myself on a path to taking a Giving Pledge/​ more generally donating in a way that works for me. This meant that this year, I focused on donating to causes I am pretty confident in, and feel good about. I hope that in the future I’ll be open to options like taking riskier bets, saving my donations for the right moment, or donating an entire year’s worth to one project.
But, for now, it is good to know that my money is going to avert suffering for people and animals, and I can go into next year a little more integrated with my professed values.
Last year’s new years resolution was to trial giving 10%. I’ve hit it!
For a long time I procrastinated, and ended up donating pretty much exclusively during December. This is mostly because, thanks to EA and a philosophy degree, it felt as though I would have to solve many intractable questions in order to donate at all. Forcing myself to stick to a commitment was the way out of this dead end. I think this has overall been valuable, even though it probably leads to sub-optimal donating (i.e., I didn’t give myself the option to wait until a great opportunity came up). My donations this year looked like this:
The main aim of my donating this year was to start myself on a path to taking a Giving Pledge/​ more generally donating in a way that works for me. This meant that this year, I focused on donating to causes I am pretty confident in, and feel good about. I hope that in the future I’ll be open to options like taking riskier bets, saving my donations for the right moment, or donating an entire year’s worth to one project.
But, for now, it is good to know that my money is going to avert suffering for people and animals, and I can go into next year a little more integrated with my professed values.