Integrating effective giving into everyday investing

[sdepowski]

Hi everyone,

My name is Soraya Depowski. I spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs. During that time, I kept my EA interests alive on the side. I realized these two worlds needed to connect. That’s why I founded Sharely in 2023, aligning EA-aligned giving into brokerage accounts. I’d love to get your thoughts on how we can improve what we’re building, and suggestions on ways to increase investor adoption.

What is Sharely?

Sharely is a platform that integrates effective giving directly into brokerage accounts. It lets investors donate automatically as their investments grow, and provides impact reporting and tax receipts in return. This makes giving easier and more impactful, and encourages continued giving.

Right now, we’re talking with different brokerage firms and digital platforms, but our software has not been integrated yet. We’re optimistic that we’ll be live on at least 1 brokerage platform by Q3 this year.

How Sharely works:

1. Investors sign up using their brokerage account

2. There will be a Sharely donation widget embedded into their broker’s platform

3. Investors pick causes important to them (aligned with the impact themes of The Life You Can Save and GiveWell):

   1. Global health and diseases

   2. Gender equality

   3. Education

   4. Climate change

   5. Economic opportunity

   6. Hunger and malnutrition

4. Investors choose between:

   1. Donating stocks directly (with tax advantages)

   2. Donating a percentage of their realized profits

Why this matters for Effective Altruism:

• Retail investors in the US hold $47 trillion in brokerage accounts across equities and funds (SSGA).

• If they earn an average 7% annual profit, that is about $3.3 trillion in gains per year.

• If just 1% of these investors donate 1% of their profits to highly effective charities, that would generate over $300 million in yearly effective donations.

• The number of retail investors is growing fast. Millennials alone are set to inherit $68 trillion in wealth over the next few decades (Forbes).

• In both Europe and The US, more than 95% of millennials are interested in sustainable investing (Morgan Stanley).

Why Sharely is unique:

• It channels new funding directly to effective causes vetted by EA principles.

• It meets investors where they already are, in their brokerage accounts.

• It helps investors feel connected to impact through personalized cause selection and impact reporting.

What I’m hoping for from the EA community:

• Feedback on how Sharely can improve to align better with EA values.

• Suggestions on ways to increase investor adoption.

• Let me know if you want early access/​pilot the platform (please reply!).

Thanks for reading. I’m excited to hear your thoughts and ideas.

[Rebecca Herbst]

Hi Soraya—I find this interesting. As someone who donates from my regular brokerage account via manual form each month, I’d love to streamline this. I think this would be especially appealing to someone who (A) wants to donate appreciated stock with some degree of automation (B) has a number of charities they donate to regularly. For example, being able to create “rules”—e.g. donate X shares of Y stock each month, draw from lowest cost basis”. Perhaps you can receive a reminder of the action before it’s completed so you can review.

Question to clarify—is donating a percentage of profit based on actual sales? Curious how you envision this being beneficial to users.

[sdepowski]

Hi @Rebecca Herbst—Thanks so much for your insights! It’s fantastic that you donate regularly from your brokerage account already, and we’d love to help streamline the manual process (perhaps we can work with you on a pilot :). It looks like you’re involved in some really impactful work with Yield & Spread as well.

I like the idea of creating these kinds of rules specific to certain stock. To-date, we’ve been planning on recommending any stock that has appreciated over a certain % threshold that the user sets.

To answer your question, for the “realized gains” version of our product, the donation would be triggered by cash coming into the account via dividends, interest income, or stock sale profits. This version will not have any tax advantages beyond what the individual would receive from liquidating and manually donating, but through our research, we’ve found that this type of “set it and forget it” offering is appealing because it automates a behavior that people often aspire to do but don’t actually follow through with.