Thanks Gemma, and thank you for everything you’ve done running the London group, your impact as a pledger, and your broader commitment to promoting effective giving.
We’re totally aligned that our community is vitally important to our mission. That’s actually baked into our Big Hairy Audacious Goal: “a million people donating $3bn to effective charities.” The two numbers aren’t separable by design. The $3bn reflects our ultimate purpose, which is improving and saving lives, human and animal, now and into the future. But the million people reflects something we hold equally seriously: that this is a movement making effective giving a social norm.
This is relevant to your point about not rushing people into commitments they won’t keep, and it’s something we’re so so so strongly aligned with. To have a million people donating $3bn we need to maintain the expected value that pledgers donate.
Also love your point about the Trial Pledge. It exists precisely because a thoughtful, sustained commitment is worth far more than an impulsive one that lapses. (Sneak preview from our next Impact Evaluation: Trial Pledgers who go on to take a 10% Pledge donate more over the course of their pledge!) This shapes how we think about good onboarding and stewardship, and makes us even more excited about bringing people into effective giving in a considered way.
Where I’d disagree slightly is the framing of community support as a choice between stewarding existing pledgers or inspiring new ones. Ideally we’d do both, and great community engagement should mean the two are mutually reinforced. If someone has an amazing experience they’re more likely to recommend it to friends and family. Likewise, a growing community means existing pledgers can feel like early members of a large movement.
We withdrew from GWWC-branded groups primarily for operational reasons, including not having the capacity to put adequate safeguarding measures in place. The fact we hadn’t clearly defined metrics for groups (inspiring new pledgers or supporting existing ones) is symptomatic of not having the capacity to work with leaders like you to co-manage groups at the standard we want.
That said, as our capacity grows, we want to bring this in-person community aspect back! That’s why we’re hiring for community engagement roles in San Francisco and London. Hopefully this will be the first step in building the capacity we need to support our community to the standard it deserves, reflecting and honouring the seriousness of the commitment.
Apologies, my comment was a bit flippant and easy to say when I’m not the one making the difficult trade-offs 😅 FWIW I think it sounded like the right call at the time and I’ll be the first to admit that my misty-eyed nostalgia doesn’t scale.
Delighted that my vibes based speculation bares out in the data—excited to read that report 👀
Giving significantly and effectively should be a norm—it’s really exciting that you guys will have additional capacity for in-person support!!
I’m looking forward to working with whoever ends up in the London role!! (If it could be you—pls pls apply 👆🏻👆🏻)
Thanks Gemma, and thank you for everything you’ve done running the London group, your impact as a pledger, and your broader commitment to promoting effective giving.
We’re totally aligned that our community is vitally important to our mission. That’s actually baked into our Big Hairy Audacious Goal: “a million people donating $3bn to effective charities.” The two numbers aren’t separable by design. The $3bn reflects our ultimate purpose, which is improving and saving lives, human and animal, now and into the future. But the million people reflects something we hold equally seriously: that this is a movement making effective giving a social norm.
This is relevant to your point about not rushing people into commitments they won’t keep, and it’s something we’re so so so strongly aligned with. To have a million people donating $3bn we need to maintain the expected value that pledgers donate.
Also love your point about the Trial Pledge. It exists precisely because a thoughtful, sustained commitment is worth far more than an impulsive one that lapses. (Sneak preview from our next Impact Evaluation: Trial Pledgers who go on to take a 10% Pledge donate more over the course of their pledge!) This shapes how we think about good onboarding and stewardship, and makes us even more excited about bringing people into effective giving in a considered way.
Where I’d disagree slightly is the framing of community support as a choice between stewarding existing pledgers or inspiring new ones. Ideally we’d do both, and great community engagement should mean the two are mutually reinforced. If someone has an amazing experience they’re more likely to recommend it to friends and family. Likewise, a growing community means existing pledgers can feel like early members of a large movement.
We withdrew from GWWC-branded groups primarily for operational reasons, including not having the capacity to put adequate safeguarding measures in place. The fact we hadn’t clearly defined metrics for groups (inspiring new pledgers or supporting existing ones) is symptomatic of not having the capacity to work with leaders like you to co-manage groups at the standard we want.
That said, as our capacity grows, we want to bring this in-person community aspect back! That’s why we’re hiring for community engagement roles in San Francisco and London. Hopefully this will be the first step in building the capacity we need to support our community to the standard it deserves, reflecting and honouring the seriousness of the commitment.
Thank you again. Really glad you’re raising this!
Thanks for this, James!
Apologies, my comment was a bit flippant and easy to say when I’m not the one making the difficult trade-offs 😅 FWIW I think it sounded like the right call at the time and I’ll be the first to admit that my misty-eyed nostalgia doesn’t scale.
Delighted that my vibes based speculation bares out in the data—excited to read that report 👀
Giving significantly and effectively should be a norm—it’s really exciting that you guys will have additional capacity for in-person support!!
I’m looking forward to working with whoever ends up in the London role!! (If it could be you—pls pls apply 👆🏻👆🏻)