Thanks for writing this up! I should note that Giving What We Can also has a good way of doing this: you can leave the money to the Giving What We Can Trust. By default this will be allocated between the charities Giving What We Can recommends, but you can also specify other charities (in any country) that are global poverty related. Indeed, one can also make one’s annual donations via the Giving What We Can Trust, allowing UK taxpayers to get Gift Aid on the entire donation, even if part or all of it goes to a charity abroad. I do this and I also find that it simplifies the giving process (I don’t have to look up the donation pages for the six or so charities that I split my donations between). Since I’ve pretty much explained everything about the trust, I’ll also mention that money donated into it legally cannot be used to support Giving What We Can itself.
There is a decent start and comment thread about this issue at SSC with some interesting points. Its a topic I’ve thought about posting on here but not had time to think about properly.
Thanks Toby—indeed, people can leave money directly to the Giving What We Can Trust using the language in the UK section of the guide, but deleting the reference to GiveWell in it. As I mention in the guide the money would by default currently be split evenly between Giving What We Can’s recommended charities, but if you favour some over others, as I did, then you could specify another split. However if you do I’d recommend ensuring that your specification is clear, to ensure that your executors know how to follow it! Following GiveWell’s recommended split is one way to do this.
Thanks for clarifying that you can specify any other global poverty related charity; I imagine it might be safest to email trust@givingwhatwecan.org first to ensure they’ll be able to disburse to the charity that you pick, but I’ll email George again to see if he wants to clarify that.
Thanks for writing this up! I should note that Giving What We Can also has a good way of doing this: you can leave the money to the Giving What We Can Trust. By default this will be allocated between the charities Giving What We Can recommends, but you can also specify other charities (in any country) that are global poverty related. Indeed, one can also make one’s annual donations via the Giving What We Can Trust, allowing UK taxpayers to get Gift Aid on the entire donation, even if part or all of it goes to a charity abroad. I do this and I also find that it simplifies the giving process (I don’t have to look up the donation pages for the six or so charities that I split my donations between). Since I’ve pretty much explained everything about the trust, I’ll also mention that money donated into it legally cannot be used to support Giving What We Can itself.
Yes, thanks for this post Tom! As I don’t have dependents, I’m planning to leave my life insurance to charity.
I’ve just used the guide to write my own will via WillAid—I left everything except a few gifts to family to charity.
By the way Toby, this is a complete tangent, but I’d love to hear why you split donations between around six charities. I’ve always tried to find just one that I think is best, but perhaps this is a mistake.
There is a decent start and comment thread about this issue at SSC with some interesting points. Its a topic I’ve thought about posting on here but not had time to think about properly.
Thanks Toby—indeed, people can leave money directly to the Giving What We Can Trust using the language in the UK section of the guide, but deleting the reference to GiveWell in it. As I mention in the guide the money would by default currently be split evenly between Giving What We Can’s recommended charities, but if you favour some over others, as I did, then you could specify another split. However if you do I’d recommend ensuring that your specification is clear, to ensure that your executors know how to follow it! Following GiveWell’s recommended split is one way to do this.
Thanks for clarifying that you can specify any other global poverty related charity; I imagine it might be safest to email trust@givingwhatwecan.org first to ensure they’ll be able to disburse to the charity that you pick, but I’ll email George again to see if he wants to clarify that.