Giving What We Can offers a number of giving pledges, the most popular being the āTrial Pledgeā and the ā10% Pledgeā
A Trial Pledge allows you to pledge between 1%-10% of your income for a fixed amount of time between 6 months to 10 years.
A 10% Pledge is a pledge to give 10% of your income until you retire.
Thereās no progressive ātaxā scheme for GWWCās Pledges, unlike The Life You Can Save (TLYCS)ās recommendations. GWWC also has the option for people to pledge a percentage of wealth, and we encourage those with significant wealth to give a higher proportion of their assets.
We encourage people to āgive what they canā and find a level of giving that best suits them. We find that people have very different expectations about how much they can or should give and think itās for each person to decide what works for them. For example, some people on low incomes still take the 10% Pledge while others who earn significantly more might take a Trial Pledge for 1% or 5%.
If youāre new to giving, Iād recommend taking a Trial Pledge for a percentage that feels comfortable to you, and plan on increasing it if you decide youād like to give more.
Re: pre or post income tax, you can find the answer in this FAQ.
I donāt know what country youāre in, but to calculate your annual pre-tax and post-tax income but if you google, thereās usually calculators or tools that do this for your country!
Peter Singer has taken the 10% Pledge (although heās mentioned he gives much more) but he is the founder of TLYCS. They are two different charities, which is why we have different pledges.
Giving What We Can offers a more active community around pledging, including a global slack community and dashboards to track your progress over timeāpromoting giving pledges is one of the main things we do and weāre planning on improving the experience for our pledgers over time! So Iām biased in saying that taking a pledge with GWWC is a good idea, starting with a level of giving that youāre comfortable with.
1) If you take 10% pledge now, does it apply to previous money you got/āsaved? Does it apply to small amounts of money you got (e.g. a friend gifts you 20 bucks as a birthday present) or only just the large amounts of money you get from like a job or whatnot. Also, do you donate every month or every year? Honestly, why not just wait until you are dead before donating it in your will? There are also things like Certificate Deposits where you have money stored in a location where you donāt want to withdraw it too early to get interest.
2) Does 10% just apply to income or wealth in general?
3) Whatās the point of the 10% pledge if you encourage people to find a level of giving that suits them?
4) I live in the USA. Iām not sure if donations are tax-deductible. If they are, what is the process of making sure that you get them deducted from taxes?
5) Whatās the most effective charity to donate to? Like I see there are multiple charities listed. But if you donate your 10% to a less effective charity thats listed (like idk x bucks to save a life for one charity, x+1 bucks to save a life for another charity), is that counted as part of the 10% pledge?
Hi satelliteprocess!
Iām Grace, the Head of Marketing at GWWC.
Giving What We Can offers a number of giving pledges, the most popular being the āTrial Pledgeā and the ā10% Pledgeā
A Trial Pledge allows you to pledge between 1%-10% of your income for a fixed amount of time between 6 months to 10 years.
A 10% Pledge is a pledge to give 10% of your income until you retire.
Thereās no progressive ātaxā scheme for GWWCās Pledges, unlike The Life You Can Save (TLYCS)ās recommendations. GWWC also has the option for people to pledge a percentage of wealth, and we encourage those with significant wealth to give a higher proportion of their assets.
We encourage people to āgive what they canā and find a level of giving that best suits them. We find that people have very different expectations about how much they can or should give and think itās for each person to decide what works for them. For example, some people on low incomes still take the 10% Pledge while others who earn significantly more might take a Trial Pledge for 1% or 5%.
If youāre new to giving, Iād recommend taking a Trial Pledge for a percentage that feels comfortable to you, and plan on increasing it if you decide youād like to give more.
Re: pre or post income tax, you can find the answer in this FAQ.
I donāt know what country youāre in, but to calculate your annual pre-tax and post-tax income but if you google, thereās usually calculators or tools that do this for your country!
Peter Singer has taken the 10% Pledge (although heās mentioned he gives much more) but he is the founder of TLYCS. They are two different charities, which is why we have different pledges.
Giving What We Can offers a more active community around pledging, including a global slack community and dashboards to track your progress over timeāpromoting giving pledges is one of the main things we do and weāre planning on improving the experience for our pledgers over time! So Iām biased in saying that taking a pledge with GWWC is a good idea, starting with a level of giving that youāre comfortable with.
If you have any further questions, you can reach out to us at community@givingwhatwecan.org
Hi,
Few questions :
1) If you take 10% pledge now, does it apply to previous money you got/āsaved? Does it apply to small amounts of money you got (e.g. a friend gifts you 20 bucks as a birthday present) or only just the large amounts of money you get from like a job or whatnot. Also, do you donate every month or every year? Honestly, why not just wait until you are dead before donating it in your will? There are also things like Certificate Deposits where you have money stored in a location where you donāt want to withdraw it too early to get interest.
2) Does 10% just apply to income or wealth in general?
3) Whatās the point of the 10% pledge if you encourage people to find a level of giving that suits them?
4) I live in the USA. Iām not sure if donations are tax-deductible. If they are, what is the process of making sure that you get them deducted from taxes?
5) Whatās the most effective charity to donate to? Like I see there are multiple charities listed. But if you donate your 10% to a less effective charity thats listed (like idk x bucks to save a life for one charity, x+1 bucks to save a life for another charity), is that counted as part of the 10% pledge?