RSS

Earn­ing to give

TagLast edit: 11 Jan 2022 21:46 UTC by Pablo

Earning to give is the pursuit of a lucrative career with the purpose of donating a significant portion of the earnings to cost-effective organizations.

The value of earning to give may not be immediately obvious, since people tend to think of ethical jobs as those with a direct positive impact. A useful framing for comparing the social impact of earning to give with that of traditional careers in the nonprofit sector is to consider whether someone pursuing a lucrative career could earn enough to fund at least one nonprofit worker as competent as him- or herself. This will often be the case because there is considerable salary variation across career-types, because money is a fungible resource that can fund many different causes, and because the impact of a charity worker is usually only marginally higher than that of its counterfactual replacement.[1]

Although this approach has sometimes been represented as the highest impact type of career, 80,000 Hours currently believes that it is the best option for only a small proportion of members of the effective altruism community.[2] To a significant extent, this follows from the fact that the most promising causes tend to be talent-constrained rather than funding-constrained.[3]

The expression earning to save has been suggested for a type of earning to give where earnings are invested for later disbursement rather than donated immediately.[4][5] A “moderate” version of investing until the end of a person’s career may be contrasted with an “extreme” version of investing for as long as possible (potentially involving many generations, centuries or millennia).

Further reading

MacAskill, William (2014) Replaceability, career choice, and making a difference, Ethical theory and moral practice, vol. 17, pp. 269–283.

Shulman, Carl (2012) Salary or startup? How do-gooders can gain more from risky careers, 80,000 Hours, January 8.

Stafforini, Pablo (2014) Earning to give: an annotated bibliography, Pablo’s Miscellany, March 22 (updated 16 September 2016).

Tomasik, Brian (2006) Why activists should consider making lots of money, Essays on Reducing Suffering.

Wiblin, Robert (2017) Alex Gordon-Brown on making millions for charity each year by working in quant finance, 80,000 Hours, August 28.

Related entries

constraints on effective altruism | investing | patient altruism

  1. ^

    MacAskill, William (2014) Replaceability, career choice, and making a difference, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 17, pp. 269–283.

  2. ^
  3. ^

    Todd, Benjamin (2015) Why you should focus more on talent gaps, not funding gaps, 80,000 Hours, November 27.

  4. ^

    Arnold, Raymond (2018) Earning to save (give 1%, save 10%), Effective Altruism Forum, November 26.

  5. ^

    Todd, Benjamin (2020) An argument for keeping open the option of earning to save, Effective Altruism Forum, August 31.

Earn To Give $1M/​year or Work Directly?

Yonatan Cale29 Aug 2022 12:43 UTC
55 points
44 comments1 min readEA link

What Is earn­ing to give?

Peter Wildeford26 Jun 2013 4:00 UTC
10 points
0 comments3 min readEA link

Salary Ne­go­ti­a­tion for Earn­ing to Give

mulholio3 Apr 2019 12:30 UTC
57 points
28 comments2 min readEA link

In­tro­duc­ing High Im­pact Professionals

Devon Fritz19 Oct 2021 8:27 UTC
152 points
12 comments9 min readEA link

The Priv­ilege of Earn­ing To Give

Jeff Kaufman14 Jan 2015 1:59 UTC
85 points
38 comments1 min readEA link

Money Can’t (Easily) Buy Talent

Mark Xu22 Jan 2021 2:56 UTC
51 points
29 comments11 min readEA link
(markxu.com)

Show me the harm

Benjamin_Todd6 Aug 2013 4:00 UTC
7 points
1 comment7 min readEA link

Peter Hur­ford thinks that a large pro­por­tion of peo­ple should earn to give long term

Peter Wildeford17 Aug 2015 15:42 UTC
53 points
77 comments6 min readEA link

AIM (CE) new pro­gram: Found­ing to Give. Ap­ply now to launch a high-growth com­pany!

CE14 Mar 2024 12:13 UTC
158 points
10 comments5 min readEA link

Earn­ing to give vs. al­tru­is­tic ca­reer choice revisited

Jonah_Sinick28 May 2013 4:00 UTC
2 points
0 comments8 min readEA link

[Unen­dorsed] — An up­date in fa­vor of try­ing to make tens of billions of dollars

Mathieu Putz14 Oct 2021 20:57 UTC
168 points
59 comments13 min readEA link

Col­lege and Earn­ing to Give

Jeff Kaufman16 Dec 2018 20:23 UTC
28 points
10 comments6 min readEA link

De­spite billions of ex­tra fund­ing, small donors can still have a sig­nifi­cant impact

Benjamin_Todd23 Nov 2021 11:20 UTC
166 points
47 comments12 min readEA link

Earn­ing to Save (Give 1%, Save 10%)

Raemon26 Nov 2018 23:47 UTC
89 points
39 comments3 min readEA link

You Can Also Help An­i­mals By Earn­ing (More) in Other Ca­reer Paths and Donat­ing

Animal Advocacy Careers31 Jul 2023 11:38 UTC
78 points
4 comments16 min readEA link

Ap­ply to Ne­go­ti­at­ing for Good [Feb 26 - Mar 12]

Cillian_20 Jan 2022 11:21 UTC
44 points
2 comments2 min readEA link

Earn­ing to give may be the best op­tion for pa­tient EAs

Jack Malde26 Dec 2021 10:26 UTC
31 points
5 comments6 min readEA link

‘I give away half to three-quar­ters of my in­come ev­ery year’ [The Guardian]

HenryStanley9 Nov 2019 9:03 UTC
58 points
1 comment1 min readEA link
(www.theguardian.com)

Seed fund­ing non­prof­its: a high-risk, high-re­ward ap­proach (Founders Pledge)

KarolinaSarek31 Aug 2020 15:25 UTC
49 points
1 comment5 min readEA link

A ro­bust earn­ing to give ecosys­tem is bet­ter for EA

abrahamrowe11 Nov 2023 22:17 UTC
284 points
67 comments9 min readEA link

Re­place­abil­ity Con­cerns and Pos­si­ble Responses

sapphire2 Aug 2020 18:19 UTC
34 points
7 comments5 min readEA link

Soft­ware en­g­ineer­ing—Ca­reer review

Benjamin Hilton8 Feb 2022 6:11 UTC
92 points
19 comments8 min readEA link
(80000hours.org)

The Fu­ture of Earn­ing to Give

PeterMcCluskey13 Oct 2019 21:28 UTC
70 points
34 comments11 min readEA link
(www.bayesianinvestor.com)

EA Fundrais­ing Through Ad­van­tage Sports Bet­ting: A Guide ($500/​Hour in Select States)

Sam Anschell27 Jan 2022 8:57 UTC
63 points
78 comments13 min readEA link

[Question] What’s the role of dona­tions now that the EA move­ment is richer than ever?

RichardAnnilo1 Nov 2021 17:00 UTC
43 points
21 comments1 min readEA link

When Real­iz­ing Cap­i­tal Gains Re­duces Tax

ABlank5 Jan 2024 0:18 UTC
8 points
0 comments3 min readEA link

10 years of Earn­ing to Give

AGB7 Nov 2023 23:35 UTC
629 points
28 comments9 min readEA link

Why You Should Earn to Give in Tulsa, OK, USA

NicoleJaneway29 May 2022 17:18 UTC
59 points
7 comments3 min readEA link

[Question] Is earn­ing to give more ad­van­ta­gious?

Glenn_V17 Jan 2022 16:21 UTC
3 points
1 comment2 min readEA link

Con­sid­er­a­tions and ad­vice on en­ter­ing man­age­ment consulting

Vaidehi Agarwalla11 Aug 2021 13:06 UTC
50 points
9 comments15 min readEA link

Should Earn­ers-to-Give Work at Star­tups In­stead of Big Com­pa­nies?

MichaelDickens12 Nov 2021 22:55 UTC
85 points
22 comments24 min readEA link

Gor­don Ir­lam: an effec­tive al­tru­ist ahead of his time

Louis_Francini10 Jun 2020 20:48 UTC
97 points
4 comments2 min readEA link

How im­por­tant is marginal earn­ing to give?

Ben Kuhn19 May 2015 20:41 UTC
16 points
72 comments1 min readEA link

Com­mon re­sponses to earn­ing to give

Ben Kuhn10 Jun 2013 4:00 UTC
1 point
1 comment5 min readEA link

Earn­ing To Give as a Doc­tor in Switzerland

Nadia Montazeri11 Sep 2021 13:31 UTC
43 points
5 comments6 min readEA link

A Sum­mary of Pro­fes­sion-Based Com­mu­nity Building

Sean Lawrence20 Dec 2022 22:08 UTC
67 points
0 comments11 min readEA link

The Bit­ter­sweet­ness of Re­place­abil­ity

Lila11 Jul 2015 23:44 UTC
18 points
22 comments6 min readEA link

How I missed my pledge and how I’m fix­ing it

Daniel_Dewey10 Oct 2016 0:06 UTC
21 points
9 comments2 min readEA link

Fi­nance Ca­reers for Earn­ing to Give

kbog6 Mar 2016 5:15 UTC
9 points
11 comments1 min readEA link

Jeff Be­zos an­nounces dona­tion plans (in re­sponse to ques­tion)

david_reinstein14 Nov 2022 14:31 UTC
113 points
12 comments1 min readEA link
(www.cnn.com)

[Question] Con­fused about fund­ing short­ages and earn­ing to give

eric69826 Apr 2022 1:26 UTC
2 points
3 comments1 min readEA link

Does it make sense for EA’s to be more risk-seek­ing in earn­ing to give?

Joey20 May 2022 15:29 UTC
63 points
4 comments2 min readEA link

Should you switch away from earn­ing to give? Some con­sid­er­a­tions.

William_MacAskill25 Aug 2016 22:37 UTC
15 points
78 comments6 min readEA link

A Model of Pa­tient Spend­ing and Move­ment Building

NunoSempere8 Nov 2021 18:00 UTC
92 points
27 comments4 min readEA link

Why earn to give? (tran­script)

TopherHallquist19 Sep 2014 20:50 UTC
6 points
5 comments13 min readEA link

How to have cost-effec­tive fun

Kat Woods30 Jun 2018 21:23 UTC
52 points
22 comments7 min readEA link

Bring­ing back earn­ing to give

vaishnav2 Dec 2022 21:24 UTC
27 points
4 comments3 min readEA link

[Question] Direct work vs. earn-to-give

warrenjordan4 May 2020 0:08 UTC
5 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

Log-nor­mal lamentations

Gregory Lewis19 May 2015 21:07 UTC
28 points
11 comments8 min readEA link

[Question] What are peo­ple’s ob­jec­tions to earn­ing-to-give?

DC13 Apr 2019 20:16 UTC
26 points
10 comments1 min readEA link

Earn­ing to Give as Costly Signalling

Raemon24 Jun 2017 16:43 UTC
11 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

Lawyer­ing to Give

Jeff Kaufman25 Sep 2014 12:19 UTC
13 points
14 comments5 min readEA link

Why EA meta, and the top 3 char­ity ideas in the space

Joey6 Jan 2021 15:47 UTC
88 points
20 comments10 min readEA link

MacKen­zie Scott’s grant­mak­ing data

david_reinstein15 Dec 2022 21:19 UTC
37 points
6 comments1 min readEA link
(yieldgiving.com)

Ded­i­cated Donors May Not Want to Sign the Giv­ing What We Can Pledge

MichaelDickens30 Oct 2016 3:26 UTC
15 points
20 comments4 min readEA link

[Question] Where should I donate?

BrownHairedEevee22 Nov 2021 20:56 UTC
29 points
10 comments1 min readEA link

Con­tra Ap­piah Defend­ing Defend­ing “Cli­mate Villains”

Cullen12 Sep 2022 14:58 UTC
27 points
7 comments4 min readEA link

Is effec­tive al­tru­ism grow­ing? An up­date on the stock of fund­ing vs. people

Benjamin_Todd29 Jul 2021 11:47 UTC
301 points
105 comments21 min readEA link

[Question] Should I donate my earn­ings when my ca­reer is just be­gin­ning?

Brian15 Jul 2022 15:27 UTC
8 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

Giv­ing now vs. later: a summary

Julia_Wise23 Jul 2013 4:00 UTC
43 points
7 comments1 min readEA link

Earn­ing to Give v. Pur­su­ing your Pas­sion/​Direct Work

cdc48230 Jul 2016 3:04 UTC
0 points
9 comments1 min readEA link

Leav­ing Google, Join­ing the Nu­cleic Acid Observatory

Jeff Kaufman11 Jun 2022 1:37 UTC
170 points
15 comments3 min readEA link

80,000 Hours: Ways to be suc­cess­ful that peo­ple don’t talk about enough

Aaron Gertler31 Jan 2020 9:59 UTC
11 points
1 comment8 min readEA link
(80000hours.org)

Profit­ing-to-Give: har­ness­ing EA tal­ent with a new fund­ing model

andavargas4 Mar 2019 9:22 UTC
26 points
12 comments2 min readEA link

[Question] Re­sources on the ex­pected value of found­ing a for-profit start-up?

Mathieu Putz5 Apr 2021 20:38 UTC
6 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

An ar­gu­ment for keep­ing open the op­tion of earn­ing to save

Benjamin_Todd31 Aug 2020 15:09 UTC
34 points
13 comments3 min readEA link

Earn­ing to Give: Pro­gram­ming Lan­guage Choice

Ben_West5 Apr 2015 15:45 UTC
5 points
14 comments1 min readEA link

Vo­ca­tional Ca­reer Guide for Effec­tive Altruists

kbog26 Jan 2019 11:16 UTC
35 points
8 comments5 min readEA link

Pass­ing Up Pay

Jeff Kaufman13 Jul 2022 14:10 UTC
127 points
25 comments5 min readEA link
(www.jefftk.com)

[Question] Should Founders Pledge fo­cus more on re­cruit­ing EAs to be­come en­trepreneurs?

BrownHairedEevee31 Dec 2022 6:28 UTC
9 points
7 comments1 min readEA link

GWWC has am­bi­tious plans from 2022 on­wards (we’re hiring!)

Luke Freeman16 Mar 2022 6:21 UTC
133 points
4 comments12 min readEA link
(www.givingwhatwecan.org)

Why and how to earn to give (80,000 Hours)

Ardenlk10 Nov 2023 11:30 UTC
51 points
1 comment1 min readEA link
(80000hours.org)

EA Fi­nance NYC Meetup

Sydney Filler21 Mar 2023 4:41 UTC
2 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

[Question] How much should you be ex­pect­ing to earn in or­der to con­sider ETG?

jknowak21 Nov 2023 11:29 UTC
12 points
3 comments1 min readEA link

Align­ment Grant­mak­ing is Fund­ing-Limited Right Now [cross­post]

johnswentworth2 Aug 2023 20:37 UTC
82 points
13 comments1 min readEA link
(www.lesswrong.com)

Fi­nan­cial guidance for US-based donors

Rebecca Herbst9 Oct 2023 23:57 UTC
38 points
0 comments2 min readEA link

Is the 10% Giv­ing What We Can Pledge Core to EA’s Rep­u­ta­tion?

DirectedEvolution6 Jun 2023 5:42 UTC
16 points
15 comments8 min readEA link

Func­tions of a com­mu­nity stan­dard in the 2%/​8% fuzzies/​utilons debate

DirectedEvolution7 Jun 2023 5:23 UTC
2 points
8 comments9 min readEA link

AMA: Earn­ing to Give

Jeff Kaufman7 Nov 2023 16:20 UTC
91 points
38 comments1 min readEA link

AMA: Ben West, former startup founder and EtGer

Ben_West7 Nov 2023 22:04 UTC
45 points
40 comments1 min readEA link

Mak­ing large dona­tion de­ci­sions as a per­son fo­cused on di­rect work

Ben Kuhn27 Dec 2021 18:19 UTC
37 points
16 comments2 min readEA link

Be­ing a to­bacco CEO is not quite as bad as it might seem

Larks28 Jan 2016 3:59 UTC
13 points
19 comments7 min readEA link

UK In­come Tax & Donations

harald8 Apr 2018 11:40 UTC
69 points
11 comments6 min readEA link

We need 40,000h or maybe even 20,000h

martyna18 Feb 2022 10:02 UTC
139 points
46 comments1 min readEA link

[Question] How to give as you earn in the UK? GAYE vs. GiftAid

James Smith14 Jul 2020 18:18 UTC
2 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

[Question] Where are the EA-al­igned fi­nan­cial ad­vi­sors for ma­jor donors?

Spencer Ericson11 Aug 2023 17:55 UTC
18 points
7 comments1 min readEA link

To save the world, don’t get a job at a char­ity; go work on Wall Street

William_MacAskill27 Feb 2013 5:00 UTC
3 points
4 comments3 min readEA link

EAs Should In­vest All Year, then Give only on Giv­ing Tuesday

Cullen10 Jan 2019 21:17 UTC
54 points
24 comments2 min readEA link

There’s a role for small EA donors in cam­paign finance

Rachel Shu3 Nov 2021 7:28 UTC
31 points
12 comments3 min readEA link

Direct Work For-Profit En­trepreneur­ship is Underrated

Isaac Benson31 Dec 2022 19:56 UTC
37 points
10 comments4 min readEA link

[Question] Any­one tried to mon­e­tize a hobby with the in­tent of ETG?

warrenjordan1 Nov 2023 16:09 UTC
20 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

My Mid-Ca­reer Tran­si­tion into Biosecurity

Jeff Kaufman2 Oct 2023 21:13 UTC
63 points
22 comments2 min readEA link

Free money from New York gam­bling websites

Robi Rahman24 Jan 2022 22:50 UTC
74 points
46 comments2 min readEA link

[Linkpost] John Wesley’s sur­pris­ingly EA-al­igned views on the use of money

EA for Christians28 Sep 2023 16:09 UTC
32 points
1 comment13 min readEA link
(christandcounterfactuals.substack.com)

In­dex In­vest­ing and EA

Mahendra Prasad6 Jul 2022 18:23 UTC
10 points
0 comments1 min readEA link
(bogleheads.podbean.com)

Con­sider Earn­ing Less

ElliotJDavies1 Jul 2023 12:45 UTC
123 points
11 comments2 min readEA link

EA Sur­vey 2020 Series: Dona­tion Data

david_reinstein26 Oct 2021 15:31 UTC
47 points
4 comments49 min readEA link

In­tro­duc­ing the EA Good Gover­nance Project

Grayden8 Oct 2022 19:42 UTC
113 points
9 comments4 min readEA link

Quick, High-EV Ad­van­tage Sports­bet­ting Op­por­tu­nity in 18 US States

Joseph B.4 Jun 2023 3:27 UTC
−1 points
4 comments4 min readEA link

The case for not pur­su­ing a ca­reer in an EA organization

MarcSerna12 Apr 2022 18:54 UTC
15 points
7 comments7 min readEA link

The $100trn op­por­tu­nity: ESG in­vest­ing should be a top pri­or­ity for EA careers

Sanjay18 Mar 2021 13:54 UTC
71 points
5 comments7 min readEA link

Giv­ing op­por­tu­nity: $50 ‘thank you’ notes

Aaron Bergman26 Sep 2022 1:49 UTC
17 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

Si­mul­ta­neous Shortage and Oversupply

Jeff Kaufman26 Jan 2019 19:35 UTC
41 points
10 comments2 min readEA link

How much could a SWE at top com­pa­nies donate through­out their 20-year ca­reer?

SmallCat8 Aug 2022 14:09 UTC
9 points
0 comments2 min readEA link

How to op­ti­mize your taxes as a donor in the US: donate ap­pre­ci­ated se­cu­ri­ties, make a donor-ad­vised fund, and bunch your donations

sam_brenner30 Apr 2022 10:19 UTC
15 points
8 comments11 min readEA link
(www.sambrenner.xyz)

Con­sider work­ing more hours and tak­ing more stimulants

Arjun Panickssery15 Dec 2022 20:38 UTC
73 points
22 comments4 min readEA link

EAs should ‘in­vest to give’. A per­spec­tive from Fin­tech founders

Marco Vega14 Feb 2023 15:51 UTC
−57 points
11 comments21 min readEA link

ESG in­vest­ing isn’t high-im­pact, but it could be

Sanjay18 Mar 2021 14:07 UTC
91 points
6 comments29 min readEA link

Dona­tion Mul­ti­plier Stack­ing: Direct­ing 1.65x to 6.6x More Funds

Tyler Kolota18 May 2022 6:13 UTC
12 points
1 comment4 min readEA link

The Power­ball Lot­tery Is Now Pos­i­tive Ex­pected Value for Many Char­i­ta­ble Americans

ColdButtonIssues7 Nov 2022 0:03 UTC
32 points
15 comments4 min readEA link

Per­sonal Fi­nance Coach­ing for EAs: Call for Ap­pli­cants

Rebecca Herbst22 Mar 2023 23:22 UTC
29 points
1 comment3 min readEA link

Con­sider Fi­nan­cial In­de­pen­dence First

River27 Dec 2022 2:04 UTC
49 points
9 comments5 min readEA link
No comments.