Head of Marketing at Giving What We Can
grace.adams @ givingwhatwecan.org
GraceAdams
Karma: 1,969
This is a lovely reflection, thank you for writing it!
I very much agree that those who are wealthiest have much more of a responsibility to give! - but GWWC is not explicitly aimed at trying to get billionaires to donate more, because we’re not really set up to do that! And there are other organisations who are trying to do this much better than we could.
This video is definitely not asking all people to give large amounts to charity, but I also wanted to talk to all kinds of people about charity. People across all spectrums of income give to charity, even people with very low incomes, so I think it’s worthwhile giving people the knowledge that some charities can do a lot more than others. I think Imma is right below that even a small amount can go a long way when donated effectively.
We always encourage people to do what feels right to them, and would agree that people who are just trying to get their own needs met, may be better off not donating!
This video is really for people who have their needs meet (whatever this means to them) and who might be interested in giving. But it’s very hard when you put a video up online to provide all these caveats or messages about who the video is for when you’re trying to make a relatively interesting 15 min video that’s already covering a bunch of topics. How hard it is to get the balance right is something I’ve been reflecting on lately. I hope we’ve struck an okay balance here.
Oh I thought I responded to this already!
I’d like to say that people often have very good reasons for not pledging, that are sometimes visible to us, and other times not—and no one should feel bad for making the right choice for themselves!
I do of course think many more people in our community could take the GWWC Pledge, but I wouldn’t want people to do that at the expense of them feeling comfortable with making that commitment.
We should respect other people’s journeys, lifestyles and values in our pursuits to do good.
And thanks Lizka for sharing your previous post in this thread too! Appreciate you sharing your perspective!
I was lucky enough to see Marcus play this year at the Australian Open, and have pledged alongside him! Marcus is so hardworking—in tennis alongside his work at High Impact Athletes! Go Marcus!!!
Thanks for sharing your perspective, Karthik!
I think it’s pretty unacceptable to be rude or unkind to anyone who hasn’t take a pledge with GWWC. Everyone is on their own journey and should do what is right for them. I would be disappointed to hear of pledgers who are acting in a manner that’s unkind to non-pledgers.
I second Liza’s request here to ask people who are being uncharitable or unkind about the decisions of others around taking a pledge to refrain from doing so.
I think it’s acceptable to politely ask people if they’d welcome a discussion about reasons they should consider taking a pledge, but if there’s no interest, to let the conversation go.
One of the reasons I love the GWWC Community, is that people tend to be very kind and welcoming, and I would hate to see that change.
(also thanks Liza for sharing your previous post here, too!)
Hi David!
I’m not sure why they thought it was so high! It also surprised me!
I think maybe because we had talked about their own income beforehand? But I also hadn’t really introduced much about charity before that point—so perhaps in other settings they are also being anchored?
I had a small sample size so not sure I can draw any major conclusions here! The filming was about 10 months ago so I’m afraid I can’t remember!
Hi Ula! Sorry for the very slow response! I got caught up with other work!
A video like this would generally cost between 10k-20k GBP depending on the team used and how much staff time goes into it.
We’re currently not running ads with this video, but will probably do so in the future. We have been trying to get as much organic traction on it as possible so far! Happy to share some further results with you when we have it!
Here’s an explanation from Luke about how taking a voluntary salary sacrifice could count towards the pledge (as long as you still think it’s one of the most effective organisations improving the lives of others):
Let me know what you think!
We’ll update this! We do encourage people to give annually to keep in the habit but you’re also right that it’s not actually in the pledge text. I think this is a major point for a lot of people so we’ll update the page! Thanks for pointing that out!
Thanks for sharing, Nuno!
We do have members who don’t donate strictly on a yearly basis, and choose to donate every couple of years when there’s something quite promising to donate to. Also donating every second (or more depending on how much you donate) year can make sense for some Americans given the tax benefits.
I think that deciding when to donate (i.e. investing or donating now) is a difficult one, and depends a lot on your worldviews etc. My take is that if you’re interested in improving the lives of people now, it’s generally good to donate sooner rather than later (although maybe there’s a case for waiting for a specific breakthrough where you have some special knowledge about the case for impact) but outside of global health and wellbeing, I find it much harder to know.
Ah thanks Ian! You can reach me at grace.adams@givingwhatwecan.org and I’ll update the post!
Thanks, JD! I think this is really useful!
One thing I always find so interesting is the contrast between people who are in a culture where giving 10% seems normal (and maybe therefore unnecessary or less valuable to take a pledge) and people who are in a culture where it seems extreme!
The comment about community is also really interesting—hopefully we’re addressing this over time and making it easier to connect with this global community!
Many of our members who currently work at EA non-profits choose to sacrifice salary as part of their pledge! If you were working somewhere else outside of EA, would you consider donating to effective charities or projects?
Hi Jason,
I think this perspective around how upbringing and financial insecurity is really common, and can absolutely understand why it generates hesitancy to make a lifelong financial commitment!
I also think your “fix” of taking trial pledges is also common for people with a similar perspective.
Agreed that it’s really valuable for us to understand diverse perspectives here! This is really helpful for us in order to think through in order to help achieve our mission.
Thanks to both you and Joseph for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Joseph! Really appreciate you taking the time!
I think your feelings here are shared by many! And I do think that taking a significant pledge without a sense of financial stability might not be a good idea. I personally decided to take a pledge once I felt I was in a position to be able to cover expenses if I needed to stop working for a period of time.
The pledges we offer at GWWC don’t require you to donate in the case of being unemployed, but this doesn’t solve the issue of having enough runway to cover living expenses in the meantime.
Some of our members have also taken The Further Pledge, where they choose to donate everything above $X annually, where X is set by them. This might be a way for people who are concerned about financial stability and ensuring a nest egg is built up or maintained to give in a way that might address that concern a bit!
Not suggesting you do this, just thinking about how GWWC can support people in a number of circumstances with our current pledges.
I’d like to extend a massive thank you to Gemma, Chris and Denise for volunteering their time and energy to run the GWWC London Group! I’m really excited about the potential for this group (and the others we’re seeding around the globe) - and none of it would happen without the generosity of volunteers!
I’m really excited to return to London next year and hopefully attend an event!!!
I think of my veganism in the same way!
Thanks for sharing, Lizka! and thanks to everyone else for sharing their voices in the comments too!
I liked this post from Samie which talks about some factors for financial planning and security that are helping when thinking about donating—I liked the ideas about income protection insurance and thinking about financial goals.
I personally took a trial pledge for 3% of my income for a year before deciding I could really commit to the full GWWC Pledge. I’ve had ongoing health issues throughout my adulthood which at times meant I wasn’t able to work full time and was concerned about my ability to potentially earn an income in the future—so it was a really big deal to me to sign a lifetime pledge.
There were a couple of things that pushed me over the edge to take the full pledge:
Feeling like I did have enough saved that if I had to reduce my work hours that I could still afford to donate. I’ve been fortunate to be working from the age of 20 and lived with my parents for many years so I could save money.
Knowing if that if I couldn’t work anymore that I wouldn’t be liable for donations under the pledge (just a suggested 1% of spending money) or that I could always resign if I needed to. On this point, I didn’t want to let the fear of my health potentially declining be a reason not to make an important commitment to do good—I like the marriage analogy with the pledge, as mentioned by others here.
Knowing that even on a modest income in Australia (or even on government benefits), I would still be really well off in comparison to the majority of people alive right now. My own health issues and suffering have been a big part of understanding how positively my donations could impact the lives of others, and I find that really personally motivating.
I think it’s really up to each individual to figure out how much runway to save up, because our circumstances are all quite different (i.e. family, health, government policies, likelihood of changes to income level etc). I do think it was easier for me to sign a lifetime pledge because I have a family who are likely to be able to support me if things were really dire.
Taking the GWWC Pledge is a big commitment and I would recommend that people think carefully about it before doing so. I think a Trial Pledge is a great step and I’m really excited about the value of having people show that they’re donating on a public register, even without the lifetime commitment, because this helps normalise effective giving and giving more broadly as a positive social norm!
(I work for GWWC but this was written in my personal capacity)
Thanks for the kind feedback about our hiring process! I’ll encourage the team to write up how we have approached the hiring for some roles where we think we ran a good process!
[Edit: Actually Michael Townsend wrote this in the past about our hiring process, which is worth reading]