At Giving What We Can I work to support the global effective giving community and help with the development of new effective giving initiatives.
I also am the Executive Director of Impact Books.
Luke Moore đ¸
Karma: 1,215
GWWCâs effecÂtive givÂing ecosysÂtem stratÂegy 2026/â27
UpÂdates on the effecÂtive givÂing ecosysÂtem 2026
Thanks for flagging this! Iâve added a preliminary entry for Power for Democracies and will look into the details when we next review the database :)
8 years on from a life-changÂing idea
Fair point, however, for OP the figure I have is somewhere between 600-700M (depending how you measure it ). Likely close to 650M. In this case I think that >600M is more acurate than ~600M. Similarly for GW its 200-230M.
Curious if you disagree?
None at all, I have tried to contact them previously for this information, but would appreciate an introduction if you (or anyone else) can put me in touch with someone from their team?
Agree that they are focused on effectiveness and ss an ecosystem, we are increasingly building connections with the Gates Foundation. However, currently do not have enough information to be able to make a good conclusion regarding how much of their grantmaking is high-impact.
Hopefully at some point we can include info from the Gates Foundationâs high-impact grants in this overview.
UpÂdates on the effecÂtive givÂing ecosysÂtem (MCF 2025 memo)
StrateÂgies for proÂmotÂing givÂing pledges
Hi @Unwobblypanda! Itâs honestly incredibly impressive to see how many pledges youâve driven through your tabling. Amazing work!
Iâm Lucas, Partnerships Manager at Giving What We Can and Iâd love to jump on a call with you all to hear more about what youâre doing and how youâve had such success. Weâd be really keen to explore how we might support your work and whether your approach could be replicated in other student groups as well.
Might be worth looking at GWWCâs evaluators research to get an overview of our thinking about some of this. Not exactly what youâre looking for, but might be helpful.
Thank you all for your comments and for your enthusiasm for this project. After careful consideration we have decided to discontinue our investigation into whether thereâs some value in (someone) building a community for those in the earning to give (EtG) space and to close down the EtG Pledge Club.
At GWWC, weâve recently made the difficult decision to retire a number of initiatives in order to focus our attention on our ambitious new strategy.
Note: CEA have indicated to us that they might be interested in filling this gap directly or indirectly (see their most recent strategy post).
Hey Joe, this is a really interesting idea! Iâd love to dig in more and explore how Iâand the broader effective giving sectorâmight support it. I work as the Effective Giving Global Coordinator and Incubator at Giving What We Can, helping connect and support effective giving initiatives.
I think the best audience for this could be self-improvement enthusiastsâpeople who follow pop psychology and are drawn to giving as a way to boost wellbeing (e.g., Laurie Santosâ Happiness Lab listeners, Atomic Habits readers, etc.). Framing it as a daily micro-donationââthe cost of a cup of coffeeâ to a pre-vetted high-impact charityâcould really work.
Would love to chat more. Feel free to book a time here: Calendly link or email me at lucas.moore@givingwhatwecan.org!
Thank you for sharing this insightful post! As the Effective Giving Global Coordinator and Incubator at Giving What We Can, my role involves incubating new effective giving initiatives and Iâm particularly keen to connect with anyone interested in exploring the idea of launching a Christian giving initiative. The intersection of Christian generosity and effective giving is incredibly compelling, especially given the substantial opportunity to engage Christians in the U.S., where the largest market exists for such an initiative.
If youâre interested in discussing this further, or if you have ideas or projects youâd like to share, Iâd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out or connect with me directly via email at lucas.moore@givingwhatwecan.org.
This year, Iâm giving 20% of my incomeâdouble my đ¸10% Pledge.
I believe that growing the total amount of money directed toward high-impact charities is a crucial bottleneck. As part of this, Iâm giving 20% of my donation budget to Giving What We Can. In my view, our multiplier at GWWC is exceptionally high, and Iâve written more about why I think effective giving organizations could do with more support here. While Iâd love to give to other effective giving organizations, my role as Effective Giving Global Coordinator and Incubator means that I see value in avoiding any appearance of bias that could complicate my work.
Another clear decision for me this year is giving 20% to AIMâs Incubated Charities Fund. Iâve had the privilege of working closely with AIM, and Iâve been consistently impressed by the rigor and ambition of their work. Their track record is very strong and I think that they are likely to continue incubating exceptionally high impact charities.
For the rest of my giving, Iâve leaned on recommendations from Giving What We Canâs evaluator reports, filtered through my own values and priorities:
20% to GiveWellâs All Grants Fund
10% to the EA Animal Welfare Fund and 10% to ACEâs Movement Grants Program
Outside of my 10% pledge, Iâll give to Giving Greenâs Grantmaking Fund to offset my annual carbon footprint and to a variety of animal welfare charities, inspired by FarmKindâs Compassion Calculator, to offset the harm caused by my (minimal) animal product consumption as a vegetarian.
Thanks for this follow-up! In my view the key distinction is between:
Taking a lower-paying job for impact (opportunity cost)
Explicitly sacrificing part of your available salary (active sacrifice)
While both involve financial sacrifice for impact, only the second case counts towards the pledge. This is because pledge is specifically about donating a portion of the income you actually receive or could immediately receive in your current role. Itâs not about the opportunity cost of career choices or hypothetical alternative salaries you could earn elsewhere.
So in your exampleâif someone has offers for $2X but takes a $X job for impact, this opportunity cost doesnât count towards their pledge amount. The pledge would be calculated based on the $X they actually earn.
There are a few reasons for this approach:
Clarity and consistency in pledge calculations across different situations
Avoiding complex counterfactuals about alternative career paths
Maintaining the pledge as an active commitment to give from current income
Preserving the behavioural and advocacy benefits of regular giving
What are your thoughts on this distinction? Iâm curious to hear your perspective on how we might better support people making career changes for impact while maintaining the integrity and clarity of the pledge.
I think that you raise a good point that in a partnership with fully shared finances and joint decision-making, thereâs a reasonable argument that each partner could view their effective âpersonal incomeâ as 50% of the household income. This could align with the spirit of the pledge, which is about committing a meaningful portion of oneâs resources to helping others.
Another approach could be to sign the pledge together as a couple. Many GWWC members have found this to be a meaningful way to approach their giving as a couple. You can track your joint donations through a single pledge dashboard, making it easier to manage your giving together.
Ultimately, the goal of this advice is to help members stick to their plan of taking significant action to benefit others. All guidelines about how to calculate income should be thought of as serving that goal. In other words, our overall advice is to follow the spirit of the pledge, which is using a significant portion of oneâs income to benefit others. We recognise that a simple rule wonât work perfectly for all possible situations, and encourage pledgers to define 10% of income in the way that makes sense to them.
Hey @PabloAMC đ¸! Thanks for the question. We think direct work at a charity or nonprofit can be extremely impactful! However, your pledged amount does not change depending on your workplace or occupation. Those of us who work for nonprofits, even if we left higher-paying jobs to do so, still donate our pledged amounts.
If your giving pledge is preventing you from doing more impactful work then it might be appropriate to resign from your pledge. Read more about this in âHow permanent is a giving pledge?â.
Great post! At GWWC weâre currently looking for pledgers excited to help us shape our new Pledge Advocacy Programme.
Weâve found that word of mouth is one of the best ways for people to learn about the pledge! But, weâve also heard from many pledgers that it can be difficult to bring up the pledge in conversation so weâre launching a new Pledge Advocacy Programme to support our community members to have thoughtful conversations about pledging with their friends, family, and colleagues.
Weâre still in the pilot phase, but if youâre keen to help shape this exciting new initiative then please sign up here!
Thanks for the kind words, and for sharing your experience so candidly.
One quick clarification first: this post covers only GWWCâs ecosystem coordination work, which is a small part of our overall strategy. Our 2026 org-wide strategy gives a view of everything else weâre focused on, including our work with donors and pledgers. Weâve now added an edit to the top of the post to make this clearâthanks.
On donor engagement, we still take your feedback here very seriously, and Iâm sorry that was your experience. This is an area weâve been focused on improving. Over the last year weâve started rolling out a lot more personalised outreach, and weâve been implementing much more impact reporting so donors can see what their giving achieves. Weâve taken these steps in large part thanks to feedback like yours, and we want to do a lot more of it.
Zooming out the reason we provide these ecosystem coordination goods (outlined in this post) at all is that we want to be part of lifting the whole effective giving sector up together, so that donors everywhere can be introduced to effective giving and find the impact they achieve through it so rewarding that they stay and give effectively for the long term. Experiences like the one you describe are exactly the sort of thing we want to fix.
Our Director of Community may have more to say on our exact plans for donor stewardship, but heâs OOO for a couple of weeks. Iâll flag your comment for him to take into account when heâs back.
Thanks again!