Hi Michelle,
This is so hard to comprehend why this post was made, when it is in strict disagreement with the history/current mission statement for GivingWhatWeCan. Here are are the best descriptions about GivingWhatWeCan’s mission that I could find.
“What do you do, and hope to achieve? Our goal is to play our part in eliminating poverty in the developing world.”
“OUR HISTORY Giving What We Can is the brainchild of Toby Ord, a philosopher at Balliol College, Oxford. Inspired by the ideas of ethicists Peter Singer and Thomas Pogge, Toby decided in 2009 to commit a large proportion of his income to charities that effectively alleviate poverty in the developing world.”
I started a GivingWhatWeCan chapter in my home town and have been very active in the community reading books/blogs/courses/ etc. and it’s still incredibly difficult to figure out the various organisations and what their stated goals are and how they differ. A recent problem I’ve encountered is why are there GivingWhatWeCan chapters and LEAN/Local EA chapters. Our current meetup.com group is called GivingWhatWeCan, but our website is eacalgary.org.
This makes things extremely difficult for new members who are learning about the movement to navigate the EA landscape, and when the communications coming directly from the organisation are conflicting with it’s stated mission, it becomes even more difficult to piece everything together. Perhaps this is a start of a rebranding effort that I wasn’t aware of.
Looking forward to hearing back from you, appreciate all the good work the organisation does!
Richard
Hi Evan! Shoutout from EA Calgary! We have been discussing with our local chapter to make a road trip to vancouver sometime this summer to meet some fellow EAs, and just read this article and it seems that you were reading my mind! Are there any particular time/events that we should look at coming for? Richard