… So I’ve donated 10% of my 2025 salary (sorry, a bit belatedly) to some top malaria prevention charities, and some other charities too.
I blog here for my own accountability and in the small hope it might encourage others to do so.
Whenever I waiver about whether this is a good idea, I like to read Julia Wise (normative determinism in full flow). In a recent blog post, she put it very simply:
- The world has a lot of appalling problems. Many can’t be addressed very well with money, but some can.
- On a rich-country income [check out how rich you are] you almost surely have some income you could dedicate to making the world better in whatever way seems best to you.
- This is best done not impulsively and sporadically, but deliberately as part of your ongoing budget.
- Donating a fraction of your income is a pretty great opportunity to make the world more like what you want it to be: with less suffering, more progress, more fairness, or whatever seems best to you.
- You don’t have to agree with my choice of where to donate! Think it through yourself!
- My ask to you for the coming year: think seriously about how much you want to give, and where you want to give it. One tool that I recommend is making a pledge (either for a period of time, or ongoing).
This is all done very easily over Giving What We Can’s platform — where you can select from a range of charities or cause areas. This time I plumped for GiveWell’s Top Charities Fund, which isn’t much different than the GWWC Global Health and Wellbeing Fund that I’d normally give to, but perhaps a bit more cautious.
My donation, which with gift aid, comes up to around £4,000, buys a lot of nets, seasonal chemoprevention, routine childhood vaccinations and vitamin A supplements. In all likelihood, this will save a child’s life. Maybe two.
It’s a drop in the ocean when the USA has withdrawn so much funding for global health (risking 14m deaths over the next five years), but even more vital as a result.
Join me! There’s some helpful info on trying out regular giving here: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/trial-pledge
Photo (of magnolia, cos it’s spring) by Til Man on Unsplash
Joe blogs. 