Giving What We Can
| File:Giving What We Can logo.png | |
| Founded | 14 November 2009 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Toby Ord |
| Focus | Poverty relief |
| Location |
|
| Origins | Oxford, England |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Method | Members donate 10% of income to poverty relief |
Members | 193[1] |
Key people | Toby Ord |
| Website | http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ |
Giving What We Can is an international society for the promotion of poverty relief, in particular in the developing world.
Founded by moral philosopher Dr Toby Ord in November 2009, Giving What We Can is not a charity itself: the aims of the organisation are instead to encourage people to commit to long-term donation to those charities that provide the most cost-effective poverty relief. Giving What We Can conducts extensive research into the relative effectiveness of charities, and provides a list of those it most highly recommends. Currently this includes charities that work to treat neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), tuberculosis, and malaria.
Charitable principles
Pledge to Give
In November 2009, Giving What We Can founder Dr Toby Ord received significant media attention when he made a personal pledge to donate at least 10% of his income for the rest of his working life to combat poverty.[2][3] Ord founded Giving What We Can as a society of like-minded donors who share his commitment to fighting poverty through life-long giving. All members of Giving What We Can thus make a public pledge to give at least 10% of their income each year until retirement. The Pledge to Give can be made at the standard 10% rate, or a higher rate.
The purposes of the pledge are to:
- Establish a lifestyle that accommodates a high level of charitable giving, rather than getting used to luxuries and then having to cut back in order to donate
- Make a personal and public commitment to maintain this level of donation
- Publicly demonstrate support for combating poverty
The Further Pledge
Citing that he could live perfectly comfortably and happily within the means of a £20,000 yearly income, Ord additionally chose to pledge any money he earns in a year above this figure. This is what Giving What We Can calls a 'Further Pledge': the member defines a baseline yearly income they intend to live within, and above which they will donate all earnings.
Focus on effectiveness
The Pledge to Give also stipulates that members give their pledged money to cost-effective charities to maximise the benefit of their donations. Giving What We Can uses the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as its metric for evaluating the effectiveness of charities: rather than being concerned with intermediary factors such as the proportion of a donation spent on administration, using DALYs allows the actual life-extending effects of charities to be compared. Giving What We Can cites that health interventions can vary in cost-effectiveness by as much as 10,000 times, making it an essential consideration when donating to charity.[4]
Activities
Giving What We Can does not itself conduct charity work: rather, it provides a framework for donors to adhere to, researches and evaluates the cost-effectiveness of charities and offers advice and resources regarding the best organizations to give to.
Recommended charities
Currently, these charities are most highly rated by Giving What We Can:
- Tier 1
- Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)
- Deworm the World
- Tier 2
- Stop TB Partnership
- Tier 3
- Against Malaria Foundation (AMF)
Notable members
- Toby Ord
- Peter Singer
- Thomas Pogge
- Adam Swift
- Michael Kremer
- Rachel Glennester
- Jonathan Blow
- Dr Bernadette Young
US Chapters
On December 2, 2010, the first US chapter was officially started at Rutgers University.[5] Peter Singer spoke at the launch event to a crowd of about 600 attendees (video link).[6]
On March 2, 2011, Toby Ord spoke at Rutgers University (video link).[7]
On April 11, 2011, the second US chapter was officially started at Princeton University.[5] Jeffrey Sachs recorded a public message applauding Giving What We Can activities (video link).[8]
Criticism
The charity comparison organisation Givewell has critiqued the use of DALYs to compare charities[9] and, more specifically, the high regard these estimates give to NTDs;[10] following each article is a discussion between Givewell's Holden and Giving What We Can's Will Crouch.
A debate article in Ceasefire Magazine, between a GWWC representative and a critic, contained a range of criticisms of the charity. Criticisms were centered on what was described as "[t]he hollowness of paying others to push for structural change is resounding and fundamentally misapprehends collective struggle", and an alternative method was posited: "sustained collective mobilizations against the structures and social relations of capitalism that underpin global poverty."[11]
References
- ^ "Our Members". Giving What We Can. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
- ^ Richard Woods (2009-11-15). "Take My Money, I Don't Want It". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
- ^ "Academic pledges to give away £1m". BBC. 2009-11-14.
- ^ "Recommended Charities". Giving What We Can. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
- ^ a b "Giwing What We Can: Rutgers". Giving What We Can. Retrieved 2010-12-12. Cite error: The named reference "GWWC-local chapters" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "Peter Singer - GWWC". Giving What We Can. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
- ^ "Global Poverty: Why should we care? What can we do about it?". Giving What We Can. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
- ^ "Jeffrey Sachs - GWWC". Giving What We Can. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
- ^ "Cost-effectiveness estimates: inside the sausage factory". GiveWell. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
- ^ "Neglected Tropical Disease charities: Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Deworm The World". GiveWell. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
- ^ [hthttp://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/giving-high-impact-careers-debate/ "Helping the poor…by getting rich: ingenious or delusional?"]. Ceasefire Magazine. Retrieved 2012-03-24.