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this is: 5,000 people have pledged to give at least 10% of their lifetime incomes to effective charities, published by lukefreeman on the effective altruism forum.
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Today we reached a major milestone. More than 5,000 people have pledged to give at least ten percent of their lifetime earnings to effective charities .
[Video: A message to our 5,000 members]
Since its founding in December 2009, Giving What We Can has attracted members from 87 countries. Together, we have donated at least $195 million to highly effective charities across many different cause areas. This money has a tangible impact on the lives of many individuals now, and will help many others in the future.
Thank you for your generosity, your support, and your commitment to helping others.
To celebrate, our members are hosting events all around the world (in-person and virtually) for you to meet other people who have made effective giving a meaningful part of their lives. We encourage you to attend one of these events!
Several of our members have submitted some words to share with our community – we’ve collated them all below for you to watch and read.
If you’d like to share something please do so in the comments or email us at community@givingwhatwecan.org.
Read our official press release about this milestone
Video Quotes
Toby Ord (Co-founder, researcher at Future of Humanity Institute)
“I’m so excited that Giving What We Can is over 200 times larger than when we launched 10 years ago. It’s overwhelming to be part of such a large and friendly community of people, all striving to make the world a much better place.”
Will MacAskill (Co-founder, researcher at Forethought Foundation)
“Getting to 5,000 members absolutely blows my mind. That’s a full 217 times as many members as we had at launch 11 years ago. I remember when I first took the pledge, it felt really quite scary. I was a graduate student at the time and I had a scholarship for my accommodation paid for but I was living on about £4,500 per year and I was trying to give £900 of that away over the year. It was tough. I remember I refused to get a haircut because it seemed like an unnecessary expense... One of the things I worried about back then was whether I’d be a social outcast, always having to explain to people why I’ve chosen this weird life for myself. The answer turned out to be “no”, quite the opposite in fact. The pledge functioned like this bat signal, attracting people all around the world with a similar set of values and it’s been such a joy to see so many people come together and make a commitment to use a significant proportion of their income for the common good. So thank you, for taking the pledge and for showing what it means to take giving seriously.”
Julia Wise (Member #179 and former President of GWWC, community health at CEA)
"When I first learned about Giving What We Can, I remember feeling so relieved that there were all these other people out there who were not just thinking about what we can do for others, but were taking concrete action on that."
Derek Ball (Member #57, Lecturer in the philosophy departments at the University of St Andrews)
"I first read about Giving What We Can in a newspaper article almost 10 years ago. At the time, I strongly felt that I needed to do more to help others, but I wasn’t sure what to do. Giving What We Can provided guidance and inspiration that I needed — an easy-to-follow recipe for doing some good. I can honestly say that it has changed my life. Congratulations on 5000 members!"
Michelle Hutchinson (Member #153 and former ED of GWWC, Head of Advising at 80,000 Hours)
"It’s been really incredible watching GWWC grow from a few members early on to a 5,000 strong community. It’s really incredible how much people in our community donate and how much they think ab...
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