10,000 members of Giving What We Can have made a public pledge to give a meaningful portion of their income to effective charities.
"I recognise that I can use part of my income to do a significant amount of good. Since I can live well enough on a smaller income, I pledge that from __ until __ I shall give __ to whichever organisations can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others, now and in the years to come. I make this pledge freely, openly, and sincerely."
If this opportunity inspires you, we invite you to join our community of people who have taken a pledge to donate a meaningful portion of their incomes to improving the lives of others.
We find a pledge helps for three main reasons:
Take a pledge Learn more about why
Our most popular pledge is The Giving What We Can Pledge which commits at least 10% of lifetime income to effective charities. You can also take a Trial Pledge for at least 1% of income for any period you choose. You can take either pledge using our pledge signup form. Please contact us if you are interested in taking The Further Pledge for income above a living allowance, or the Company Pledge for 10%+ of profits.
Our pledges are in no way legally binding. They are commitments made voluntarily and enforced solely by your own conscience. In some circumstances, it may be best to resign from your pledge. Read more.
The spirit of the pledge is to donate regularly, but there's flexibility here. Some members donate less in some years and make up for it in the following years, or donate to a charitable trust or donor-advised fund (DAF) and disburse the donations later. Read more.
If you have no significant income and you take a pledge, we recommend donating 1% of your spending money (which does not include money received to pay tuition fees). Read more.
We provide a dashboard for you to keep track of your pledge, and also send a survey once a year with questions about your giving. This helps us track our impact, and helps you track your commitment. However, you don’t have to report to us or track your donations to take a pledge. For many members, we recommend making donations using EA Funds, because the organisations selected are highly effective and your donations are automatically linked to your dashboard. Read more.
We invite everyone to pledge and provide a number of options to account for different circumstances, but we recognise that a pledge won't be the right choice for everyone. Read more.
Our pledges do not restrict you to give to registered charities, specific organisations, or organisations working in a particular cause area. The only requirement is that you give to the organisations which you sincerely believe to be among the most effective at improving the lives of others. However, we provide effective donation recommendations to help our members. Read more.
Some charities are especially good at using donations to improve the world. They tend to work on unusually promising interventions, use scientific evidence to plan their activities, and seek out ways to increase their own impact. See which charities and organisations we recommend and our guide on how to evaluate charities based on effectiveness.
Generally, we define income as your gross wages or salary (pre-tax) if you are donating to a tax-deductible charity (or Gift Aid eligible charity in the UK). Otherwise, we define income as your net wages or salary (post-tax). Read more.
We also recommend making bequests (leaving money to charity in your will) as a way of committing to give to effective charities. You are welcome to donate to effective charities any time, but taking a pledge often increases motivation and follow-through, and inspires others.
We’d love to help you to stay engaged! You can donate to an effective charity, sign up to our newsletter, read our blog, attend an event, join an effective altruism group, or get in touch if you’d like to discuss anything.
Check out our full list of Frequently Asked Questions.