Beyond the assumption that humans are rational (with Barry Schwartz)

1. Allocate to Three Giving Buckets

Divide your spending into three categories: personal needs, passion-driven causes, and evidence-based, high-impact charities, aiming to allocate some funds to the third bucket even if you currently don’t. This helps acknowledge multiple values without guilt.

2. Combine Principles for 100x Impact

Achieve a 100x or greater increase in your charitable impact by applying multiple non-overlapping principles of effective giving, such as directing funds to high-need areas and leveraging independent evaluations.

3. Start with Evaluator Recommendations

For the easiest and most immediate increase in charitable impact, begin by following the recommendations of established impact-focused evaluators, as their research often integrates multiple effective giving principles.

4. Rely on Independent Evaluations

Base your giving decisions on independent evaluations from impact-focused evaluators and grantmakers, as this provides a significant step up from relying on gut feelings or marketing.

5. Direct Funds to High-Need Areas

Shift charitable resources from areas with abundant existing resources (e.g., high-income countries) to those with fewer resources (e.g., low-income countries) to maximize impact on basic needs like preventable diseases.

6. Incorporate Cost-Effectiveness

Always consider the cost-effectiveness of interventions by including the “denominator” (cost per unit of good) in your calculations, as this can dramatically shift your perspective on which actions are most valuable.

7. Expand Your Moral Circle

Reflect on and potentially expand your moral circle to include other beings (e.g., animals) or future generations, as this can reveal new, highly leveraged opportunities to do good.

8. Seek Multiplier Effects

Prioritize interventions that leverage larger actors or systems, such as influencing government spending or policy advocacy, as these can multiply your impact far beyond direct individual contributions.

9. Inspire Others to Give

Recognize that inspiring others to give as much as you do can double your impact; your personal giving might be less impactful than the collective giving you motivate in others.

10. Commit to Lifetime Giving Pledge

Consider taking a personal commitment, such as the 10% pledge, to donate a percentage of your lifetime income to causes you deem most impactful, as it serves as a flexible yet serious commitment device.

11. Use Pledges for Accountability

Leverage a giving pledge as a commitment mechanism to hold yourself accountable to your charitable intentions, similar to how committing to a marathon motivates training.

12. Enhance Giving Experience

Improve your giving experience by taking a pledge, which transforms giving from a trade-off decision into an exciting annual allocation of pre-committed funds, fostering a sense of purpose and community.

13. Overcome Giving Decision Paralysis

Use a giving pledge to simplify the decision-making process, pre-committing to an amount and freeing yourself from annual stress over how much to give and where, making giving a consistent practice.

14. Embrace Giving as Identity

For those who value rituals and routines, adopting a giving pledge can establish a meaningful identity as a “giver” and connect you to a community of like-minded individuals.

15. Start with Trial Pledge

If a lifetime commitment feels too daunting, begin with a trial pledge, choosing a smaller percentage of income and a shorter duration to comfortably explore effective giving.

16. Utilize Lifetime Pledge Flexibility

Understand that a lifetime giving pledge allows for flexibility, meaning you don’t have to give the exact percentage every year but aim for the total over your life, accommodating varying financial situations.

17. Understand De-Pledging is Option

Recognize that a giving pledge is not an unbreakable vow; there is an option to de-pledge if significant life changes or shifts in values make it justifiably impossible to uphold.

18. Consider Public Pledging

Make your giving pledge public to inspire others, as your visible commitment can encourage friends and family to also engage in effective giving.

19. Beware Marketing-Driven Giving

Recognize that charitable giving is often swayed by marketing rather than actual impact; prioritize charities with strong impact evaluations over those with slick marketing.

20. Look Beyond Surface Impressions

Don’t judge a charity’s effectiveness by its website or marketing quality; instead, delve into independent evidence of their program’s impact, as highly effective organizations may lack strong marketing.

21. Support Focused Interventions

Favor charities that specialize in a few highly effective interventions (e.g., delivering bed nets) rather than those with many programs designed to tell a “full story,” as specialization often leads to greater impact.

22. Evaluate Total Impact

When assessing charities, consider the total money invested versus the total impact generated, ensuring that marketing and overhead costs don’t disproportionately consume donations without delivering commensurate outcomes.

23. Separate Giving Decisions

Separate the decision of how much to give from where to give; this allows for more focused attention on identifying and selecting the most effective charities.

24. Share Giving Experiences

To inspire others to give effectively, share your personal giving experience and motivations, then genuinely ask others about their thoughts and values, fostering connection rather than preaching.

25. Understand Others’ Values

When discussing effective giving, prioritize understanding what others intrinsically care about rather than imposing your own values, as this approach is more effective for long-term engagement and finding common ground.

26. Prioritize Life-Saving Interventions

When donating, consider that $5,000 can save a child’s life from preventable diseases like malaria, which may yield significantly more impact than improving one child’s life for $10,000.

27. Re-evaluate Animal Welfare Donations

Consider that $3,000, which might care for one cat or dog for a year, could instead improve the lives of 30,000 factory-farmed chickens by supporting lobbying efforts against caging, offering a massive multiplier in suffering reduction.

28. Consider 10% Giving Target

The 10% giving target is often significant enough to make a real difference yet doable for many in high-income countries without drastically reducing their quality of life.

29. Donate to ACE Fund

To maximize your donation’s impact in animal welfare, contribute to Animal Charity Evaluators’ recommended charity fund, especially during matching periods, as it supports high-impact groups.