Can you do 100x more good? (with Sjir Hoeijmakers)

1. Unlock 100x More Good

Reflect on your personal values and become aware of evidence-based giving opportunities to potentially increase the good your money does by 100 times or more, aligning with your own worldview.

2. Use Three Giving Buckets

Allocate your spending into three categories: for yourself, for passions/community, and for evidence-based/high-impact charities. This approach helps acknowledge multiple values and avoid feeling guilty about diverse spending.

3. Rely on Independent Evaluators

Guide your charitable giving by consulting independent, impact-focused evaluators and grant makers. This helps you find the most effective charities by relying on research rather than marketing or personal intuition.

4. Prioritize Cost-Effectiveness

Always consider the cost-effectiveness of charitable interventions, focusing on ‘dollars per outcome’ to maximize impact. This ensures your donation generates the most good for the money invested, rather than just looking at the total good done.

5. Expand Your Moral Circle

Reflect on who you include in your moral concern, such as animals or future generations, beyond just current humans. Expanding your moral circle can reveal opportunities to help larger numbers of beneficiaries with significant leverage.

6. Seek Multiplier Effects

Prioritize interventions that offer leverage, such as influencing government spending or inspiring others to give effectively. These actions can significantly amplify the overall positive impact of your initial donation.

7. Take the 10% Pledge

Commit to giving 10% of your lifetime income to effective charities to benefit from accountability, enhance your giving experience, and inspire others. This commitment acts as a powerful mechanism to ensure consistent, impactful giving.

8. Talk About Your Giving

Share your personal giving experiences and motivations with friends and family in an inviting, non-preachy way. This can strengthen relationships, foster interesting conversations, and inspire others to consider effective giving themselves.

9. Separate Giving Decisions

Separate the decision of how much money to give from the decision of where to give it. This can help you focus more attention on identifying the most effective charities and may lead to increased overall giving.

10. Challenge Marketing Bias

Be aware that charities with strong marketing or heartwarming stories may not always be the most impactful. Look beyond superficial appearances like website quality and prioritize organizations with strong, independently evaluated impact.

11. Focus on Prevention

Prioritize charitable interventions that focus on preventing problems, even if they are less visible or harder to tell a story about. Preventive measures, like anti-malarial bed nets, are often highly cost-effective compared to cures.

12. Prioritize Charity Specialization

Be cautious of charities that implement many diverse interventions or adopt a ‘holistic approach’ primarily for storytelling purposes. Highly effective interventions often involve specializing in one specific, impactful method.

13. Reflect on Personal Values

Actively identify and reflect on your intrinsic values—what you fundamentally care about. This self-awareness helps align your giving and life choices to effectively create what you truly value, avoiding ‘bad compromises’.

14. Use “How Rich Am I” Calculator

Utilize tools like the ‘How Rich Am I Calculator’ to understand your position in the global income distribution. This can reveal you are wealthier than you perceive, potentially motivating greater charitable giving.

15. Consider a Trial Pledge

If a lifetime 10% commitment feels too daunting, start with a trial pledge where you choose your own percentage and duration. This allows you to experience effective giving without the pressure of an immediate long-term commitment.