Can you do 100x more good? (with Sjir Hoeijmakers)
Sjir Hoeijmakers, CEO of Giving What We Can, details how individuals can achieve 100x greater charitable impact. He outlines principles like evidence-based giving, cost-effectiveness, and expanding their moral circle, and the 10% Pledge.
Deep Dive Analysis
15 Topic Outline
Introduction to the '100x More Good' Claim
Comparing Traditional Giving (Make-A-Wish) with Effective Giving
Addressing Guilt and the 'Three Buckets' Approach to Giving
The Role of Evidence and Independent Evaluations in Charity
Distorted Incentives in the Charitable Market: Marketing vs. Impact
The Importance of Cost-Effectiveness in Philanthropy
Expanding Your Moral Circle of Concern for Greater Impact
Leveraging Multiplier Effects and Inspiring Others to Give
Practical Strategies for Inspiring Others to Give Effectively
Understanding the 10% Pledge: Commitment and Flexibility
Growth and Impact of the 10% Pledge Community
Key Reasons to Take the 10% Pledge
Who the 10% Pledge is For (and Not For)
Measuring the Causal Impact of Giving What We Can
Final Encouragement to Explore Effective Giving
7 Key Concepts
100x More Good
This concept suggests that many individuals can achieve 100 times more good with their charitable donations than they currently do, not necessarily because some charities are inherently 100 times better, but by aligning their giving with their values and leveraging highly effective opportunities.
Three Buckets of Spending
A mental model for allocating personal finances into three categories: spending on oneself, spending on personal passions or community, and spending on evidence-based, high-impact charities. This framework helps individuals integrate effective giving without feeling guilty about other forms of spending.
Impact-Focused Evaluators
Independent organizations that rigorously research and assess charities based on their actual impact and cost-effectiveness, rather than their marketing or storytelling ability. They provide recommendations to help donors identify the most effective giving opportunities.
Charitable Market Incentives
The observation that the charitable sector often rewards organizations for their ability to persuade donors through compelling stories and marketing, rather than for their proven effectiveness in delivering positive outcomes. This can lead to a misallocation of philanthropic funds.
Moral Circle of Concern
Refers to the range of beings or entities that an individual considers worthy of moral consideration. Expanding this circle to include, for example, animals or future generations, can open up new, highly leveraged opportunities for impactful giving that might otherwise be overlooked.
Multiplier Principle (Leverage)
The idea of identifying and supporting interventions that can amplify the impact of a donation far beyond its direct effect. Examples include influencing large-scale government spending, leveraging other major actors, or inspiring a broader network of people to give effectively.
10% Pledge
A personal commitment to donate 10% of one's lifetime income to charities that an individual believes can do the most good, according to their own values. It serves as a commitment device, enhances the personal experience of giving, and acts as a tool to inspire others.
9 Questions Answered
Yes, many people can do 100 times more good with their money by reflecting on their values and becoming aware of highly effective giving opportunities, even if they are already giving to good causes.
While charities like Make-A-Wish do good by improving a child's life for about $10,000, the same amount could reliably save two children's lives from preventable diseases in lower-income countries, demonstrating a significant difference in impact.
Donors can think of their spending in three 'buckets': self, passion/community, and evidence-based high-impact charities. The goal is not to empty the first two buckets, but to allocate some resources to the third, often overlooked, bucket.
The charitable market often rewards charities with good marketing and storytelling rather than those with the most impact. Independent evaluators help correct this by assessing actual outcomes, ensuring donations go to organizations that deliver real value.
Charities that are excellent at marketing may appear highly competent, but their ability to tell compelling stories or design attractive websites does not necessarily correlate with the effectiveness of their core interventions.
The 10% Pledge is a personal commitment to give 10% of one's lifetime income to wherever one believes it can do the most good, offering flexibility in annual giving but a serious long-term commitment.
Taking the pledge provides accountability, enhances the personal experience of giving by framing it as a positive commitment, and significantly increases the ability to inspire others to give effectively.
It's suitable for people in the top 10% of the global income distribution who want a commitment device to ensure they follow through on their giving intentions, or who want to inspire others and be part of a community.
Yes, the pledge is a serious commitment but can be de-pledged if significant life changes or principled reasons arise, similar to how one might end a marriage for good reasons.
15 Actionable Insights
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.
7 Key Quotes
A person, I think, can do 100 more times good with their money than they currently do.
Sjir Hoeijmakers
The charitable market, if you will, is not very efficient because what's ultimately driving us to give is whether a charity is able to persuade us that we should give to them rather than whether they're actually delivering value to who they're trying to help.
Sjir Hoeijmakers
Making a beautiful website has nothing to do with making an effective charity at its core if you're really just talking about making interventions that really work.
Spencer Greenberg
Prevention is often one of the most effective things. So these anti-malarial charities, they are preventing someone from getting malaria. But that's a harder story to tell than someone actually being cured, for example.
Sjir Hoeijmakers
The biggest improvement really is not in getting people from everyone down from like spending 100% on themselves to maybe spending 20% on themselves and 80% on other things. I think there's so much to be gained from us just starting to even spend in that third bucket at all.
Sjir Hoeijmakers
I like trust my future self more than my present self. And I, so the idea of like pre-committing myself actually is because of that actively unappealing.
Spencer Greenberg
You shouldn't start a conversation like this thinking, oh, I'm going to persuade them of my values. What's much more interesting, I found myself as well, in terms of conversations, actually finding out what their values are, and then trying to help them with all the information there is now for how they can live up to them.
Sjir Hoeijmakers
2 Protocols
Five Principles for Effective Giving
Sjir Hoeijmakers- Consider where your money is most needed (e.g., low-income vs. high-income countries).
- Use evidence, ideally from independent evaluations of charities.
- Consider cost-effectiveness, looking at total impact generated per unit of investment.
- Consider your moral circle of concern, potentially including animals or future generations.
- Seek multiplier effects (leverage), such as influencing government spending or inspiring others.
Inspiring Others to Give Effectively
Sjir Hoeijmakers- Share your own experience and what you draw from it, rather than being preachy or showing off.
- Ask others what they think about effective giving and their own giving, inviting conversation.
- Explore what the other person truly cares about (their intrinsic values) rather than assuming they share yours.
- Be open to sharing your own values and inspiration if asked, but avoid trying to convince them of your values.