giving

I’m a fan of effective altruism, the idea of trying to use evidence and reason to figure out the best ways to improve the world. For me, this means having direct impact through my work, donating a lot to effective charities, and occasionally writing about stuff. If you’re interested in learning more about effective altruism, I’ve collected some reading materials.

I’m a member of Giving What We Can, which means I’ve pledged to donate at least 10% of my income to charity. In fact, I try to be better than my word, and donate most of what I earn above a reasonable baseline. To be transparent, and to help set a norm that inspires more people to give, I keep a log of my donations here.

Note: some of my donations are to organizations where I’ve spent a substantial amount of time talking to the founders and following the organization’s progress. If you’re just getting into effective giving and don’t have that kind of context, I wouldn’t recommend following the same strategy that I do. Instead, consider giving to GiveWell’s recommended charities. These recommendations are backed by thousands of hours of thorough research, auditing and comparison, and you can verify all of it yourself thanks to GiveWell’s exemplary transparency.

Donation log

View: chronological by organization

† Employer donation match

+ Subsequent year

(I've also received many donations as gifts, but I don't include them here since I sometimes don't even know the amounts.)