My giving story

My personal story

I can’t stop giving, I now give 50% of my income to the most cost-effective charity I can find.

It wasn’t always like this. My parents never gave to charity, and my first donation was probably mid-college after I read Peter Singer’s seminal essay Famine, Affluence, and Morality. I decided to start giving because I realized I could do so much more good for someone else with my $10 than I could do for myself.

Later, after college, I learned about Giving What We Can, an organization of people who give at least 10% of their income to charities that reduce extreme world poverty. I was astounded to learn that by giving to the most cost-effective charities, instead of the regular ones, my $10 could do as much good as $10,000!

This inspired me to not only give more, but to give more-effectively. After joining Giving What We Can I learned about Bolder Giving, and was inspired by some of their stories.

Having made giving a habit, and thus a more-central part of my life, I decided to join Bolder Giving as well.

I can’t think of anything better to do with my life than to help people in the most effective way I can find. When my $1,000 donation can cure 2,000 people of parasitic worms for a full year, or protect about 360 people from malaria for the next five years, I’m inspired to give more!

Starting to give is easy. For several years now I’ve been having a “Birthday for Charity” – I ask my friends who wish to give me gifts, to make a donation to my favorite charity instead. Last year I managed toraise over $2,000!

Start small, start today. Give, but make sure you do some research, others’ lives depend on it!