The Nonlinear Library EA - 5 things you've got wrong about the Giving What We Can Pledge by Alana HF
May 15, 2024
10:28
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: 5 things you've got wrong about the Giving What We Can Pledge, published by Alana HF on May 15, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
How well do you know the details of the Giving What We Can Pledge? A surprising number of people we've spoken to - including many who know a lot about effective giving - shared some or all of these pledge misconceptions.
Misconception #1: If you sign the pledge, you have to donate at least 10% of your income each year.
The Giving What We Can Pledge is a public commitment to donate at least 10% of your lifetime income to the organisations that can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others. Giving 10% of your income each year is a good rule of thumb for most people, as it helps them stay on track with their lifetime pledge. However, there are certainly cases where it doesn't make sense to give annually.
Provided you continue reporting your income[1] on your personal pledge dashboard, the "Overall Progress" bar will show you where you are with respect to fulfilling your lifetime pledge. This way, you can continue to progress towards your lifetime pledge even if you need to skip a year.
While we recommend giving annually for most people, here are two examples of cases where it might make sense to skip, bunch, or otherwise donate on a non-annual basis:
Tax benefits: In some cases, donating every few years instead of every year is better from a tax benefit perspective. For example, if you live in the U.S., you often have to donate quite a lot in order to receive tax benefits for a particular year. Thus, some U.S. pledgers "bunch" their donations by saving the amount they would have donated and then donating a much larger sum every 2-3 years.
Significant financial commitments: Not all years are equal from a finance perspective. Perhaps you were hit with a bunch of medical expenses this year, or you made a down payment on a house. While many pledgers are able to fulfil these commitments and continue donating, for some, it may make sense to skip a year and then "catch up" over the next few.
Provided you remain serious about fulfilling your pledge, and are able to increase your percentage in the next few years to make up for the skip, this is perfectly reasonable and still very much in keeping with your lifetime income pledge!
Misconception #2: Only the charities on the Giving What We Can Platform count towards your pledge
The Giving What We Can Pledge is a public commitment to donate at least 10% of your lifetime income to the organisations that can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others.
This means you can donate to any organisation you'd like, as long as you have good reason to believe it qualifies as a highly-effective organisation. (We do suggest familiarising yourself with the concepts of
effective giving, our
high-impact causes page, and our
charity recommendations and
donation platform when deciding where to give, because the effectiveness part of the pledge is a key aspect of its impact.)
It's also a more seamless experience to choose from the charities on our platform, because you won't have to do any reporting; you'll merely choose where to donate, set up recurring payments, and then these payments will automatically show up on your pledge dashboard and be counted towards your pledge. That said, you can absolutely donate to an organisation outside of our platform; you'll just need to report it on the pledge dashboard yourself if you want to see your progress.
Misconception #3: The pledge is a legal document
We've used the word "pledge" to signify a serious commitment. However, this type of pledge is different from "pledge" as defined by the IRS or in a similar legal context. The Giving What We Can pledge is not legally binding. It is, rather, a serious commitment made to yourself and
displayed publicly tha...
How well do you know the details of the Giving What We Can Pledge? A surprising number of people we've spoken to - including many who know a lot about effective giving - shared some or all of these pledge misconceptions.
Misconception #1: If you sign the pledge, you have to donate at least 10% of your income each year.
The Giving What We Can Pledge is a public commitment to donate at least 10% of your lifetime income to the organisations that can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others. Giving 10% of your income each year is a good rule of thumb for most people, as it helps them stay on track with their lifetime pledge. However, there are certainly cases where it doesn't make sense to give annually.
Provided you continue reporting your income[1] on your personal pledge dashboard, the "Overall Progress" bar will show you where you are with respect to fulfilling your lifetime pledge. This way, you can continue to progress towards your lifetime pledge even if you need to skip a year.
While we recommend giving annually for most people, here are two examples of cases where it might make sense to skip, bunch, or otherwise donate on a non-annual basis:
Tax benefits: In some cases, donating every few years instead of every year is better from a tax benefit perspective. For example, if you live in the U.S., you often have to donate quite a lot in order to receive tax benefits for a particular year. Thus, some U.S. pledgers "bunch" their donations by saving the amount they would have donated and then donating a much larger sum every 2-3 years.
Significant financial commitments: Not all years are equal from a finance perspective. Perhaps you were hit with a bunch of medical expenses this year, or you made a down payment on a house. While many pledgers are able to fulfil these commitments and continue donating, for some, it may make sense to skip a year and then "catch up" over the next few.
Provided you remain serious about fulfilling your pledge, and are able to increase your percentage in the next few years to make up for the skip, this is perfectly reasonable and still very much in keeping with your lifetime income pledge!
Misconception #2: Only the charities on the Giving What We Can Platform count towards your pledge
The Giving What We Can Pledge is a public commitment to donate at least 10% of your lifetime income to the organisations that can most effectively use it to improve the lives of others.
This means you can donate to any organisation you'd like, as long as you have good reason to believe it qualifies as a highly-effective organisation. (We do suggest familiarising yourself with the concepts of
effective giving, our
high-impact causes page, and our
charity recommendations and
donation platform when deciding where to give, because the effectiveness part of the pledge is a key aspect of its impact.)
It's also a more seamless experience to choose from the charities on our platform, because you won't have to do any reporting; you'll merely choose where to donate, set up recurring payments, and then these payments will automatically show up on your pledge dashboard and be counted towards your pledge. That said, you can absolutely donate to an organisation outside of our platform; you'll just need to report it on the pledge dashboard yourself if you want to see your progress.
Misconception #3: The pledge is a legal document
We've used the word "pledge" to signify a serious commitment. However, this type of pledge is different from "pledge" as defined by the IRS or in a similar legal context. The Giving What We Can pledge is not legally binding. It is, rather, a serious commitment made to yourself and
displayed publicly tha...