Lives Well Lived WORKING TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE with Julia van Boven & Sjir Hoeijmakers
11 snips
Oct 16, 2025 Join Sjir Hoeijmakers, CEO of Giving What We Can, and Julia van Boven, co-founder of the School for Moral Ambition, as they explore how to make a global impact through effective giving. Sjir shares how a TED Talk ignited his passion for charity evaluation and the powerful 10% pledge. Julia discusses her transition from banking to influence ethics in businesses. They examine the role of community, moral ambition, and how individuals can spark meaningful change, all while balancing personal lives with high-impact work.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
10% Pledge Is Personal And Scalable
- Giving What We Can promotes a 10% lifetime income pledge focused on where you think money can do the most good.
- The organisation supports pledgers and aims to grow from ~10,000 members toward a million.
Pledgers Give Substantially And Effectively
- Reported data suggests average pledgers give roughly $100,000 over a lifetime and the community gives about $50M per year.
- Over 75% of recorded donations go to places Giving What We Can verifies as effective.
From Monastery To Bank Sustainability Lead
- Julia left philosophy work and a failed startup, stayed in a monastery, and then boldly wrote to ABN AMRO asking to be hired as an ethicist.
- The bank hired her, she built a sustainability desk and influenced strategy over seven years.