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: How you can help right now to introduce ideas of effective giving to young people, published by Adam Steinberg on April 18, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
tl;dr
This opportunity for impact is aimed primarily at parents or those that have another connection to a secondary (or middle) school.
You can have a powerful effect by emailing or writing a letter to a teacher you know, or your child's high school, to recommend they run a
charity election. This is an opportunity for you to connect dozens or hundreds of young people with key concepts around effective giving and civic participation merely by taking 20 minutes and adapting an email, provided below.
A Call to Action
Parents and friends of parents: You can help get the ideals of effective giving in front of schools-full of future givers by letting a school know how easy it is to get sponsorship up to $2,000 from Giving What We Can (GWWC) to run a
charity election.
Towards the end of this post, we provide a message you might adapt and send to a school.
Overview
It's time to tap more fully into the power of the EA community to spread the word about Charity Elections from Giving What We Can.
Students and teachers alike who have participated in a charity election praise the experience as meaningful and memorable. The program is showing notable signs of impact (where it can be measured) and has proven its scalability and readiness to run in more schools and more countries.
The basics, for those who have not heard
A charity election is an event in "experiential altruism" that empowers high school students as they learn about and experience making a real impact on the world. In the program, adapted from
Giving Games for a younger cohort, students choose among three causes selected from the GWWC list of recommended charities to decide which will receive an event sponsorship of up to $2,000 (sponsored by GWWC).
Before voting, students research and discuss the charities using a condensed
framework designed to empower high school (and possibly middle-school) students to apply principles of effective giving in an age-appropriate manner.
Designed to be student-led, a charity election lasts about three class hours and can be run across a set of classes or the whole school. We provide schools with self-contained materials and resources to make it as easy as possible for teachers to support their students.
Students who participate engage in meaningful discussions and powerful reflection about altruism as they get first-hand experience at changemaking, expanding their moral circles and helping them develop an understanding of the power of effective philanthropy.
The program was created in 2018 with the support of The Life You Can Save and has been incubated by Giving What We Can since 2021.
Charity elections have run now in six countries - including several events entirely in Italian - and, since 2018, nearly 11,000 student votes have been cast after the research and discussion process. Schools typically come back year after year to request sponsorship.
If you want to learn more, please
visit our webpage or reference the additional resources listed in the postscript below the following model letter. If you have any questions, please
write to us
.
What you can do right now
You can copy and adapt the letter below to send to a school or a particular teacher who you feel would be intrigued by a program that gives students confidence and a sense of accomplishment as change-makers while cultivating a culture of (effective) giving and fostering positive school climate.
If you don't know a parent, a student, or a teacher
You can still help spread the word about Charity Elections. If you still have a connection to your own high school, please consider recommending them to the program by adapting the note above. You can make a differenc...

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