If you’ve been planning to get around to maybe thinking about Effective Altruism, now is a great time to get consider making a commitment. As part of Giving What We Can's pledge campaign, people are signing the Giving What We Can pledge - to donate 10% of their future income to the charities they believe will do the most good in the world. It is based on the belief that we can make a real difference by thoroughly assessing evidence and contributing some of our resources to address the most pressing global concerns. The pledge is not legally binding, but is a public declaration of a lasting commitment to the cause. For anyone not ready to make the full commitment to taking the pledge, people are also signing up to 'Try Giving' as part of the campaign - where you commit to donate an amount for a finite time.

Last year in a similar event over 80 people took the pledge, which resulted in almost $19,000,000 being pledged to effective charities. To give you an idea of what this could achieve, a recent GiveWell estimate suggests that, if donated today to the Against Malaria Foundation, this amount could be expected to buy and distribute about 3.5 million bednets and avert the loss of almost 6700 lives (though there is much uncertainty around these figures).

If you think the campaign is a good idea and you'd like more people to hear about it, it would be a great help if you invited anyone you think would be interested in the event; also if you supported the campaign on Thunderclap. If you'd like to help out even more, then join our pledge event organisation Facebook group.

Any questions about the pledge, the campaign, or anything related are more than welcome.
 
About Giving What We Can: GWWC is a meta-charity which researches and evaluates charities on the basis of the impact they have, and also a community with GWWC chapters across the world. It is part of the Centre for Effective Altruism and was co-founded by a LessWronger.

If you’ve been planning to get around to maybe thinking about Effective Altruism, we’re making your job easier. A group of UK students has set up a drive for people to sign up to the Giving What We Can pledge to donate 10% of their future income to charity. It does not specify the charities - that decision remains under your control. The pledge is not legally binding, but honour is a powerful force when it comes to promising to help. If 10% is a daunting number, or you don't want to sign away your future earnings in perpetuity, there is a Try Giving scheme in which you may donate less money for less time. I suggest five years (that is, from 2015 to 2020) of 5% as a suitable "silver" option to the 10%-until-retirement "gold medal".