2014 Donations

December 22nd, 2014
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Julia and I just made the last [1] of our 2014 donations. Both in absolute terms and as a percentage of our income, this is the the most we've ever been able to give. We divided our donations approximately 50-50 between GiveWell's top charities and the Center for Effective Altruism; we're trying to balance directly helping people against spreading the idea that it's important to help people. There's lots of potential with a larger Effective Altruism movement where more people use their time and money to help others as effectively as they can, but a movement can't simply focus on growing itself so we also want to fund organizations helping people now.

2014 Spending:

25.4% GiveWell Top Charities
24.6% Centre for Effective Altruism
50.0% Taxes, Living Expenses, Saving

At this point I think our giving is likely to stablilize somewhat: neither of us are likely to earn substantially more in the next year, and giving 50% feels like a good place for us.


[1] It's possible we'll earn a little more money before the year ends, if we get a surprise check or something. I've set myself a reminder for the morning of the 31st to look for this and I'll make a donation electronically if this does happen. It's also a little awkward to be committing to donate, in 2014, half of a number that we won't know for sure until early 2015 when we do our 2014 taxes. If at tax time it turns out I figured the number too low I'll donate more to make up for it, though that won't be able to count as a 2014 donation.

Referenced in: 2014, Numerically

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