Summaries of Earning to Give

March 11th, 2013
ea, earning_to_give
There are roughly four ideas that make up the "earning to give" approach to effective altruism:
  1. donate
  2. to the most effective organizations
  3. earn more so you can give more
  4. spend less so you can give more
Very few people will take these all to the limit, earning as much as they can while minimizing their self-spending so they can give as much as possible to the most effective charities. (I don't; I could push (3) and (4) harder than I do.) I don't even want to give people the impression that anyone expects this of them, because then you get "if I can't be perfect I won't even try." So: I'm looking for ways of summarizing this idea in a way that preferentially communicates the most important parts and doesn't turn off people who are only willing to go part way. I'm not that happy with either of the ones I have so far:
"Give money to the most effective charities, and maximize your impact by earning more and spending less."

"The best thing you can do to improve the world is make a lot of money and give it to great charities."

Suggestions of better ones?

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Elixir's Last Dance

On May 18th, the contra dance band Elixir had their last gig ever. The dance was packed: there were three hundred people. It was the only dance BIDA has ever done where they sold tickets. People flew from across the country just to hear Elixir play one la…

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts June 5, 2025

Body Language For Trans People

When I first came out as trans, resources for trans people were full of advice about body language.

via Thing of Things June 2, 2025

Workshop House case study

Lauren Hoffman interviewed me about Workshop House and wrote this post about a community I’m working on building in DC.

via Home April 30, 2025

more     (via openring)