Giving What I Can
Published:
Back in March 2023, I took the Giving What We Can (GWWC) Pledge to donate part of my yearly income – as a doctoral researcher earning ~17000£ in that year –, and recently made my first donation.
My yearly income – pretty much a standard UK PhD scholarship – is not high, and a lot of people, particularly other doctoral researchers, but even more so people who earn double, or three, four, five, six times more than me, were surprised.
I can’t argue that 17000£ is not much – such an income is able to finance contemporary student life, but it doesn’t go much beyond that. (I will spare a discussion at that point about why I think doctoral researchers should be paid more.)
Yet, if I give it enough priority, I am still able to donate some amount of money (in my case, 1% of my yearly income until I earn more). And I can do that even in light of the fact that apart from my income, there is not much else for me to rely on (i.e., no savings, assets or other resources of any kind).
The mentality around money in Western (any?) cultures is a rather fearful one – it may take quite some build-up in income until people feel financially safe enough to give donating a thought. I understand that. We all grow up with this culture around money. Yet, while many people think they can’t donate, it’s often rather a matter of priority – if deemed important enough, it may actually be easy to donate and let go of what would have alternatively happened with the money.
Maybe it helps to ask which expenses are rather a luxury – could some of them be replaced by a donation for a good cause? Personally, I am happy to forego a few things I would have otherwise purchased had I not donated – in my case, because I’m not donating much in absolute numbers, the amount donated would merely correspond to a train journey, a few nights out, or a couple of board games.
And ultimately, even with a PhD salary and no other resources to rely on, I’m still richer than 91.5% of the rest of the world (according to the GWWC “How Rich Am I?” calculator).
There are of course concerns regarding the trustworthiness of charities/organizations; many people fear their money would not be well used. This is a valid concern. But there is a clear way to overcome it – to make an informed decision, one can deal with that topic. There is no way around doing some thinking around it, and this, again, is a matter of priority.
Most people feel they have little time. I get that. But there are resources out there that help make fast progress & decisions, e. g., GWWC gives clear recommendations regarding which charity to donate to based on, in turn, on recommendations from impact-focused charity evaluators. If one wants to outsource the donating decision even more, then donating to GWWC to let them decide what to spend your money on might be an option – this would reduce the task of assessing the trustworthiness of organizations to just one organization.
Whatever the approach, some amount of work will remain.
It is of value to honestly reassess, in some regularity, the relationship to money, one’s priorities/values, and make corresponding updates/shifts – and take action.
