REG Annual Transparency Report 2019

This is our sixth annual transparency report (see our reports for 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014).  In 2019, REG donors gave a total of $3,107,538 to highly cost-effective charities.1 We estimate our expenses during the same year at about $14,7412, resulting in a fundraising multiplier of 1:211.  This total figure reflects all donations that […]

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REG Annual Transparency Report 2018

This is our fifth annual transparency report (see our reports for 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014). Total Donations In 2018, REG donors gave a total of $5,160,173 to highly cost-effective charities1. This is about 20% more than last year’s total ($4,292,847). The ‘total donations’ figure reflects all donations that have been significantly influenced by us. […]

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Why we prioritize the long-term future

At Raising for Effective Giving, we’re driven to fund the best organizations working on the most pressing problems. But what exactly is the world’s most pressing problem? In this post, we want to outline why we prioritize interventions focused on affecting the long-term future, particularly those trying to avert worst-case outcomes that would cause vast […]

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REG Annual Transparency Report 2017

This is our fourth annual transparency report (see our reports for 2016, 2015, and 2014). This report complements the semiannual reports on money moved (S1, S2) and the review of our activities in 2017. Total Donations The ‘total donations’ figure reflects all donations that have been significantly influenced by us. That is, if a donor […]

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$1,000,000 Matching Challenge

Martin and Tom Crowley and Dan Smith have done it again. They have joined forces for another end-of-year Matching Challenge—and this time it’s bigger than ever before! Starting today, they will match donations of up to $1,000,000 to ten highly impactful charities until December 31. Last year, Dan Smith started off with a campaign to […]

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Effective animal charities: How they help solve many global problems at once

Our resources are limited. Efforts aimed at improving the world therefore necessitate cause selection and prioritisation: Which causes am I going to support with my resources? Often people select their causes according to what happens to be closest to their heart or what’s immediately salient. This results in non-conventional but potentially extremely important causes often […]

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The case for giving now: A reply to Rupert Elder

by Lukas Gloor and Adriano Mannino 1. Identifying points of leverage If something is important to us, such that we want to do it as well as possible (as opposed to just doing it in the way people commonly do it), then it’s crucial to put in a lot of thought and always be on the […]

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Giving locally vs. globally: Where can we do the most good?

“Charity begins at home” is a popular idea. At REG we’re not interested in whether ideas are popular, though, but in whether they’re based on good evidence. Where do the arguments lead in the “local vs. global” debate? One might intuitively think there are special obligations towards “local” people. But what justifies this intuition? (It’s […]

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“Charity ain’t for me, I’m a hedonist, you see!”

This is a curious objection charity sometimes gets. It is curious first because the term “hedonist” actually just means “someone who tries to maximize happiness”. You can be an egoistic hedonist and care about your own happiness only; an altruistic hedonist and care about the happiness of everyone equally; or any combination of the two. Unfortunately, […]

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Saving lives through donations: A rational choice

Rationality is about optimal goal achievement. Whatever your goals are, you’re rational if you act so as to maximize their expected achievement, i.e. so as to maximize your life-game EV. This post argues that if people were more rational – reasoned better about what their life goals actually are and how to optimally achieve them […]

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If money doesn’t make you happy, then you probably aren’t spending it right

Giving mainly makes the beneficiaries happy: When donated to the most cost-effective charities, a mere $7,500 demonstrably saves a human life*. Fortunately, giving tends to make the givers happy, too: Psychological research suggests that charitable giving ranks among the best forms of self-regarding spending as well. Here’s an example paper from the Journal of Consumer Psychology: «The […]

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Meta-charities

Scientific charity evaluators such as GiveWell provide reliable evidence that their top-rated charities help a very high number of people per amount of money donated. In addition to these “direct” charities, REG also recommends several meta-charities. A meta-charity is an organization that doesn’t seek to help people in need directly, but seeks to help many potential donors to start helping […]

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