To encourage others to give and to keep myself accountable, I’ve decided to start a log of my charitable donations. This report covers donations made during the period 2013-2016, and will be updated at the end of each new year. I may also start tracking money moved in addition to direct donations, as Peter does, and might provide information about donations made prior to 2013, if I find the relevant records.
Note that the amounts I donate are very modest relative to those donated by some of the effective altruists I most admire, such as Brian, Peter, Jeff, and Michael. At some point in the past, I considered earning to give, but ultimately decided that I could have a much bigger impact through direct work, in particular by multiplying the impact of other, highly impactful EAs. I estimate that my current impact through direct work, counterfactually adjusted, is maybe 100 times my impact through donations (the EA I work for, who moves hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to cost-effective charities and has considerable direct impact through public advocacy and outreach, believes that I make him ~⅓ more impactful and that I’m largely irreplaceable).
Summary
Year | Income | Donated | Income donated |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | $30,549.30 | $4,335.47 | 14.19% |
2016 | $24,000.00 | $5,660.75 | 23.59% |
2015 | $23,627.28 | $4,588.66 | 19.42% |
2014 | $18,855.00 | $4,989.71 | 26.46% |
2013 | $6,000.00 | $3,025.00 | 50.42% |
Total | $103,031.58 | $22,599.59 | 21.93% |
Detailed breakdown
Note: many of the donations to the Centre for Effective Altruism—my employer between May 2013 and June 2014, and July 2016 until June 2018—were in the form of unclaimed expenses.
Recipient | Amount | Date | Comment |
---|---|---|---|
Animal Charity Evaluators | $1,000.00 | 2013-01-01 | |
Animal Charity Evaluators | $1,000.00 | 2013-02-01 | |
Animal Charity Evaluators | $1,000.00 | 2013-03-01 | |
MIRI | $25.00 | 2013-08-29 | |
Internet Archive | $2,594.77 | 2014-01-01 | Date uncertain. |
Animal Ethics | $5.00 | 2014-07-09 | Reward in exchange for feedback. |
International Diabetes Federation | $5.00 | 2014-07-09 | Reward in exchange for feedback. |
Foundational Research Institute | $5.00 | 2014-07-09 | Reward in exchange for feedback. |
Vegan Outreach | $10.00 | 2014-07-09 | Reward in exchange for feedback. |
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative | $30.00 | 2014-07-09 | Reward in exchange for feedback. |
Against Malaria Foundation | $20.00 | 2014-09-19 | Reward in exchange for feedback. |
Unknown charity | $0.79 | 2014-10-14 | Airport coin collector. |
Animal Ethics | $5.00 | 2014-10-17 | Reward in exchange for feedback. |
UNICEF? | $0.79 | 2014-10-26 | Airport coin collector. |
UNICEF? | $1.57 | 2014-11-13 | Airport coin collector. |
Listen to your ears | $30.69 | 2014-12-01 | Support for tango project (non-EA). |
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative | $100.00 | 2014-12-03 | Peter Hurford’s fundraiser. |
Against Malaria Foundation | $100.00 | 2014-12-07 | Roxanne Heston’s fundraiser. |
EA Outreach (CEA) | $2,081.11 | 2014-12-11 | |
Greg Colbourn's fundraiser | $43.20 | 2015-04-23 | |
Animal Charity Evaluators | $69.35 | 2015-09-29 | |
Effective Altruism Austria | $76.66 | 2015-10-01 | |
Unknown charity | $1.17 | 2015-12-08 | Airport coin collector. |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $72.00 | 2015-12-14 | |
Amber Morgan | $28.80 | 2015-12-28 | |
EA researcher | $4,320.45 | 2015-12-31 | I partly funded the salary of an academic working on infinite ethics. |
Deworm the World Initiative | $130.67 | 2016-04-23 | Roxanne Heston's fundraiser. |
Foundational Research Institute | $326.66 | 2016-06-01 | |
EA researcher | $2,986.22 | 2016-08-05 | I helped a prominent EA figure who was going through financial hardship. |
Multiple charities (AMF, SCI, GD, GW, GWWC) | $200.00 | 2016-08-11 | Theron Pummer's fundraiser. |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $96.39 | 2016-09-29 | |
Shulman-Christiano donor lottery | $2,000.00 | 2016-12-07 | See here for details. |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $169.95 | 2017-01-15 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $29.89 | 2017-02-17 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $39.20 | 2017-02-17 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $31.78 | 2017-02-20 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $15.66 | 2017-02-21 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $29.72 | 2017-02-21 | |
Against Malaria Foundation | $117.04 | 2017-03-02 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $17.36 | 2017-03-14 | |
EA researcher | $28.84 | 2017-05-26 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $11.47 | 2017-06-10 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $13.41 | 2017-06-14 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $5.84 | 2017-06-21 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $10.25 | 2017-06-23 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $13.21 | 2017-06-23 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $285.54 | 2017-06-23 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $10.79 | 2017-06-26 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $13.28 | 2017-06-26 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $49.69 | 2017-06-26 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $51.70 | 2017-06-26 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $10.29 | 2017-07-19 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $26.39 | 2017-07-20 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $7.69 | 2017-07-22 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $13.45 | 2017-07-22 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $12.22 | 2017-07-28 | |
Animal Charity Evaluators | $20.00 | 2017-08-21 | Donated by a friend on my behalf to thank me for having helped her. |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $2,481.43 | 2017-11-10 | |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $773.49 | 2017-11-10 | |
Unknown | $1.49 | 2017-12-04 | Airport coin collector. |
Unknown | $0.81 | 2017-12-14 | Misc. |
Centre for Effective Altruism | $11.86 | 2017-12-27 |