My donations, 2013-2017

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

YearIncomeDonatedIncome donated
2017$30,549.30$4,335.4714.19%
2016$24,000.00$5,660.7523.59%
2015$23,627.28$4,588.6619.42%
2014$18,855.00$4,989.7126.46%
2013$6,000.00$3,025.0050.42%
Total$103,031.58$22,599.5921.93%

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.

RecipientAmountDate        Comment
Animal Charity Evaluators$1,000.002013-01-01
Animal Charity Evaluators$1,000.002013-02-01
Animal Charity Evaluators$1,000.002013-03-01
MIRI$25.002013-08-29
Internet Archive$2,594.772014-01-01Date uncertain.
Animal Ethics$5.002014-07-09Reward in exchange for feedback.
International Diabetes Federation$5.002014-07-09Reward in exchange for feedback.
Foundational Research Institute$5.002014-07-09Reward in exchange for feedback.
Vegan Outreach$10.002014-07-09Reward in exchange for feedback.
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative$30.002014-07-09Reward in exchange for feedback.
Against Malaria Foundation$20.002014-09-19Reward in exchange for feedback.
Unknown charity$0.792014-10-14Airport coin collector.
Animal Ethics$5.002014-10-17Reward in exchange for feedback.
UNICEF?$0.792014-10-26Airport coin collector.
UNICEF?$1.572014-11-13Airport coin collector.
Listen to your ears$30.692014-12-01Support for tango project (non-EA).
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative$100.002014-12-03Peter Hurford’s fundraiser.
Against Malaria Foundation$100.002014-12-07Roxanne Heston’s fundraiser.
EA Outreach (CEA)$2,081.112014-12-11
Greg Colbourn's fundraiser$43.202015-04-23
Animal Charity Evaluators$69.352015-09-29
Effective Altruism Austria$76.662015-10-01
Unknown charity$1.172015-12-08Airport coin collector.
Centre for Effective Altruism$72.002015-12-14
Amber Morgan$28.802015-12-28
EA researcher$4,320.452015-12-31I partly funded the salary of an academic working on infinite ethics.
Deworm the World Initiative$130.672016-04-23Roxanne Heston's fundraiser.
Foundational Research Institute$326.662016-06-01
EA researcher$2,986.222016-08-05I helped a prominent EA figure who was going through financial hardship.
Multiple charities (AMF, SCI, GD, GW, GWWC)$200.002016-08-11Theron Pummer's fundraiser.
Centre for Effective Altruism$96.392016-09-29
Shulman-Christiano donor lottery$2,000.002016-12-07See here for details.
Centre for Effective Altruism$169.952017-01-15
Centre for Effective Altruism$29.892017-02-17
Centre for Effective Altruism$39.202017-02-17
Centre for Effective Altruism$31.782017-02-20
Centre for Effective Altruism$15.662017-02-21
Centre for Effective Altruism$29.722017-02-21
Against Malaria Foundation$117.042017-03-02
Centre for Effective Altruism$17.362017-03-14
EA researcher$28.842017-05-26
Centre for Effective Altruism$11.472017-06-10
Centre for Effective Altruism$13.412017-06-14
Centre for Effective Altruism$5.842017-06-21
Centre for Effective Altruism$10.252017-06-23
Centre for Effective Altruism$13.212017-06-23
Centre for Effective Altruism$285.542017-06-23
Centre for Effective Altruism$10.792017-06-26
Centre for Effective Altruism$13.282017-06-26
Centre for Effective Altruism$49.692017-06-26
Centre for Effective Altruism$51.702017-06-26
Centre for Effective Altruism$10.292017-07-19
Centre for Effective Altruism$26.392017-07-20
Centre for Effective Altruism$7.692017-07-22
Centre for Effective Altruism$13.452017-07-22
Centre for Effective Altruism$12.222017-07-28
Animal Charity Evaluators$20.002017-08-21Donated by a friend on my behalf to thank me for having helped her.
Centre for Effective Altruism$2,481.432017-11-10
Centre for Effective Altruism$773.492017-11-10
Unknown$1.492017-12-04Airport coin collector.
Unknown$0.812017-12-14Misc.
Centre for Effective Altruism$11.862017-12-27