Effective Giving: Change the World in Any Career

Imagine you’ve been given $5,000 to make the world a better place. How are you going to spend it? 

This isn’t an easy decision – there are many charities out there that could benefit from your donation. However, some charities are truly excellent. These top charities can achieve many times more positive impact per dollar spent than an average charity.

In the hands of these organizations, your money could go much further than you might have thought possible.

Here are just a few great ways you could spend the $5,000:

• Save a child’s life through funding Evidence Action’s chlorine dispenser program that helps sanitize water in regions without easy access to clean water. 
• Double the annual household income for five families through GiveDirectly, who provide direct cash transfers for people in extreme poverty.
• Save thousands of chickens (or even more) from the severe suffering inflicted by some of the worst practices in factory farming, through donating to top animal advocacy charities. A few include The Humane League, Mercy for Animals, and World Animal Protection.
• Fund a highly effective climate organization like the Clean Air Task Force, who have influenced the uptake of significant climate action by the US and members of the COP. 
• Vaccinate over 30 children against deadly diseases through New Incentives, who work to increase vaccination rates in low-coverage areas of Nigeria.
• Improve the welfare of 8 million shrimp via the Shrimp Welfare Project. Through providing information and high-welfare stunning equipment, they estimate 1,600 shrimp are helped for every dollar spent on its programs.
• Fund important research and advocacy to combat the most important risks from emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence and biotechnology, through an expert-managed fund that finds the most promising recipients for the money.
• Prevent 3,000 children from experiencing lead poisoning through the Lead Exposure Elimination Project, which helps governments reduce the prevalence of toxic lead paint.

As it turns out, $5,000 can do a whole lot of good. This has an important implication. At Probably Good, we provide advice for people who want to have a positive impact through their careers. But the existence of these amazing organizations mean that whatever career you pursue, effective giving is a reliable path to big positive impact. 

Because many of the world’s most important problems don’t receive enough funding, your money can literally be the difference between life and death for others without the resources to help themselves.

This is especially true for those fortunate to live in high-income countries. Consider that the average salary in the US is around $60,000. If you were to donate 10% of this each year to effective charities such as the Malaria Consortium, you would save dozens of lives over a normal career – or help a truly vast number of non-human animals.

So, regardless of whether you’re able to pursue a directly impactful career, through effective giving your money can let others do amazing work that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.

How do you find the best places to give your money?

We gave a few examples above of charities that have been able to achieve an enormous amount of positive impact. But these are just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of charities out there who can do great work with the money you give.

But with so many excellent charities deserving of money, how do we decide where to give? 

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend time doing your own technical evaluations of charities if you don’t want to. In fact, there are organizations that specialize in researching and evaluating charities – publishing their findings transparently so that you can make well-informed choices about where to give. 

Below, we provide lists of both charity evaluators and managed funds that can help inform your decisions about where to give. Whatever the cause you think is most important, it’s likely that one of these organizations has identified promising opportunities to cost-effectively use your money.

Charity evaluators

Managed funds

Giving communities

Finally, many find it helpful to join a community that’s committed to effective giving. Being a part of a giving community offers social support and also helps you stay motivated to keep giving your money to impactful causes.

We want to highlight Giving What We Can, who not only help identify the best places to give, but also offer an opportunity to take their 10% Pledge. Thousands have publicly taken this pledge to give at least 10% of their income each year over the course of their lives. 

Of course, 10% is a big sacrifice for many, and there are lots of constraints that might mean you donate less than this. But however much you’re able to give, giving effectively means your money can do much more good than you might have thought possible.