In a discouraging world, you can afford to change things

By Julia_Wise🔸 @ 2025-12-30T01:39 (+74)

I wrote this aimed at audiences who aren't already familiar with the idea of effective giving or pledging. Also posted at juliawise.net and Substack.

Takeaways:

• The world has a lot of appalling problems. Many can’t be addressed very well with money, but some can.
• On a rich-country income, you almost surely have some income you could dedicate to making the world better in whatever way seems best to you.
• This is best done not impulsively and sporadically, but deliberately as part of your ongoing budget.
• Donating a fraction of your income is a pretty great opportunity to make the world more like what you want it to be: with less suffering, more progress, more fairness, or whatever seems best to you.
• You don’t have to agree with my choice of where to donate! Think it through yourself!
• My ask to you for the coming year: think seriously about how much you want to give, and where you want to give it. One tool that I recommend is making a pledge (either for a period of time, or ongoing).

The world still has a lot of little match girls

[content: fictional and statistical child death, this section only]

Yesterday I took my daughter to see her friend in a Christmas performance based in part on Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Little Match Girl. I figured a family Christmas play would probably alter the part where the main character freezes to death, but no. I sobbed messily while the plot moved on.

The 1844 story is about a child dying from poverty in the streets of a major European city. That was common then; all rich countries were much poorer then. 

But in today’s world, millions of children (expected to rise this year after aid cuts) still die every year from preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia. Those dying from extreme poverty aren’t in Copenhagen now, and they’re not in Boston where we paid $75 to watch the play. They’re out of sight, out of mind to us here.

……..

I take very seriously that I have the power to prevent other families from losing their children. This is a huge deal. For about $3,000, you can expect to save a parent from watching their child die from malaria. (Why this much, when treatment only costs a few dollars? Because most treatments won’t prevent a death, just like most vaccines. But it’s worth it to protect all the most vulnerable people, and to prevent a lot of nonfatal sickness.)

I don’t have words for how messed up it is that there are still so many preventable deaths. A world that had its act together would have fixed this by now.

The world clearly does not have its act together.

You don’t have to think global health is the best area

Donations let you make a dent in big problems, whether or not you also contribute in other ways. You can do that in lots of areas, if global health isn’t what seems most important to you:

• Maybe there are systemic changes you think are better to support.
• Maybe you think economic growth is more important, since it’s behind so many other improvements.
• Maybe you’d rather support developing new solutions instead of rolling out existing ones.
• Maybe there’s another population you think will benefit more from help.
• Maybe you want to try to prevent future problems (this is where Jeff and I are doing most of our giving this year).

If you take a hard look, you’ll also see many things you’d like to donate to that are not the most important ones. I think of those as candidates for a “have a good life in my community” budget (which is a totally valid thing to budget for!) but not a “change the world” budget.

You can afford to change things

If you’re reading this, you’re probably much richer than the typical person in the world. By living a bit more below your income, you can empower a cause you care about. As you think about your budget for the coming year, make a plan to set aside a meaningful amount to make the world more like what you want to see. (“Meaningful” will vary a lot by budget, but 10% is one longstanding method.)

Please give it a try. 

Some places to get started

• Vox’s guide to giving
  • Global health
  • Climate change
• The community of ordinary people making an extraordinary difference at Giving What We Can

If you’re interested in recommendations from the effective altruism space:

• Effective Altruism Funds
• Recommendations from staff at Coefficient Giving (previously Open Philanthropy)