2024-2025 financial year donations

As pledger #5635 of the Giving What We Can 10% Pledge, I've promised to give at least 10% of my income (pre-tax and including superannuation) every year to charities. It's not a cult we just have sacred books, speak in esoteric language and give large amounts of money away. I've also promised 5% of my annual income to the Five Percent Foundation and 1% to One For Health and so in the 2024-2025 financial year I decided to count these separately, overshoot my KPIs and give 16%. The best things in life are a cup of tea by the fire, hot chips, friends, love, and wikipedia. All cheap things, I'll be fine without the 16%.

These donations amount to $27,520. As the median annual income in Madagascar is about AUD$3,000 (yes that accounts for rent and food being cheaper there. A smartphone or a car and other things that we would consider as essentials still cost about the same), I gave 5-10 times what a typical hard-working Madagascan local makes in a year. What profound leverage for making positive impact for people, and not something to be taken lightly. I don't take money or charity lightly.

1. The Life You Can Save Rapid Response Fund

donated: $14,200 (June 2025)

The The Life You Can Save was founded by Australian ethicist Peter Singer and is named after his book of the same name. The book argues that just as any of us would see it as a moral obligation to save the life of a child drowning in front of us, we should see a similar moral obligation in preventing a child dying of malaria in rural Mali if we could (and we can). Obviously correct. I'm desperate for a reason why this argument is wrong that's not silly cope or exactly what your great great grandfather would have said about slavery so if you have a good objection please reach out, or leave anonymous feedback

The Rapid Response Fund is The Life You Can Save's response to the US's recent massive cuts (>UD$60 Billion) to its foreign aid program, which they say is because the aid program is bloated and ineffective, but is probably mainly because Trump's base resent spending money on non-US citizens, regardless of the long-term benefits or morality. The details and impact of these cuts is still unclear (The PEPFAR HIV medication program was cancelled but then reinstated but maybe not completely?) but I bet it's all very bad.

What I like:

  • Potentially highly impactful because the rushed USAID cuts, in a quest to trim fat have hacked off a lot of meat from the US foreign aid program, including GAVI, 83% of USAID programs (which was 50% of US foreign aid) and cuts to confusing degrees the highly effective PEPFAR HIV medication program.

  • The Life You Can Save has a generally pretty sensible-sounding charity evaluation methodology that makes me trust that they're going to be smart about filling these gaps.

  • It's a collaboration with Founder's Pledge which is backed by various very clever people.

  • Tax deductable

What I don't like:

  • Is this just proving the US government right that if they make dramatic cuts to their aid others will pick up the slack? Creates perverse incentives. Like someone cutting off 4 lanes of traffic and saying "look it was all good" because everyone else slammed the brakes.

  • I'm not totally sold on The Life You Can Save's charity evaluation methodology. It's a "holistic" approach that potentially adds some fuzz over the GiveWell approach but with the benefit that it recomends a broader range of charities than GiveWell's top 4 if you don't like theirs or suspect they're adequately funded.


2. Five Percent Foundation

donated: $8600 (June 2025)

The Five Percent Foundation is a group of young professionals who have promised 5% of their incomes to the foundation. The money goes into a trust which is invested in low-risk index funds. The investment returns are donated each year. The idea is to create a foundation that will outlast all of us. The aim is for the charities to be effective, and the money tends to go to charities recommended by The Life You Can Save or GiveWell. Each donor chooses where their returns go. The trust currently holds about $280,000. Come and join us.

What I like:

  • We're building something bigger and potentialy longer-lasting than each of us.

  • Powerful message: people with different careers and lives coming together to give to people who need it.

  • I like the other members of the foundation that I've met. They share many of my values and I trust them.

  • Tax deductable

What I don't like:

  • We're putting off doing good with the money now to invest it and trickle out the good over a long time. But if I make someone's life better now rather than 10 years from now, they get 10 years more benefit from that good, and that can potentially compound as that person uplifts others around them.

  • I lose some control over where the investment returns from my portion go. I can only choose one of a few different charities.

  • Depending on who's invovled, there is potential for the foundation to be directed in future away from global health and development charities and towards trendier, more feel-good but less useful local causes.


3. OneDay Health

donated: $3000 (June 2024)

OneDay Health set up nurse-led mini-clinics in “black holes” in rural Uganda (areas where people would have to travel more than 5 km to get to a government healthcare centre). The clinics are cheap to set up and run (they load up a car and set each new clinic up in one day, hence the name). They are able to provide basic treatments for common diseases. Last year when I gave to them they had 36 clinics, this year it's up to 50.

What I like:

  • They estimate that a health centre costs USD$3000 to set up and run for a year. They estimate it costs about USD$1.50 per patient treated. This is an extremly cheap intervention.

  • I like Nick Laing and trust him a lot. He's worked in Uganda for more than 10 years. This is a very touch piece he wrote on some of his work in Uganda.

  • They seem to engage with local communities and they employ local people

  • Feel like as neglected cause. They haven't received a lot of money or attention from what I've seen.

What I don't like:

  • The evidence is really just what I've read from Nick Laing and the OneDay Health website. There is no RCT on this intervention. The question is open about how much this is meaningfully transforming people's lives rather than just saving them a few hours of bus travel to get to a government clinic.

  • They're not tax deductable in Aus, which costs me several hundred dollars compared to tax deductable charities


4. One For Health

donated: $1720 (Jun 2025)

One For Health is a group of junior doctors like myself who donate 1% of our incomes each year into a collective pool, then vote on where that money goes. It was founded in the last couple of years.

What I like:

  • Giving in a group is nice. Giving alone weak, giving together strong.

  • Doctors in Australia have higher incomes than 98-99% of the world (fact check me) Senior doctors who aren't donating at least 1% of their income to charity might ask themselves some questions if they see junior doctors, far worse paid than themselves, giving 1%.

  • It's only been running a couple of years. Join us

What I don't like:

  • Handing over control over this 1% of my money. The group seems biased towards local charities and lacks interest in global charities. This is bit nationalistic to me ("Aussies should look out for Aussies first, mate") and despite this sentiment somehow being trendy among both progressives and conservatives, I think is daft and a little evil.

  • They use Raisely which takes a small cut and they don't have a direct bank transfer method

  • 1% is too small.