Giving Compass' Take:

• Some staff members and effective altruists from Animal Charity Evaluators discuss their charitable giving plans from 2019 and year-end giving practices.

• What are the main differences between effective altruism and traditional giving strategies?

•  Learn more about effective altruism.

In this post, some ACE staff members discuss the contributions they’ve made to charities in 2019. This is intended to give interested readers examples of different approaches to charitable giving, from some of the people who are most familiar with our materials.

  • Heather Herrell, Director of Philanthropy
    I like to think of philanthropy as an investment in a better future. While I have given to a variety of charities over the decades (primarily animal organizations), this year I took the Try Giving Pledge to officially commit to donating at least 5% of my income, which I have happily exceeded. I relied significantly on ACE’s annual recommendations to help direct my 2019 giving.
  • Erika Alonso, Director of Communications
    My partner Adam and I share finances, but he largely defers to my judgment on where we donate. Our donations throughout 2019 were very similar to prior years and along the same lines of reasoning. Similar to last year, we allocated most of our donations to funds as opposed to individual charities—this year we donated to both ACE’s Effective Animal Advocacy Fund and Recommended Charity Fund. We’re excited to diversify our giving portfolio based on ACE’s recommendations, not only across Top and Standout Charities but to small but promising charities working within the animal advocacy space as well. We also made small one-time and monthly donations to ACE and ACE’s Top Charities.
  • Gina Stuessy, Director of Operations
    This year I made one of my two main donations on Giving Tuesday to take advantage of the Facebook matching opportunity: A few EAs worked very hard on the Giving Tuesday match to collect pledges from donors and provide best tips for getting donations matched as well as statistics afterward (thank you!).

Read the full article about where ACE staff are giving by Erika Alonso at Animal Charity Evaluators.