As someone fortunate enough to have never wanted for anything all my life, I've always struggled with the degree of absolute poverty of so many people in the developing world. The world bank's poverty line is just $1.25 a day (adjusted for purchasing power that too), but there are still an estimated 600 million people below this line.
I've often made donations to charities targeting poverty like water aid, but I knew that I should be donating more, and was also keen unsure as to the impact of my donations. I then read about Toby Ord and Giving What We Can in the papers, and was really impressed with both the clear thinking behind the concept and the generosity of Toby and the other members. I had always looked for charities with low administration costs but Giving What We Can showed me that it is obviously the outcomes that are achieved that matter, and that a charity may need to spend money on distribution and monitoring of its projects to achieve the most good. Most importantly, Giving What We Can and other charity evaluators quantify the health benefits of donations using QALYs, which showed me how much my money could achieve. The fact that donations to AMF save a healthy life for just $2,300 puts it into perspective for me. The saying from the Talmud that 'whoever saves one life saves the whole world' encapsulates for me the value of life because as a parent I know that my children mean the world to me. As an investment banker who earns well above the national average, I find it inspiring that so many people on lower salaries than me are so generous with money and time, so I decided to take the pledge.
I am also very keen on match fundraising. Not only does it increase the amount of money raised, it also involves collaborating with other people and psychologically makes people feel better about the money they donate. To that end- I've set up the matching page below on AMF where I match any donations raised up to a total of £2500 (i.e. to raise a total of £5000). So please donate and make twice as much of a difference- many thanks for your generosity.