EA Forum - Why I Donate and Dynamic Pledge

# Why I donate - and why I'm committing to a dynamic pledge
By Tristan Katz
Published: 2025-12-09
Background: I've been donating since 2018, but I only signed the giving pledge last week. Thanks to [@Amalie Farestvedt 🔸](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/amalie-farestvedt?mention=user) from GWWC, Anthony Wong and others for helping me with the decision.

**My reasons for donating**
===========================

1.  Like most EAs, **I want to do good**, and recognize that my money can go a hell of a way to helping other people, animals, or preventing bad things from happening. I'm so grateful that there are incredibly impactful opportunities out there.
2.  But, less commonly in EA, I also think... that I shouldn't have as much money as I do. I think the world is built on inequalities - and sure, the division of labour is powerful, bringing me the laptop that I'm writing on, but I think a lot of what I have is also only possible due to the exploitation of other people and animals. For the record, I don't come from old money. I just grew up in a privileged enough environment to go to a good school, have a supporting family and one that could push me in the right directions. But these things were already only possible because of advantages that depended on historical injustices. In this sense, **I don't think I'm just lucky to have what I have, I also think it's not rightfully mine, and I ought to try to correct those injustices by giving.**

Where I donate
==============

Most recently I've donated to:

1.  [Wild Animal Initiative](https://animalcharityevaluators.org/charity-review/wild-animal-initiative/). I think that wild animal suffering is by far the biggest source of suffering in the world today, it is incredibly neglected, and the main challenge for tractability is getting the ball rolling - which is exactly what WAI are doing.
2.  [Effektiv Spenden's AI safety fund](https://effektiv-spenden.org/ki-kontrollieren/). I wish there were a GiveWell for AI safety. I find it very hard to judge for myself which AI safety orgs are the most effective, so I simply choose to defer to others for this one.

My income-dynamic pledge
========================

Just last week I took the [trial pledge](https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/trial-pledge), to give 1% of my income for 5 years, and to give 10% after that.  
But I also pledged the following:

> To
> 
> \- always give at least 1% of my expenditure. 
> 
> \- give 10% of my net income once I earn the median income in my city
> 
> \- give 60% of my net income once I earn double the median income in my city

This is, in essence, a dynamic pledge. Here are my reasons for this set up:

1.  **I think donating 10% of your income can actually be hard if your income is low.** If, with a given standard and cost of living, you are only able to save 10% of what you earn, then 10% donations might prevent you from saving. But I think saving is important for personal security, which is in turn importa

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