The "Progressive Pledge”

TLDR/Context: In my Earning To Give journey, I found it psychologically easiest to increase my donations by tying them to any salary increases I received. Using this system, I increased my donations from 10% to over 25% in 7 years and never felt I lost something as I only donated a part of the additional salary I had now available. Eventually, I told Luke Freeman about the idea and, with the help of Alana Horowitz Friedman published this post on the Giving What We Can blog. I'm happy to answer any questions here in the Forum or via LinkedIn. 
Note: This approach can lead to a decrease in real (inflation-adjusted) income if the amount you keep from each salary increase is lower than the rate of inflation.


You’ve heard of progressive tax systems, but have you heard of a progressive pledge? While giving away 10% of income feels daunting for some, for others, it doesn’t feel like enough.

We spoke with Philip Popien, who took the 10% Pledge in 2016 after reading Doing Good Better. He’s been following an approach he’s termed the “progressive pledge,” whereby he gradually increases his pledged percentage upon any salary increase.

“The more you have, the more you can give away without even noticing it. Donating 10% feels like a large sacrifice for lower salaries, but is not even noticeable for large incomes, so for me, this approach follows naturally from the idea of decreasing marginal utility of money.”

When Philip read Doing Good Better in 2015, he noted down that his goal was to take the 10% Pledge immediately and then adjust that percentage upwards to 25% when his income rose. After following the “progressive pledge” approach for about 7 years, he’s exceeded that goal and in 2024, is up to 27.5%! 
 

Note

The progressive pledge approach doesn’t only have to be for those who want to give more than 10%! We’ve heard from people who have taken the Trial Pledge that gradually increasing their pledged percentage in conjunction with salary increases is a really helpful way to work up to giving more!

Here’s what Philip has to say about his “progressive pledge” approach to donating:

1. Can you explain how the “progressive pledge” approach works?

You start by donating 10%. Then, with any increase in salary, add 50% (or any other % above 10%) of the increase. The idea comes from Daniel Kahneman who wrote about doing the same thing with saving for retirement in Thinking Fast and Slow (if I remember correctly).
 

2. Why do you like this approach to donating?

• It balances your altruistic and non-altruistic goals in life. I knew I wanted to eventually give more than 10%, but I also didn’t think it was realistic for me to take something like the Further Pledge, where you give everything away above what you need to live on. With the progressive pledge approach, an increase in salary still means being able to spend more on yourself than before even with the increase in pledge percentage.
• It allows your altruistic ambitions to rise with you getting richer. As I mentioned before, donating 10% is a large sacrifice for lower salaries, but not even noticeable for large incomes.
• It increases your donations a lot over time without you ever "losing" money. If you would first see that money as yours, spend it, and later think about how much you would like to donate, it is much harder as now you have to give the money away which triggers loss aversion.
• It increases your motivation to negotiate well, since any salary increase means you get benefits not only for yourself, but for others as well.
   

3. Can you walk us through how this approach gradually increased your pledged percentage from 10% to 27.5%?

Sure! I started at 10% in 2016. My largest jump from 10% to 20% came from a job change, and then the incremental increases from 20% to 22% to 24% to 26% to 27.5% came from salary increases at the same job.
 

4. Would you recommend this way of pledging to others? In what circumstances?

Yes! I think a lot of people would like to donate more, but it feels painful to give away more and more. By giving away only from what you earn extra, it is easier to give more!
 

5. Do you think this approach to giving has increased your overall impact?

Definitely, as I have other monetary goals in life which made it hard to give away more. By coupling my job changes and promotions with increasing my donations, I never felt I lost something which made it possible to increase my donations from 10% to over 25% in 7 years.