Why I donate: some selfish reasons

This year, I have given money to a range of EA cause areas. Most of it has either been towards global health and development, or EA infrastructure I believe does or could lead to effective fundraising for global health and development.

The following are a list of very selfish personal reasons why I like to do this. I feel the selfless reasons have been adequately covered elsewhere, so I'm intentionally leaving them off.

I get to ignore ineffective charity adverts.

In order to genuinely convince myself that I am helping, I want to see things like well-regarded cost-effectiveness metrics. I do not like heartstring-tugging advertising or vague statements of "should", particularly to do with orphanages. They make me feel a bit ill. So I am glad that donating effectively gives me a very good justification to ignore them.

It is a marker of my politics.

I don't believe that poor people I don't know in rich countries are 100× more worthy of my help [i.e. worthy of help that's 100× less cost-efficient] than poor people in poor countries. This is because I don't believe anyone is 100× more worthy than anyone. Choosing to donate based on the cost-effectiveness of helping is making a radical political statement about equality.

It's also quite anti-nationalist, and I like that, because I think excessive nationalism is wrecking havoc on my country right now.

Giving expresses abundance.

I earn approximately the median income in my country (the UK). This is not a lot, relatively, although it's high in absolute terms compared to the rest of the world. I earn less than my siblings, for example, and less than many people I interact with in my hobbies. I do, however, earn something that many people who earn more than me don't: "enough". So much enough, indeed, that 10% less is still "enough".

By stepping away from lifestyle creep and the related creeping beliefs of feeling personally put upon by not having enough to spend, I have found a sense of quiet abundance. I live my life in about the same way that I would if I earned 2x what I earn, because I don't value an expensive lifestyle. This makes me feel very rich indeed.

It would really suck to be those rich people that still don't earn "enough", I guess.

I've stopped valuing things by how expensive they are.

I've noticed a trend in some of my social circles where expensive things are socially valued because they are expensive. Status symbols, really.

I'm pretty sure that donating to effective charities helps me avoid this mindset. If someone tells me about a big-ticket item purchase of theirs I am mentally comparing it to its life-cost, assuming it costs about £4k to save a child from dying of malaria.

This doesn't mean I don't think some things are genuinely worth spending on. It does, however, mean I think status symbols are kind of icky. And I like that, because I wouldn't want to be the kind of person who is overly impressed by status symbols.

People have stopped (openly) judging me about some of my life choices.

I feel like telling people you are an effective altruist and donate your disposable income to save children from dying of malaria is the ultimate way to get them to shut up about certain things. For example, the house I rent a room in is kind of shabby. I like it, it's my house. Some people have felt they wanted to criticise my house and tell me I should spend more money on a better one. Now they can't do that without looking like assholes. And if they do do so, now I just think they're kind of an asshole rather than feeling insecure about it.

I get to hang out with cool people and be in the cool kids club.

EAs are kinda cool. Have people noticed this? Genuinely very nice and interesting, on the whole. Pledge 10% of your income to effective charities and nobody can say you are not in the club for cool people.

It helps me genuinely care about helping people.

I want to be the kind of person who genuinely cares about helping people, not just "being a helper". It seems to me that a great way to do that is to give money so that someone else can do the helping, thereby separating yourself from the belief distortions inherent in doing the thing yourself.

It motivates me at my job.

Legitimately, the last time I got a pay rise I was more excited about being able to donate more than any other aspect of it. (I put the rest in retirement savings, because I have no desire to increase my lifestyle spending, and really that's kind of boring.) This whole effective giving thing is probably pretty good for my motivational productivity at work.

By giving effectively, I can do great things.

Statistically, I have saved a few lives. Isn't that amazing? Pretty heroic, huh. I feel good about that.

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There are also less selfish reasons why I give 10% of my income to effective charitable causes such as the Against Malaria Foundation. They relate to the fact that people are suffering horribly and dying from a highly preventable disease. However, I genuinely believe the fact that I do so improves my life in a bunch of non-material ways, as outlined above, and would encourage you to reflect on if something similar is or would be true for you.