To people like our co-founder Toby, these principles were empowering and inspiring. But others have a different — and perfectly reasonable — reaction: they struggle to truly feel the difference strategic donations might make.
I talked last week about how it took living and working in East Africa for me to truly internalise global inequality. I met the communities our work was serving, seeing the struggles and successes firsthand.
But Toby? He would never meet the people he was helping.
He would donate enough to save almost 50 lives (and counting!) simply by directing a portion of his modest income to effective charities each month.
But the people whose lives he touched? They would never know about him – and he would never see their faces.
It was a type of silent moral heroism that meant letting go of the need to see the results of your actions firsthand. Instead, it was about embracing a deep compassion for all living beings, whether or not you happened to have met them.
This value – helping those who need help regardless of whether they are right in front of you or across the ocean – is at the heart of effective giving. It asks us to think of ourselves not only as citizens of our local area, or country, but as members of a global community.
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