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Donating to 80,000 Hours

Considering donating to 80,000 Hours? If so, thanks for your interest! This FAQ will explain some information that might help you in making your decision — but if you’re interested we encourage you to also get in contact directly with our President Will Crouch, at will.crouch@80000hours.org, and we are always very happy to discuss any further queries that you might have. Note that all the information below was true as of 1 st November 2012, but some facts might have changed since then.

Why did you start 80,000 Hours?

80,000 Hours was founded and developed with the aim of being the most cost- effective charity in the world. We chose to focus on providing ethical careers advice and encouragement because we perceived an opportunity for incredible leverage. The decision about what career to pursue is the decision about how to spend 80,000 hours — a huge amount of time. And there is massive interest from young people in pursuing careers that make a difference. Yet there was an enormous hole in the market, with almost no available advice about which careers really do make a difference.

Because of this, we realised that by providing high-quality advice on ethical career choice we could ensure that hundreds of thousands of hours were spent more effectively in making the world a better place. Every hour of our time invested in this project would generate hundreds of hours of time dedicated to high-impact activities. We found the argument for this remarkable return on investment so convincing that we launched 80,000 Hours.

What have you achieved so far?

So far, we have spent less than £20 000 on 80,000 Hours. With this we have:

  • Gained over 200 members, with the average member donating at least 10% of their income, in addition to dedicating their career, at least in part, to high-impact causes. Increased our member joining rate to over one per day. Gained major national press coverage, on the Today program and on BBC news on-line.

  • Given over 25 talks, including for careers services at Oxford and Cambridge, the Oxford Hub’s Introduction to International Development conference, and Peter Singer’s Practical Ethics course at Princeton.

  • Increased our website traffic to 8000 unique visitors per month.

  • Built up our mailing list to over 1,600 people

  • Given over 35 one-on-one careers advising sessions

  • Begun the development of a High-Impact Ethical Careers Guide, produced over 80 research blog posts, and put up extensive on-line content.

  • Invested in fixed start-up costs, including building and designing the website, registering as a charity, and developing organisational infrastructure.

  • Through the network we’d formed, launched a spin-off organisation, Effective Animal Activism, which has already helped to move thousands of dollars to cost- effective animal welfare charities.

  • Seen early members go on to do great things. Some are earning to give within fields such as software, consultancy and trading, and will together donate over £100 000 within the first year of their employment. Some are pursuing influencing careers, and have places at competitive law schools or are working in the not-for-profit sector. Some are pursuing research careers, and have gained places in postgraduate programs at top universities such as Oxford.

What would my money buy?

Here are some examples:

  • £1000 could fund one hundred hours of one staff member’s time. Having this staff member means that we could also take on several unpaid interns and part-time volunteers from top universities.

  • £10 000 could fund a competition to incentivise the creation of the most cost-effective new business or not-for-profit, and provide seed funding and support for that project.

  • £50 000 could hire a full-time careers advisor and researcher for two years, able to give hundreds of advising sessions.

All the above figures include overhead costs. Our employees are normally top-performing graduates from the best universities, who generally have postgraduate qualifications. Because people are so excited about our cause, we are able to pay salaries that are significantly below market rates, even within the non-profit world. The majority of the marginal donations that we receive would be spent on staffing costs.

How do I donate?

If you are a US taxpayer and wish to claim tax-deductibility, you can donate through our fiscal sponsor, the Tides Foundation. You can send cheques by postal mail to:

Tides Foundation
The Presidio
P.O. Box 29903
San Francisco, CA 94129

Or via FedEx or UPS to:

Tides Foundation
1014 Torney Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94129

Please address the cheque to “Tides Foundation” but write “Centre for Effective Altruism” on the ‘Memo’ line. If you are US tax-deductible and wish to donate by bank transfer, please e-mail Will Crouch for details. We are in the process of setting up the facility to donate via credit card.

If you are not a US taxpayer, you can send a cheque, addressed to ‘Centre for Effective Altruism’ to

Centre for Effective Altruism
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Littlegate House, St Ebbes Street
Oxford
OX1 1PT
UK

and include ’80,000 Hours’ in the memo line. (Note that Centre for Effective Altruism is the legal entity that comprises 80,000 Hours, Giving What We Can and The Life You Can Save.) The above account will have UK tax-deductible status within the next couple of months. If you wish to pay by bank transfer, please contact Will for details.

Whichever way you donate, please also notify will.crouch@80000hours.org, in order that we can restrict your donation to 80,000 Hours.

 

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