I grew up in a middle class family in the Netherlands, which is incredibly privileged on a global scale. I was bullied at school, but I could see that some people had it worse than I did, and that taught me to care about others early on.
That experience stayed with me — this idea that there are people you can help, even with your own challenges. I've always had a drive to help the underdog, and there are just so many underdogs in the world. Being born lucky means I have the opportunity to help a lot of people.
"I have to acknowledge that I have immense power – and that I can use it for good or for bad."
When I first encountered effective altruism, I learned that I could actually do so much more good if I combined my head and my heart: in some cases, up to one hundred times more good! This opened up a whole range of opportunities for me, including effective giving. The idea that I could
save a human life every year by donating a small percentage of my income was completely – and still is – mind-blowing to me.
I'm now the CEO of
Giving What We Can, a charity that promotes effective giving and the
10% Pledge. This is a lifelong commitment to give 10% of your income wherever you think it can do the most good. We recently hit 10,000 pledgers, and our community is now donating more than $50 million every year. For me, that's not the end – it's just the beginning. We've set a big, hairy, audacious goal to reach a million pledgers giving more than $3 billion to highly effective charities annually.
Talking to people about giving in a positive way — sharing my own experience and asking what they think — has been a really fun, impactful, and connecting experience.
"Effective altruism has been a source of meaning and joy in my life. For me, it's a win-win for my personal wellbeing and impact in the world."
My advice to someone discovering effective altruism is to get started with something small. Giving What We Can has a
Trial Pledge, where you can pledge smaller amounts for short lengths of time. That's how I got started with effective giving — I took a Trial Pledge to give 5% of my income for six months, and that showed me I wanted to do more.
One misconception is that effective altruism has to be all or nothing, but you can give effectively with whatever percentage of your resources you are able to spare. Finding the right balance is really important, as is keeping in mind that doing something is always better than nothing.
