How do I donate to Effective Altruism Funds from my country?

Updated

The site routes donors by location: if you are in the UK or the Netherlands, use Giving What We Can; if you are anywhere else, use every.org. Both are linked from the main "Donate to a fund" area on funds.effectivealtruism.org, and both let you give to the same four funds.

Which donation channel applies to you

Your location Recommended channel Where it appears
UK or Netherlands Giving What We Can Listed as "Recommended for donors in the UK or Netherlands"
Outside the UK or Netherlands every.org Listed as "Recommended for donors outside the UK or Netherlands"

The site does not state that either channel is required — it presents them as recommendations. If you have a reason to prefer the other platform (for example, an existing account or a specific payment method), nothing in the page evidence says you cannot use it.

Step by step

  1. Go to funds.effectivealtruism.org.
  2. Find the "Donate to a fund" section near the top of the page.
  3. Pick the channel that matches your location:
    • UK or Netherlands → Giving What We Can.
    • Everywhere else → every.org.
  4. Choose which fund your donation goes to. The four options are:
    • Animal Welfare Fund
    • Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund
    • Global Health and Development Fund
    • Transformative AI Fund
  5. Complete the donation on the platform you were sent to.

The donation itself happens on every.org or Giving What We Can, not on the Effective Altruism Funds site. That means the payment methods, currency handling, and any tax-deduction options depend on the platform you land on, not on funds.effectivealtruism.org. The site does not list supported payment methods or currencies, so check those on the destination platform before you commit.

What you are actually giving to

Your donation is pooled with other donors' money and allocated by fund managers rather than earmarked by you to a specific grant. The site reports 52,000 donors and over $100M in grants across 1,544 grants awarded, which is the scale your contribution joins.

Each fund has a stated focus, so pick based on cause area rather than geography:

  • Animal Welfare Fund — organizations and projects that alleviate suffering of millions or billions of animals.
  • Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund — organizations or people growing or improving the effective altruism community.
  • Global Health and Development Fund — evidence-based opportunities for better healthcare access and economic development.
  • Transformative AI Fund — early-stage grants to individuals, new organizations, and existing organizations running new projects, focused on reducing global catastrophic risks from advanced AI.

Common snags

  • You are in the UK or Netherlands but prefer every.org. The recommendation is location-based, not a hard rule stated on the page. If you use the "wrong" channel, the practical difference is which platform processes the payment and what tax treatment you get — check that platform's own rules.
  • You want your money to go to one specific grant. The funds are pooled and manager-directed. If you want to fund a specific project, the site's separate "Apply for funding" path is for grant applicants, not donors.
  • You are unsure which fund fits. The four funds cover distinct cause areas; the choice is about which problem you want to support, not about where you live.

If you are on the other side of the table

The same site handles grant applications: grants range from $1,000 to $500,000, applications are stated to take under an hour, and funding goes to people, projects, non-profits, and institutions. That is a separate process from donating and uses the "Apply for funding" entry point.