What Is Giving What We Can and What Does the Website Offer?

Giving What We Can (givingwhatwecan.org) is a community and resource platform for effective giving: it helps people find high-impact charities, learn about effective philanthropy, and commit to giving through pledges. The site is aimed at ordinary donors who want their donations to do as much good as possible, and it offers both educational material and practical giving tools.

What the site is for

The organization describes its purpose as helping people "100x your impact by finding and donating to the best charities." In practice, the website serves three related functions:

• Guidance on where to give — charity recommendations and research on cause areas.
• Tools for giving — pledge options, fundraising support, and information on tax treatment of donations.
• Community — a network of members who have made giving commitments, with their stories and motivations.

The site's framing is that "ordinary people can do extraordinary good" — it is built around individual donors rather than institutional funders.

Main sections of the website

Charity recommendations and cause areas

The site organizes giving around three cause areas:

Under "Best Charities," the site presents its research team's top recommendations (currently labeled for 2026). A separate "Research & Approach" section explains how charities are evaluated, and "Effective Giving 101" serves as an introduction for newcomers.

Pledges

The pledge is the site's central commitment mechanism. Options listed include:

• 10% Pledge — give 10% of your income.
• Trial Pledge — start with 1% for a year.
• Student pledge — give 1% while studying.

The site states that more than 11,000 members have pledged. Pledges are presented as a way to make a meaningful, sustained commitment rather than a one-off donation.

Giving tools

Beyond pledges, the site lists tools for different giving situations:

• Major Gift — support for large donations.
• Fundraisers — multiplying impact by giving with others.
• Tax Deductibility — guidance on claiming tax relief on donations.
• Bequests — leaving a legacy through a will.

Learning resources

The resources section includes "How Rich Am I?" (a tool comparing your income globally), a blog, FAQs, and a "Birth Lottery" interactive feature that illustrates how much of your circumstances depend on where you were born. These are educational pieces intended to build the case for giving effectively.

Community scale shown on the site

The homepage displays several figures as background on the community's size and activity:

• 11,377 people — members who have taken a pledge.
• $396 million donated — donations made by members.
• $603 million moved — a broader figure the site uses for funds directed toward effective charities.

These numbers describe the community as a whole, not any individual's giving, and the site does not break them down further on the homepage.

Who it is for

The site is most useful if you:

• Want a starting point for choosing charities based on evidence rather than familiarity.
• Are considering a formal commitment to give a set share of your income.
• Want to understand concepts like cause prioritization or tax-effective giving before donating.

If you already have a giving plan and only need a donation link, the site's main value is its charity recommendations and research explanations rather than transaction tools. The site does not publish pricing for any services, and the pledge options are commitments you make, not paid products.